It’s a box of tricks this DAS
European tower company Totem yesterday unveiled a new star performer in Orange Vélodrome, the home of France’s most fanatical sports followers, the notorious ultras of Olympique de Marseille. French mobile operator Orange is creating a new generation of networks for the sensation-seekers with an exciting array of talents. The new addition has instant reaction times, high capacity and fantastic load juggling skills, through a talent known in the game as network slicing. Scouts from the UK say Vélodrome network is so agile it could turn on a sixpence.
Quand tout le vélodrome
The Orange Vélodrome now has the most electrified atmosphere of any stadium in France and is, according to Orange, top of Ligue 1 in 5G connectivity. This is particularly important to meet the high expectations of real fans, corporate seat bandwagon jumpers, and the media ahead of major sports events such as the next Olympique de Marseille matches and international competitions.
Reprend comme un seul homme
The totemic network owes much to its wingers, the antenna that lay at the periphery of the network and give it its pace and edge. The Distributed Antenna System (DAS) infrastructure uses a new breed of antennas designed specifically for venues with high mobile phone usage to provide consistent, high-quality network coverage and high levels of energy efficiency.
La chanson du virage qui résonne
This network of private pooled antennas has been made available to all operators to provide all their mobile services simultaneously, while ensuring that Orange Vélodrome teams have a single, neutral point of contact. Through this pooling, TOTEM meets the expectations of the Orange Vélodrome in terms of optimizing the equipment footprint and allows operators to consume less energy.
Que le virage se mette a chanter
The four French operators, Bouygues Télécom, Free Mobile, Orange and SFR, connected today their equipment to the antenna infrastructure used by TOTEM and can now offer 5G to their end customers within the Orange Vélodrome. As a Tower Company, Totem has surprised many while seemingly being played out of position, but it has fulfilled the role of integrator by linking up four major operators. Thierry Papin, CEO of TOTEM France. Said it’s vital that all its operator customers have access to the infrastructure, allowing them to operate their respective networks in the best conditions.
C’est tout le stade qui va s’enflammer
“Connecting an indoor environment to the latest generation of 5G, which can be used by almost 68,000 people at the same time, is a real technical challenge” said Papin. The equipment deployed by Totem is the same successfully used at major competitions in the US Papin said, but Orange Vélodrome is the first stadium in France to have such advanced 5G connectivity.
Allez, allez, as the Marseille fans say
Totem is Orange’s european tower subsidiary with 27,000 tower sites, flat roofs and other sites in pain and France. As a neutral player, it connects and hosts systems for operators and urges them to share infrastructure, whenever it makes sense, it says. It describes its best position as being a link up player, sitting in between operators, regional authorities and businesses.