How much does it cost to build a 5G base station?

Since the official announcement of commercial use of 5G in China, the speed of 5G network construction across the country has significantly accelerated.

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5G base stations are appearing in more and more cities and corners, and the coverage of 5G signals is also expanding.

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This means that investment in 5G has been fully launched and is increasing.

How much will 5G cost? This has always been a topic of general concern. Some say that the investment in 5G will be 2 to 3 times that of 4G. Others say that the total investment in 5G will reach a staggering 1.5 trillion yuan.

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According to the latest "2020 China 5G Economic Report", the total investment in 5G networks in China from 2020 to 2025 is 0.9 to 1.5 trillion yuan.

The largest part of this investment will be spent on the construction of 5G base stations.

So, as an important object of 5G investment, what are the components of the cost of 5G base stations? Is there any possibility of reducing these costs?

Today, Xiaozaojun will do a construction cost analysis of 5G base stations.

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I have previously introduced that base stations can generally be divided into macro base stations and micro base stations. The large iron towers outdoors are macro base stations. The 5G base stations currently being built on a large scale in China are also mainly macro base stations.

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Macro Base Station

Let’s start with macro base stations.

A 5G macro base station currently usually includes the following components:

The following figure shows the components of a 4G macro base station, put together for comparison:

It can be seen that compared with 4G macro base stations, in the 5G era, the RRU (remote radio unit) and antenna feeder are "merged" to become AAU (active antenna unit), which is connected to BBU (baseband processing unit) through optical fiber. (Note: According to the real 5G, BBU is changed into DU and CU, as shown in the figure below. However, domestic construction has not yet reached that stage, and BBU+AAU is still the main one.)

The difference between 4G base stations and 5G base stations

Generally speaking, the cost of a 5G macro base station is composed of main equipment, power supporting equipment and facilities, and civil construction.

The main equipment includes BBU, AAU, and transmission equipment. The power supply, battery, air conditioner, and monitoring equipment include power equipment. The equipment room, of course, is the civil construction.

Let’s look at the main device first.

At present, 5G is still in its infancy, and the prices of 5G main equipment from various equipment manufacturers are still fluctuating. Moreover, there is a huge gap between the price of buying a single device and the price of group purchase (collective purchase) by operators.

For example, at present, the price of a certain equipment manufacturer's standard configuration (1 BBU + 3 AAUs), only counting the price of hardware, is quoted to domestic operators at about RMB 200,000 (hereinafter, all units are RMB unless otherwise specified). In foreign countries, the price can be quoted at RMB 300,000-400,000.

The AAU price revealed by netizens is about the same.

5G AAU

If you go to a device manufacturer as an individual, they will dare to quote 800,000 for 1BBU+1AAU. Non-mainstream manufacturers will also dare to quote 300,000. (Don't ask me how I know this, because I just asked.)

Therefore, the price difference of main equipment is very large. Let's take the price purchased by domestic operators as an example, which is about 200,000 to 250,000 yuan.

BBU generally includes baseband board, main control board, power module, etc. The baseband board is the most expensive, accounting for the bulk of the cost (10,000 to 20,000 yuan). The main control board and power supply are not worth much, only a few thousand yuan.

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BBU that supports both 4G and 5G

By the way, the price of 4G main equipment is generally 10,000 to 20,000 for BBU, around 10,000 for RRU, and 1,000 to 5,000 for antenna.

Domestic antenna prices, for reference only

Let’s take a look at the cost of the power package.

The power supporting equipment provides power and cooling for the base station, which is a prerequisite for the normal operation of the base station.

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Interior view of base station building

Depending on the configuration of the base station, the number and specifications of the power supporting equipment required are also very different. The following table is an example of power supporting related equipment and facilities:

An outdoor cabinet costs about 5,000 yuan. A power cabinet also costs 5,000 to 10,000 yuan.

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Base station outdoor cabinet

The battery is used to provide emergency power after the base station power supply is unexpectedly interrupted. The price of ordinary lead-acid batteries is 1~2 yuan/Ah. The price of lithium iron phosphate batteries is more than 4 yuan/Ah. The batteries are divided into cabinet installation and iron frame installation, with specifications ranging from 48V100Ah to 48V1000Ah.

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Base station batteries are the main target of thieves

The base station building is also equipped with air conditioners, the price of which ranges from several thousand to ten thousand yuan.

In addition, there are some lightning protection facilities and anti-theft monitoring equipment, which are not very expensive, so they are not listed separately.

The hardware cost of the power system is approximately 30,000 to 50,000 yuan.

Next is the cost of civil construction of the station building.

This cost is a bit complicated. Sometimes it is self-built property, sometimes it is rented property, and the price varies greatly depending on the region.

If you say you rent a computer room in a high-end office building in downtown Beijing, the price is certainly not comparable to that in fourth- and fifth-tier cities. The rent in first-tier cities can sometimes be 50,000 to 60,000 yuan.

As for iron towers, Xiaozaojun just introduced them a few days ago. They are divided into many types, such as single-tube towers, angle steel towers, landscape towers, and poles. Different types of iron towers have very different prices.

Classification of communication tower masts

For example, an ordinary three-tube tower weighs about 8.5 tons and costs about 90,000 yuan.

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Three-tube tower

Based on the information at hand, I roughly estimated the prices of various types of towers, as shown in the following table:

Tower construction cost reference

Note: The price of steel towers fluctuates greatly with the price of steel, and the above costs are for reference only.

There are many kinds of miscellaneous expenses involved in civil engineering, sometimes including land survey fees, construction land and comprehensive compensation fees, external power supply construction fees, site selection fees, etc. I am not really going to make a project budget today, so I will not go into them one by one. Through the table above, everyone has a rough idea.

Generally speaking, China Tower Corporation is responsible for the construction of computer rooms. After bearing the cost, China Tower Corporation charges rent to operators. The rent is usually calculated based on the size of the equipment and the space it occupies. For example, if AAUs are hung on a tower, the rent will be calculated based on the number of AAUs and the space they occupy.

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The above-mentioned costs are the hardware-related costs and expenses required to build a base station.

In addition to the hardware costs, there are also (main equipment) software costs, installation consumables, etc. If you add all these together, excluding rent and labor, a new 5G macro base station will cost about 300,000 yuan. If you include rent and labor, the average cost is estimated to be 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.

It should be noted that currently, only a small part of the 5G macro base stations built by operators are newly built, and most of them are new 5G main equipment under the existing 2/3/4G sites. The costs involved are the main equipment cost, equipment room renovation, power supply expansion, and the rental fee for the new 5G equipment. This cost is much lower than the cost of building a new base station.

The above is about macro base stations. Micro base stations are quite different from macro base stations. The price of micro base stations is definitely not as high as that of macro base stations, but in densely populated areas in cities, the rent and entrance fees are often more expensive, and the cost of indoor construction (wiring and installation) is also more expensive.

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5G Micro Base Station

At present, the construction of 5G in China is still mainly based on macro base stations, which is relatively easy. In the later stage, when it comes to deep coverage and the construction of micro base stations begins, the pressure on operators will increase.

Macro base stations are mainly responsible for wide-area coverage, while micro base stations and indoor distribution stations are responsible for deep coverage and capacity absorption.

In addition to the construction cost (CAPEX) of 5G, the more terrifying thing is the subsequent maintenance and usage cost (OPEX).

I have told you before that the power consumption of 5G base stations is much greater than that of 4G base stations. Currently, it is about 3~3.5KW, which is about 2~3 times that of 4G base stations. Electricity costs will be the most real threat that operators cannot ignore in the 5G era.

Of course, the state should provide certain subsidies for electricity bills. Moreover, as technology continues to improve, the power consumption of 5G base stations will also drop significantly, which is a later story.

If 5G's industry applications fail to take off, and if operators cannot obtain a return on investment through 5G construction, it will inevitably affect subsequent 5G investment enthusiasm and will also affect the ultimate success or failure of 5G.