A cost model for radio access data networks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use basic economic theory to examine the relation between the demanded data traffic and the network costs for several network deployment scenarios and find the most preferable deployment strategy subject to specific constraints in near future (2015-2020). Design/methodology/approach – The paper identifies the cost structure of radio access networks and explicitly models the network costs as a function of data traffic, both in the short-run (current network) and in the long-run (future capacity expansion scenarios). In the short-run model, the operating cost of the current network is calculated, highlighting the energy cost and its dynamics. In the long-run model, assuming unchanged site infrastructure, the cost analysis provides information for decision-making on network evolution. Findings – The results show that the operating cost does not differ significantly from short- to long-run, and the energy cost constitutes a small but remarkable share (around 7 per cen...