BoR (17) 185 Draft BEREC and RSPG joint report on Facilitating mobile connectivity in “challenge areas” 31 October, 2017 BoR (17) 185 Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Indoor coverage ............................................................................................................................ 3 1.1. Indoor coverage issues........................................................................................................... 3 1.2. Studies and measurements to have a better understanding of indoor mobile coverage ....... 5 1.3. Deployment of dedicated indoor solutions to address indoor coverage ................................. 7 1.3.1. Wi-Fi ............................................................................................................................. 7 1.3.2. Repeaters ..................................................................................................................... 8 1.3.3. Smallcells and Femtocells ............................................................................................ 9 1.3.4. Distributed Antenna Systems ..................................................................................... 10 1.3.5. Construction regulation .............................................................................................. 11 1.3.6. Private GSM/LTE networks ........................................................................................ 11 2. Ensuring mobile connectivity in road and rail transport ........................................................ 12 2.1. Difficulties and constraints whilst travelling .......................................................................... 12 2.2. Solutions to facilitate mobile connectivity in transportation means ...................................... 13 3. Extending coverage within non-profitable areas .................................................................... 15 3.1. Non-profitable area issues .................................................................................................... 15 3.2. Dedicated solutions to address non profitable areas ........................................................... 15 3.2.1. Placing coverage license obligations on operators .................................................... 15 3.2.2. Leading a concerted approach between involved stakeholders (public authorities, operators, local authorities) .................................................................................................. 19 3.2.3. Promoting infrastructure- and network-sharing .......................................................... 21 4. Other challenge areas ................................................................................................................ 23 4.1. Protected areas such as national parks and historical sites................................................. 23 4.1.1. Main issue: constraints on construction ..................................................................... 23 4.1.2. Observed practices to address this challenge ........................................................... 24 4.2. Areas where some but not all operators are present ........................................................... 24 4.3. Areas with coverage but very low quality of service ............................................................. 25 4.3.1. Reasons for poor quality of service ............................................................................ 25 4.3.2. Observed practices to enhance quality of service ...................................................... 25 5. Limitations of solutions ............................................................................................................. 27 5.1. Limitations in Indoor Coverage Solutions ............................................................................. 27 5.2. Limitations on Solutions for Coverage When Travelling ....................................................... 27 5.3. Limitations on Remote Area Solutions ................................................................................. 28 6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 28 7. Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................. 30 1 BoR (17) 185 Introduction Many countries face difficulties meeting the increasing demand from users and local authorities for a mobile connectivity available in rural areas and in constrained areas such as indoor locations, subways, tunnels, hot spots, etc. The Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) has previously considered coverage issues in a report and more recently in a workshop1, but the technical and policy solutions to coverage challenges are fast-evolving and their implementation raises issues within both BEREC and RSPG competencies. The main forthcoming objective of Europe 2020 is to become smart, sustainable and inclusive. European strategy seeks to ensure that by 2020 all Europeans should have access to much higher Internet speeds of above 30 Mbps and at least 50% or more of European households subscribe to internet access above 100 Mbps. This joint BEREC-RSPG report aims at compiling a comprehensive and comparative assessment of initiatives to facilitate mobile connectivity in what could be described as ‘challenge areas’, where mobile connectivity is limited or non-existent. In this report, the following challenge areas have been identified: • Indoor; • In transportation means; • In non-profitable areas; • In other areas such as protected areas, “grey” areas, low quality of service areas. This report describes the difficulties encountered in the identified challenge areas and will focus on the solutions and observed practices that have been implemented in EU member states to tackle the obstacles to mobile connectivity. Amongst other topics, this report addresses digital planning obligations or public/private initiatives, white area2 coverage, rural area coverage, constrained areas, indoor, and transportation etc. For each identified challenge area, the report focuses on technical solutions implemented or considered by EU member states. It also gathers regulatory or any legal measures that have been adopted in this regard. Forward-looking solutions are also studied, in the light of what is taking place in different markets. This Report can be used by policy makers as a knowledge base for methods of enhancing mobile connectivity in challenge areas. 1 See Report RSPG11-393 on improving broadband coverage: rspg-spectrum.eu/wp- content/uploads/2013/05/rspg11_393_report_imp_broad_cov.pdf and also RSPG workshop on coverage held on 8th November 2016. 2 Areas in which there is no mobile broadband infrastructure and it is unlikely to be developed in the near future. 2 BoR (17) 185 Finally, at the end of this Report, examples of limitation or drawbacks to some described solutions are discussed but the Report does not describe the limitations of each solution.. Policy-makers and NRAs will need to consider any limitations when proposing these as solutions to connectivity problems. 1. Indoor coverage Today, consumers require more and more reliability from their mobile services. In 2013, the communications regulator in the UK, Ofcom, showed in a survey that the ability to make and receive calls was even more important than cost3. In particular, indoor coverage is becoming an increasingly important component of mobile service needs: indoor at work, as well as indoor at home, has become an essential issue that mobile network operators cannot ignore. In this section, BEREC and RSPG first give a description of mobile indoor coverage issues, then focus on studies and measurements performed in Europe to have a better understanding of indoor mobile coverage and, finally concentrate on dedicated indoor solutions in EU member states to improve indoor coverage. 1.1. Indoor coverage issues Ensuring reliable indoor coverage in buildings is a challenge facing any mobile network operator or infrastructure provider. There is a significant difference when comparing outdoor and indoor coverage, for instance: • in the UK, in premises voice coverage was 89% in 2016, compared with 97% coverage outside the premises, while in premises data coverage was 80%, as opposed to 93 % outside premises4; • in the Netherlands: in 2016, KPN’s 4G mobile coverage was 98.4% outside the building whereas it was 96% indoors; Tele2’s 4G mobile outdoor coverage was 76.3%, compared with 67% inside the buildings5. • In Sweden (October 2016), 4G mobile networks (allowing 10 Mbit/s data) covered approximately 69%6 of areas outside buildings (excluding the 450 MHz band) compared with 44%7 inside the buildings. Similarly, voice coverage8 was 85% outside and 71% inside buildings. 3 https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/62415/usage.pdf 4 https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0035/95876/CN-Report-2016.pdf (Note that these coverage figures are based on an assumed average penetration loss of 10 dB to a good quality outdoor signal. This is then taken to provide a reasonable level of indoor coverage in a good amount of building floor space). 5 www.4gdekking.nl 6 Contains a margin for the body's impact on the antenna properties and attenuation of radio signals, such as when the terminal is held in the