ADOPTION OF NETWORK EXPANSION STRATEGIES BY MOBILE SERVICE PROVIDERS

High costs of rolling out network expansion are emerging as a major burden upon the service providers for faster and efficient network expansion. CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) into network expansion accounts for the single biggest cash flow expenditure for service providers while two thirds of that actually goes in to infrastructure costs. Passive infrastructure like towers, repeaters, shelters and generators accounts for as much as 60 percent of the total network roll-out cost. The total investment in to infrastructure is actually multiplied several times over because of network duplication by each operator. These high investments into network expansion have resulted in lower ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) for most of the mobile service providers as reflected in their recent financial results. Hence there is a need for the mobile service providers today to explore, study, know and implement various combined strategies for network expansion rather than sticking to old conventional ways of network expansion which are not only cash but also time consuming.