Mast fault

[AndyMH]

We live rural and are served by a low power "community" mast. It has failed, no signal (I should receive 4 bars signal strength in the back garden). Might be co-incidence, we had a power cut yesterday when I noticed it, does the mast have battery backup?

Mast is located at BA12 7EZ on the Hindon Road.

There seems to be no way for us mortals to contact the network team directly.

[Mikpowl]

It's 'Project Beacon'.  Try Googling :-  o2 vodafone beacon mast sharing

I believe the equipment at this particular site is common to all parties, the channeling between customer and service provider being handled thro the software. There are only 4 main transponders orientated to, aprox, NE. NW, SE, SW.

Best, Mike

[japitts]

---

@Mikpowl wrote:

It's 'Project Beacon'.  Try Googling :-  o2 vodafone beacon mast sharing

---

I'm very aware of Project Beacon, that's had multiple incarnations - from the shared grid roughly split East & Scotland (O2-controlled), and VF-controlled west. In the early days of Beacon, the host operator in each location managed separate equipment for each party. In the current incarnation, many sites are now being unwound to be totally managed independently. As mentioned in my previous posts, the term "mast sharing" simply doesn't do justice to the complexity involved,

From the descriptions of this site, it's unclear whether this is a VF/O2 share or if other operators are also involved.

I'd be interested to know what you're alluding to with the term "transponders". It sounds like you're describing multiple sectors, in which case a rural site will very rarely have more than 3.

[Mikpowl]

Hi - By 'transponder' I'm referring to the tall rectangular section vertical boxes about 2m tall and 200mm wide that are mounted on the tower and which would appear to be the main antennae for the tower.  'Transponder' is a general term that applies to devices that transmit and receive information - wireless, sound etc. I posted a photo above but this may have been moderated for security reasons - (but if so they'd be better off looking to a bit of tower site security - there is none!!)   The equipment itself appears to be maintained by Virgin-O2 as all the equipment cabinet labels refer to V-O2, and this fits with what I was told within my correspondence with Vodafone.

[Mikpowl]

According to the response from Vodafone it seems that this particular site is wholly maintained by virgin-O2. The point of not sharing specific contact details is noted but I must point out that this info was openly advertised on the Web and is not a contact passed on by 'someone in the know'. 

[AndyMH]

I'd be interested to know why you think that as the mast is owned by vodafone and there is no coverage from O2 (or any other provider) in the village. By mast I'm talking about a tin can sat atop a telephone pole with a 5W transmitter.

[Mikpowl]

 Hi, In my case this involved a 'proper' mast that services a wide area with a very low population. There is, apparently, a deal between the major companies to share such local masts. In this instance, although I was connected by Vodafone the mast is owned and maintained by Virgin-O2. I believe this Agreement is special to this area of Northern Scotland but I may be wrong. Anyway, once I provided the pics of the damage Voda got back to me explaining that they'd 'escalated' the report to Virgin-O2 who, apparently didn't have a clue that their equipment was about to blow away. At the mast site itself the various cabinets are all marked 'Virgin-O2'. A great walk but the last few 100 yds is a steep climb (Ben Tongue) 

[japitts]

Interesting use of terminology, that some sites are "proper"!

Site sharing is an incredibly complex area, in short you have to separate the passive assets (tower, structure, and some cabling) from active equipment (mainly radio kit & antennas).

There's a cross-industry project called the Shared Rural Network, which is focused on providing a shared grid of sites used by multiple operators. In locations where no network has any current coverage, there is a shared design where all 4 operators share the same antennas, but have separate radio modules & RRU. In many other scenarios, different operators will have their own equipment on the same shared structure.

EE have had good 4G coverage around the Tongue area for many years now, so a retrofitted site design where one or multiple operators have added their kit to an existing site - would not be a surprise. Under the ESN project, EE have long-standing contractual coverage obligations - hence in many locations, EE have built first and others are now joining. In others - there's a new build, led by one MNO but all 4 ultimately share. All of which means - what end users think is a "shared mast" could have numerous permutations.