China based telecom equipment maker Huawei has launched the TubeStar macro base station solution for mobile operators.

The macro base station solution addresses issues related to high urban macro site deployment cost, difficult site acquisition, and poor deployment efficiency.

Huawei is conducting trials of the TubeStar on 12 networks in nine Latin American countries, and Brazil is the first country to deploy the solution for commercial use.

TubeStars solution also reduces civil work and site rental costs, and has the potential to generate an estimated 40 percent total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction in five years.

Huawei has turned the tube into a cabinet with vertical installation space for radio frequency (RF), baseband, transmission, and power supply modules and batteries as well.

Huawei said the TubeStar site supports five to seven band multi RAT (GSM/UMTS/LTE) and 5G-oriented evolution. TubeStars can effectively assist telecom operators to assume an early lead in 4.5 and 5G construction.

The TubeStar site solution features 2 m2 footprint, which is 90 percent lower than that of traditional macro base stations (30 m2 to 60 m2).

Telecom operators need not opt for a dedicated tower, cabinet, and equipment room for each site, benefiting from reduction in rental cost. The tube design allows TubeStars to blend seamlessly into native environment, satisfying municipal requirements. Site approval becomes quicker and site loss rate is effectively reduced.

Huawei has pre-installed parts of TubeStars’ devices and cables before delivery in order to assist aid telecom engineers to complete the installation of site and cabling in one go.

Huawei said that the deployment efficiency increased by 70 percent compared with the traditional approach. TubeStars reserve installation space for street lamps and surveillance cameras, turning resource sharing between municipal projects and base stations into reality.