How vendors can turn RAN sharing from a threat into an opportunity

Vendors of mobile network infrastructure face a significant challenge in their base station businesses because operators are increasingly sharing passive and active infrastructure. Operators aim to densify their networks with up to 10 times more sites, but to keep their RAN capex the same, by sharing assets and adopting lower-cost architecture.

This report helps vendors to formulate strategies to achieve revenue growth even in this period of consolidation by:

• estimating the impact of sharing on base station numbers and addressable revenue
• estimating new base station revenue that will be driven by a new breed of 5G deployers including private network, neutral host and cloud providers
• analysing the services that MNOs will require to facilitate sharing or make their network total cost of ownership still more efficient, such as small-cell-as-a-service, and how vendors could provide those
• analysing the degree to which capex that MNOs save in the RAN, through sharing, will be diverted to other technologies that could generate additional revenue for the vendors, such as 5G core and slicing platforms.