AfricaCom 2015 saw Huawei Technologies introduce two new major solutions and partnerships: The Lampsite Partnership with mobile operator, Cell C was announced and the Telecom Green Energy Solution was introduced to exhibition delegates and media.
The Migrate towards Simplicity (MTS) solution which was introduced during the three day Technology Exhibition, is set to change the manner in which telecoms operators address the energy challenges faced by Africa.
With the rapid development of telecommunication devices, the growth rate of energy costs has outpaced that of the revenue of carriers as more and more sites are built to support soaring data traffic. The challenge to deploy sites faster and more effectively, while improving energy efficiency and reducing the carbon footprint, is a major one for carriers worldwide.
Huawei’s new generation telecom power solution MTS9000A gives a hopeful future to energy challenges faced by African operators. Huawei’s MTS solution focuses on 3 levels of efficiency to address the energy challenges faced by operators. At component level, Huawei provides the highest energy efficient power systems in the world. And by implementing site level and network level energy efficiency ensure maximum overall network-wise energy savings. Huawei’s specially designed site and energy solutions also ensure the highest level of reliability, scalability and simplified operation, maintenance, site and energy management.
According to Huawei’s statistics, the total number of telecom base station sites in Africa has now reached 200,000. Operators will not only have to build more sites to extend voice coverage for more subscribers, but will also need to add more small-cell sites to infill capacity in high end markets for data services. The rising levels of subscriptions will result in over 100,000 new sites being required in the next 5 years. Most African operators’ Energy Costs, as a proportion of Revenue (ECR) was over 6%. In comparison to ECR averages of 2-3% for operators outside of Africa. African operators face a big challenge and pressure from energy costs, there is also a greater opportunity to save energy costs for African operators compared to anywhere else in the world. During his address during Africa Com 2015, Dr. Fangliangzhou, Vice President of Huawei Network Energy Product Line highlighted the importance of the new solution by saying, “It’s important to improve the site reliability and intelligence if Mobile Network Operators are to realize long-term business success.”
Huawei has also focused on Management efficiency. Management efficiency and OPEX reduction is critical for operators’ business success. Intelligent management systems play a significant role in smarter energy usage. This is evident in battery maintenance. For legacy solutions, operators need to ensure that their staff schedule routine site visits to uncover the state of the battery. In the United States, sending somebody to visit a cell site would cost over $300 on average, even if the battery is functioning optimally. In this case, this site visit would be purely unnecessary.
The labor cost of skilled technicians in Africa is lower, but still accounts for a majority of the OPEX. The monitoring-intelligent software planted into each battery cell, is an example of how Huawei is set to change the Telecom Energy landscape. The software will inform technicians on remaining capacity within the battery cell and how much electricity the cell can provide. The information provided by the monitoring chip is shared with a unified site monitor on the cell site, which can aggregate information while sending it to a unified management platform in the NOC. The technical team is then given insights on the status of each cell on the network. This is one example how Huawei MTS9000A helps operators save on network maintenance costs.
“We think the future site in Africa will be more intelligent, more reliable, more energy efficient, more scalable, easier to be built up, and easier to be maintained and managed. Huawei has extensive experience in building information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and providing products and solutions that are specific to customer needs”, said Dr Fangliangzhou.
Huawei, with extensive experience in network technology, M2M, digital technology, software, big data, and power electronics, continues to promote legacy telecom power to a new level, where energy can be accessed anytime and anywhere. Energy utilization becomes simpler through integration with network equipment. Energy management becomes smarter and energy facilities are always ready to expedite network evolution. Huawei strives to continue making life simpler through its products, , ensuring more efficient networks and operation.
Staff Writer
