Entel Taps Huawei to Deploy 'TubeStar' Environment-friendly Macro Base Stations

Entel, a major Bolivian telecom company, and Huawei jointly completed commercial deployment of environment-friendly macro base station TubeStar.

Thanks to the All-in One design conception, fast deployment, small site area needed and other advanced characteristics of the solution, it will help Entel solve most critical problems as the site acquisition and high TCO in the cities. TubeStar becomes a standard site solution, which is ideally suited for deployment urban areas.

Under the responsibility, and its commitment to ensure the telecommunications in Bolivia, Entel worked together with Huawei at the beginning of this year in order to guarantee the communication quality of XI Juegos Suramericanos Cochabamba 2018 (11th South American Games in Cochabamba 2018). A fast deployment of macro sites was critical in order to enhance the communication capacity.

Bolivia consists of a quite complex urban landscape. With a high land privatization rate of 75%, site acquisition has long been considered a serious challenge for site construction. In general, it can take up to six months to acquire a site, on condition that a traditional on-tower macro base station deployment involves towers, equipment rooms, and fences, requires a floor area of up to 40m2.

TubeStar became the first choice of Entel when it was compared with the traditional macro site, as it required less site area (2 square meters) while providing high network capacity (maximum support 5~7 frequencies in 3 modes). TubeStar breaks the boundaries of traditional base station products by allowing RF, baseband, transmission, and battery units to accommodate in a tiny vertical space.

TubeStar in Bolivia

Bolivia Entel experience provided an estimation, in which by adapting TubeStar solution, 60% site area can be saved. As the equipment and cables are pre-installed in the tube segments, Entel only needs to ship the tube segments to the site, shortening the deployment time from 30 days to 11 days.

Cao Ming, Vice President of Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line, said: "TubeStar helps operators address the challenges of high deployment costs, difficult site acquisition, and low site construction efficiency of urban macro networks. It can allow operators to remove the bottlenecks on traditional site deployment mode that involves towers, cabinets and equipment rooms. Especially for operators in emerging markets, low construction costs and low rents heavily contribute to relieving capital pressure."