LTE technology deployment strategy for mobile telecom operators: A techno-economic analysis

Abstract

To identify the influencing parameters for an optimum migration from the legacy network to Long Term Evolution (LTE), this study analyzed LTE technology dimensioning technique on a monopoly mobile telecom operator network. A techno-economic analysis modeling approach was considered. The monopoly and competitive operators' scenario for LTE deployment was analyzed and a comparative analysis of the feasibility on the two scenarios was conducted over a seven-year deployment period. Results show that the monopoly operator can migrate to LTE service within 2 years of the deployment period at a payback period of 1.99 years. In the competitive operators' deployment scenario, the migrating period become slightly delayed depending on the size of the market share. A market share of less than 10% was found to be difficult to migrate to LTE within the 7 year deployment period due to competition from the significant market players, especially when the number of subscribers is too low. The number of subscribers has a significant effect on the results in both the monopoly and competitive cases.