Top that: Ooredoo develops pre-assembled base station tower tops

Qatar Telecom (Ooredoo) has partnered mobile infrastructure provider CommScope to develop what is believed to be the world’s first factory-assembled base station tower tops, which the companies claim provide greater network capacity, reduce installation time and electricity consumption, and free valuable space at the top of each tower. Pre-assembly of the tower tops reduces the installation time by approximately 50%, Ooredoo claims, while by installing its radio equipment on tower tops instead of the typical large air-conditioned shelters, the group expects to halve electricity costs. The tower top solution – which is radio vendor agnostic and does not require significant on-site remote radio modifications for future upgrades – will become Ooredoo’s standard cell site design across its markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.