Client’s challenge
This Glotel account in South Florida consists of over 590 sites ranging in locations from as far south as the Florida Keys to an area approximately 90 miles south of Orlando.

These site locations contain many types of equipment: Nokia 2G (GSM), Ericsson 3G (UMTS), LMU’s, Telco racks, Single Carrier Power Amplifier (SCPA) modules, Multi-Carrier Power Amplifier (MCPA) modules, RXAIT cabinets, power plants, battery units, etc.

Glotel employs technicians that are experienced and knowledgeable in all types of equipment. The client’s challenge was to provide technical resources who could be self-sufficient working on all technologies that would be found at each cell site.

Project
In May 2008, the client agreed to allow Glotel a trial in the South Florida market to perform EF&I services. The Glotel turnkey project team consisted of the following personnel:

Field technicians – Perform all services at the cell sites.

Project management – Coordinate all field and support functions, maintain constant communication with the client and providing daily progress reports.

NOC – Create and load all DT into the BSC; support the field technicians during integration, including Ericsson and Nokia systems, and perform troubleshooting as needed.

Supply chain – Provide material logistics and warehousing management for turnkey projects

Glotel began providing services at three site locations:

Site #1 – Install and integrate MCPA (Multi-Carrier Power Amplifier) modules to sectors Beta and Gamma. This included installing antenna jumpers after performing sweep tests. Once the modules were installed and integrated, several tests were performed at different locations from the GSM cabinet to the bulkhead. All results were recorded and included with site packages sent to the client after site completion.

Site #2 - Install and integrate MCPA (Multi-Carrier Power Amplifier) modules to one sector. This included installing antenna jumpers after performing sweep tests. Once the module was installed and integrated, several tests were performed at different locations from the GSM cabinet to the bulkhead. All results were recorded and included with site packages sent to the client after site completion.

Site #3 – Reconfigure radios within the Nokia GSM cabinet. This consisted of moving radios from one sector to another. It also required DT to be edited in the BSC and support from the Glotel NOC. The client evaluated Glotel’s performance and determined that the quality of the services provided was excellent and decided to award additional sites. The next few sites consisted of adding MCPA modules, SCPA modules, and RXAIT cabinets. Again, Glotel performed with the highest quality and additional sites were awarded.

Glotel began providing services for New Site Builds (NSB). These services included mounting and bracing the additional Nokia 2G cabinets, providing the antenna jumpers (testing of the jumpers was included), installing and connecting power and ground cables to the Nokia cabinet, installing power and ground cables to the Ericsson 3G cabinet location, running new T1 cables as necessary, and installing and integrating LMU/SCPA/MCPA/RXAIT units as defined by the client.

Some of the equipment needed for these NSB’s was harvested from other site locations. Glotel provided the transportation and manpower to relocate the equipment as needed.
Glotel technicians worked closely with the client’s RF department to ensure the sites were correctly defined in their switches and performed optimally. The slightest issue could cause site congestion and/or dropped calls, which would result in consumer complaints.

The Glotel technicians were familiar with specialized equipment used to test the antenna jumper cables and record the findings, as well as the SCPA, MCPA and RXAIT equipment. Site completion packages were sent to the client per their instructions.

Included in these packages were test results from the cables, integration results, and site pictures.

When each site was completed the client performed a full site walk-through with Glotel before accepting the services provided. Because of the high quality workmanship of both the technicians in the field and the switch support technicians, the client continued to award Glotel more work in the market.

Glotel was able to provide competitive pricing while focusing on the client’s deadlines and providing the highest quality work. Our team consistently worked efficiently to meet the client’s needs while remaining under budget. Glotel takes pride in that the only change orders created were driven by scope changes at the request of the client.

SME resources
Glotel provided resources to the client for different projects. We were able to provide high quality subject matter experts to meet their needs. These resources consisted of the following:

Project management – Provided project management to manage the T1 Expansion project, which consisted of approximately 3,900 T1’s. The project was completed as scheduled.

UMTS troubleshooter – Provided an expert field technician knowledgeable with Ericsson UMTS to troubleshoot problems that were complex in nature and could not be resolved with normal technical team.

This included replacing equipment, reloading data in the equipment at the site, and running new T1’s as necessary.

Review
In 2008, Glotel started in market with a trial of two sites and completed installation and/or integration services of over 100 sites through the end of December. The value of the project value grew from $1,200 for the first trial site to over $700,000 through year end. This was achieved with zero change order requests.

The services provided included the following:

New Site Builds (NSB) and EF&I: (Note: Glotel provides all equipment installation services with the exception of the UMTS, power plants and batteries.)

Nokia RBS installation and integration

RXAIT installation and integration

SCPA installation and integration

MCPA installation and integration

Low Loss Combiner installation and integration

LMU installation and integration

UMTS site preparation (install power, ground and T1 cables)

T1 cables

Surge arrestors

Asset recovery and equipment harvesting – Equipment to be removed from existing sites for use in NSB’s:

MCPA’s

Installation and integration of complete MCPA modules

Expansion and reconfiguration of existing modules

SCPA’s

Installation and integration of complete SCPA modules

Expansion and reconfiguration of existing modules

Nokia 2G (GSM) expansions

Multi-cabinet synch cable installation and integration

Growth from simple channel adds (adding radios to existing cabinets) to complex reconfigurations (adding cabinets and relocating radios from one cabinet to another)

SME resources

Project management

UMTS experts

Client testimonial
“Based on our past experience here in the South Florida BTS implementation department…after working with Glotel in 2008, I am convinced that they are uniquely suited to perform QA audits for the work that is typically generated from the BTS implementation department. If I have input into the selection process for a single vendor that would assume this role in South Florida, at this time, Glotel is my pick.” – Manager, BTS Implementation, MAJOR TELECOM CARRIER