Closing of 3G Sites : Model for Decision Making

Abstract: Radio access technologies evolving fast, mobile operators have to handle an increasing amount of base stations and frequency bands for their network to continue to function. This is a costly venture for mobile network operators that continuously have to keep up to date with never-ending advancements in technologies, as base stations are costly to build and to maintain. It is therefore necessary for these companies to investigate when to close down base stations that are not necessary anymore. With the upcoming release of 5G, it is expected that 3G is going to be less and less used—as of 2018, it is already less used than 4G in developed countries.This thesis analyses the corporate data of a mobile operator, Telenor Sweden, in order to make clear which metrics are important to take into account as regards to deciding whether or not to close down a base station. It provides methods and models to help a mobile operator to take such a decision. It focuses on UMTS (3G) base stations, even though the results can be generalized for other technologies as well.It evaluates the economic feasibility of closing a base station, with regards to how many users are still connecting to it. More importantly, it explains for what reasons users’ devices switch to 3G, and investigates what can be done to avoid switching from 4G to 3G, so as to make it easier to close down a 3G site. It provides eventually a model to help to know when closing a site, given the traffic data of the operator.