Consulting

Regulation

An example regulative consulting covers selected frequency ranges, possible contractual options and required devices and systems. A more detailed look is taken at frequency allocation tables of selected countries. The study is carried out as a literature study and interviews. The material for the study are primarily national and European level frequency allocation tables, laws, regulations, consultations, recommendations, standards and press releases of the National Regulatory Authorities (NRA), International Telecommunications Union Radio sector (ITU-R), European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications (CEPT), European Communications Office (ECO) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). All information in the study is based on public sources and they can be verified using the given references. The contractual options include becoming a customer of a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) or a small operator, leasing spectrum from a license holder, getting an industry vertical or a special license, using unlicensed spectrum and Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA). The main recommendation is to study, if coverage, capacity, availability and pricing of Wi-Fi, MNO or other operators' LTE networks or a network slice provided by an operator could fulfill the communications requirements of the customer.

Software development

An example of software consulting is to deliver a cloud service with protocol and user interfaces which implements a standard specification, in this case the Model Rules and Regulations for the Use of Television White Spaces v2.0, December 2017. The computation of TVWS DTT protection is implemented as follows: python computation of DTT coverage; python computation of maximum transmit powers of WSD for all WSD class and antenna height combinations. The grid size can be determined separately, by default we use around 1000 m x 1000 grid.

The offline computed pixel maps containing the maximum transmit powers at each channel in each pixel are stored in a cloud server. The user interface, PAWS protocol and rest of interference computation have been implemented in a cloud server with PHP (UI) and Python (PAWS protocol and interference computation). The interference computation at cloud server work so that when a request comes through PAWS protocol (or from UI) the correct pixel map file is selected based on WSD class and antenna height. The maximum transmission power levels in the pixel of the WSD location are returned. The regulator has the possibility to define blocked areas. We check the blocked areas and reduce the transmit powers of the WSDs accordingly.

Business analysis

In an example business analysis consultation, the model is used for mobile networks where the customers get access to the network in large area, typically in a country. The marketing and sales efforts are country-wide. The discrete coverage model tries to optimize the profit per site. After the optimal site configuration is found, the sites are built at the places where the business model can be applied. The marketing and sales efforts are concentrated on the area surrounding the site. Continuous coverage model has a higher market potential whereas the discrete model does not require large investments in the beginning, and it is possible to increase the network investments at the same time as the customer base grows. The information that has been obtained is entered to the standardized Profit Plan and Financing Plan sheets of the Finnish Committee for Corporate Analysis.