Assignment on Project Management

Submitted to

Prof. W.S. William

Managed Service PM in
Reliance Communications

Submitted By:

Auronil Dutta
Roll No. 8,
PGDM (3 Year) (2007-2010)

XAVIER INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT,

BHUBANESWAR
 PROJECT MANAGEMENT OF A RELIANCE
COMMUNICATIONS TELECOM PROJECT

INTRODUCTION

India is a vibrant market from communications point of view. The subscriber base
in the wireless market in India, the world’s fastest growing telecom market
reached another milestone when it surpassed 200 million subscribers in Aug
2007. The country’s mobile services market is forecast to grow by a compound
annual rate of 28.3% in next five years. At present there are around 54000 cell
sites operated by different GSM/CDMA operators. This number would further go
up to 80.000 in next couple of years. To reach the target the approximate capital
expenditure required in telecom infrastructure alone is expected to be
approximately $20 billion in next three years.

GSM/CDMA project is spread over large areas with work sites located wide
apart, are situated in wilderness with minimal approaches or on roof tops in thick
of urban areas with restricted working space. Thus project management in
general and construction management in particular plays a major role in cost
effective and efficient execution of telecommunication projects. It is needless to
mention that the objective is to ensure that the project does not suffer in terms of
quality, time and cost overruns.

For ease of comprehension, study on the development of passive infrastructure

has been designed to first present the theoretical concepts and then correlating
them to actual applications in the field by applying them into examples. Topics
include scope of work, project planning, contractual terms of conditions,
monitoring and controlling of project, quality control, risk management,
warehouse management, operation and maintenance.

Reliance Communications Limited (“Reliance Communications” or “the

Company”) is India’s largest integrated communications service provider in the
private sector with over 85 million individual, enterprise, and carrier customers.

It operates pan-India across the full spectrum of wireless, wire line, and long
distance, voice, data, video and internet communication services. It also has an
extensive international presence through the provision of long distance voice,
data and internet services and submarine cable network infrastructure globally.
Strategic Business Units

The business of Reliance Communications is organized into three strategic

customer facing business units: Wireless, Global, and Broadband. In addition,
subsidiaries of Reliance Communications are engaged, inter alia, in the
ownership, operation and development of telecom infrastructure, such as
wireless communications sites and towers. The strategic business units are
supported by fully integrated, state-of-theart network and operations platform and
by the largest retail distribution and customer service facilities of any
communications service provider in India.

Wireless
It offers CDMA and GSM based wireless services on a nationwide basis,
including mobile and fixed wireless voice, data, and value added services for
individual consumers and enterprises.

Following the recent roll-out of our GSM network, it has now become the only
player in the country offering both GSM and CDMA (dual technology) services on
a nationwide basis. It not only provides telecom connectivity to the mass market
consumer segment but also, as an Integrated Telecom Service Provider, it offers
total telecom solutions to corporate, SME & SoHo customers.

The portfolio of products includes mobile handsets, fixed wireless

phones/terminals, high-speed internet data cards and Blackberry services. The
primary brands are Reliance Mobile for the mobile portfolio of services, Reliance
Hello for the fixed wireless portfolio of services and Reliance Net connect for
wireless data services. It also offers a unique wireless multi media experience
under the brand Reliance Mobile World.

It also offers public calling office (“PCO”) services over the wireless network
through independent retail operators of such facilities. It has pioneered rural
telephony initiatives that are supported by the Government of India’s Universal
Services Obligation (USO) Fund. Additionally, it provides connectivity for devices
such as point of sale terminals, lottery terminals, and ATM terminals.

It is among the top two providers of wireless communication services in the

country, with a wireless subscriber base of over 80.6 million as of November 30,
2009 representing a market share of 18.9%. It is also the second largest seller of
mobile handsets/devices in the country, and the largest service provider engaged
in this activity. Due to its unique strength in high speed wireless data
transmission, it has nearly 60% market share of the data card and USB modem
market for laptops and PCs. In addition, it has the largest PCO operator in the
private sector with over 50% market share.
Reliance Mobile has been rated as "India's Most Trusted Service Brand"
amongst all service brand categories in the most reputed pan-India consumer
survey conducted by "The Economic Times".

Managed Service: Reliance Communications, and Alcatel-Lucent

(Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) have announced forming a global joint venture
called Managed Service. Combining the unique strengths of Alcatel-Lucent and
Reliance Communications, the Joint Venture Company forays in the fast growing
$ 16 Bn (Rs. 64,000 Crore) Managed Network Services Industry and will cater to
telecom operators, both CDMA and GSM, across India. The first assignment of
this joint venture is to provide Managed services for Reliance Communications
nationwide CDMA & GSM networks in India. World over, the biggest challenge
Telecom operators are facing is to continuously improve competitiveness by
reducing operating expenditure and enhancing network quality to provide
superior customer experience. The combined expertise and experience of
Reliance and Alcatel-Lucent creates an unmatched blend of leadership in
technology, innovation, scale of operations and customer service to become
Worlds leading Managed Network Services Provider.

With the unique combination of network management and operations expertise,

consulting and IT experience, as well as technology, the Joint Venture facilitates
a proactive, quick-to-respond environment to fast-paced and dynamic market
conditions to leading telecom service providers including Reliance
Communications. The joint venture supports the expansion and growth of
Reliance Communications, within and outside India, bringing predictability of the
operations and related expenses, while maintaining the highest standards of
customer experience.

A new legal entity is being formed as part of the joint venture. Alcatel-Lucent will
have the operational control of the new entity. Reliance Communications is
represented in the Joint Venture through its wholly own subsidiary. The joint
venture would thereafter expand its operations in the global arena. This joint
venture will create a unique cornerstone and cost-effective bridge for managed
services globally.

A mobile telephony Cell Site

A cell site is a term used primarily for a site where antennas and electronic
communications equipment are placed to create a cell in a mobile phone network
(cellular network). A cell site is composed of a tower or other elevated structure
regular and backup electrical power sources, and sheltering. A synonym for "cell
site" is "cell tower. However, In GSM networks, the technically correct term is
Base Transceiver Station (BTS), and colloquial British English as "base station".

The term "base station site" might better reflect the increasing co-location of
multiple mobile operators, and therefore multiple base stations, at a single site.
Depending on an operator's technology, even a site hosting just a single mobile
operator may house multiple base stations, each to serve a different air interface
technology (CDMA or GSM, for example).

Typical layout of a ground based site is attached shown below

The working range of a cell site - the range within which mobile devices can
connect to it reliably is not a fixed figure. It will depend on a number of factors,
including

• The type of signal in use (i.e. the underlying technology), similar to the fact
that AM radio waves reach further than FM radio waves.
• The transmitter's rated power.
• The transmitter's size.
 • The array setup of panels may cause the transmitter to be directional or
Omni-directional.
• It may also be limited by local geographical or regulatory factors and
weather conditions.

TOWER SITE SELECTION

Cellular tower locations are the result of an engineering field called Radio
Frequency Engineering or RF, for short. RF engineers work closely with the
marketing departments to determine areas where the placement of a new tower
will accomplish one (or more) of three goals:

Expansion: The tower site provides coverage over areas that do not currently
have coverage.

Capacity: The tower site provides additional capacity for the carrier to handle
more calls in areas where existing towers are overloaded.

Quality: The tower fills in a hole or an area where customer calls are frequently
dropped or call service is poor.

In either case, the tower must serve a specific purpose. The majority of the times,
that purpose are to increase the number of minutes that people talk or
receive/send data on their phones. The industry refers to this as “Minutes of Use”
or MOUs. The main way of increasing MOUs is by placing cell towers or sites in
locations that have high daytime working populations. Most carriers have
wireless plans that provide cheap or free "off time" rates, so the emphasis is
daytime calling minutes which are typically the most expensive.

Need less to mention that daytime rates are highest in areas where people either
travel a lot or where they work. Urban and suburban areas have the highest
concentration of cellular sites and towers. To provide coverage for those people
traveling between these particular urban/suburban areas, highways, state roads,
and higher traffic local roads are covered by towers as well. Placement of towers
at strategic intersections of major roads is often preferred.

Lately, carriers have been adding cell sites in rural areas as well in an attempt to
provide ubiquitous coverage (an unobtainable goal for at least 5 years). Sites are
located near a major roadway. Rarely do wireless carriers build towers in the
middle of nowhere. Cellular sites must meet one or more of the three goals listed
above. Building a tower to cover rural farmland where no people live does not
serve any of these goals.

The marketing departments of the wireless carriers are constantly reviewing

potential and uncovered areas to determine where to place new towers. Because
carriers have capital budgets, the marketing departments and RF engineering
departments work together to prioritize those sites that they believe will provide
the most benefit to the company in terms of MOUs or quality of service.

Location of Cell Site

Site should be large enough for a cell tower—normally (but not always) this is a
parcel double the size of the height of the tower. So if a tower is 100 ft tall, the
parcel must be 200' x 200'.

Site must have easy and cheap access from a public road.

Site must be suitable from a zoning perspective. In many jurisdictions, towers are
only allowed on commercially or industrially zoned parcels. Some areas allow
towers on agriculturally zoned sites, and most do NOT allow towers on
residentially/ forest land or restricted areas

Sites must not have conditions that would make constructing a tower unduly
expensive. These conditions can include wetlands, poor or rocky soil conditions,
significant distance to the cell tower site from the main road, lots of trees,
possible hazardous waste on the property and high voltage power lines.

Landowners must be willing to lease the site at rates acceptable to the wireless
carrier

One thing to note is that, contrary to public belief, the ground elevation is not the
most important factor. Just because you live on the tallest or second tallest hill in
the area or county does not mean that your location is preferred from a wireless
perspective, unless the location is in a "Search Ring."

Generally, in areas where there are enough cell sites to cover a wide area, the
range of each one will be set to:

• Ensure there is enough overlap for "handover" to/from other sites (moving
the signal for a mobile device from one cell site to another, for those
technologies that can handle it - e.g. making a GSM phone call while in a
car or train).
• Ensure that the overlap area is not too large, to minimize interference
problems with other sites.

In practice, cell sites are grouped in areas of high population density, with the
most potential users. Cell phone traffic through a single cell mast is limited by the
mast's capacity; there are a finite number of calls that a mast can handle at once.
This limitation is another factor affecting the spacing of cell mast sites. In
suburban areas, mast are commonly spaced 1.5-3 kms apart and in dense urban
areas, masts may be as close as 0.5-1 kms apart. Cell masts always reserve part
of their available bandwidth for emergency calls.

The maximum range of a mast (where it is not limited by interference with other
masts nearby) depends on the same circumstances. Some technologies, such as
GSM, have a fixed maximum range of 40km (25 miles), which is imposed by
technical limitation As a rough guide, based on a tall mast and flat terrain, it is
possible to get between 50 to 70 km (30-45 miles). When the terrain is hilly, the
maximum distance can vary from as little as 5 kms to 8 kilometers .The concept
of "maximum" range is misleading, however, in a cellular network. Cellular
networks are designed to create a mass communication solution from a limited
amount of channels (slices of radio frequency spectrum necessary to make one
conversation) that are licensed to an operator of a cellular service. To overcome
this limitation, it is necessary to repeat and reuse the same channels. Just as a
station on a car radio changes to a completely different local station when you
travel to another city, the same radio channel gets reused on a cell mast only a
few miles away. To do this, the signal of a cell mast is intentionally kept at low
power and many cases tilting downward to limit its area. The area sometimes
needs to be limited when a large number of people live, drive or work near a
particular mast; the range of this mast has to limited so that it covers an area
small enough not to have to support more conversations than the available
channels can carry.

It is also important to note that these Search Rings are proprietary and are not
available to the public or even to industry experts. They are not registered or
provided to the local, state, or federal governments. Wireless carriers prefer to
locate on existing structures first before building a new tower. They do this
because many zoning jurisdictions require this due diligence and because it
reduces development costs and time to market. If there are suitable structures,
the carrier will then just lease space on the tower, and no new tower will be built.

A full scale ground based cell site of 60 m length costs around Rs 30-35 lakh,
while roof-top cell sites comes in different denominations ranging from 24 m to 9
m. A 15 m roof-to cite would cost around Rs 7 lacs. Further Service providers
want to create new revenue streams and simplify existing infrastructure, create a
world-class ready-made infrastructure to provide highest level of standards to
their agents to deal with customers and reduce costs. As they have an
aggressive roll out plan, the need of the day is to out source development of
infrastructure so that the service providers are able to focus primarily on revenue
generation. To fulfill this requirement business of passive infrastructure
provisioning and management is being outsourced to companies who operate
and provide passive infrastructure comprising towers, shelter with ACs, diesel
generating sets, battery back-up etc, and related site structures in ground based
as well as roof top sites for co-locating active elements owned by different
operators. It also provides the operations and maintenance services,
housekeeping and security functions allowing the client to focus on their core
business. However, normally they do not share of electronic elements such as
the radio access network or antennae. At present, the ratio between the
infrastructure components and electronic elements is 70:30.

Site Sharing

The idea is to maximize revenues from the BPO facility by accommodating

various clients at the same facility so that maximum seats can be utilized at the
same time. The sharing of facility also allows accommodating clients involved in
low-end as well as high-end services. It enables earning of higher margins from
different clients based on their end activity and the criticality of the infrastructure
support required.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management can well be described as the application of knowledge,
skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed
customers/clients needs and expectations from the project. Meeting the need of
the client invariably involves balancing competing demands among:

• Scope, time & cost

• Identified requirements (needs) and unidentified requirements
(expectations)

Specific to telecommunication projects, project management consists of

management all the activities of a given project right from Site Survey to Site
Integration. This helps an Operator / Client in having optimum man-power and
relaying on the Project Management in executing the project successfully in time.

Almost all sites are unique with regard to building process, vagaries of weather,
unforeseen risks, remote area problems, and lack of communications.

It entails basic function of planning, scheduling, monitoring and control. The

planning function involves listing of all tasks essential in the completion of the
project. Scheduling consists of sequencing of tasks according to their precedent
time and expected times. Monitoring and control is the review and correction of
difference between the schedule and actual work performance of the activity.
Monitoring and control involves four steps

Measuring: Tells us the status or the progress of work package during the
construction.

Reviewing: Measuring or progress leads the construction management to plan

again and reschedule to make more efficient action plan

Reporting: The progress report and revised action plan is reported to senior
management for their approval and study. A proper scientific method is adopted
in reporting, which is popularly known as management information system (MIS).
The success or failure of project largely depends upon the extents of efficiency of
MIS. This is the controlling lever of construction management.

Action; Action is taken as per revised plan by the project office. It controls four
Ms i.e. Money, Manpower, Machinery and Material. Also time and quality.

Controlling Tools

• Network analysis techniques monitors time

• Resource schedule charts gives information about logistics and machinery
• Organization chart tells about requirement of manpower
• Specifications and drawings bounds the management to quality
• Financial planning about funding.

Scope of Work:

Scope of Work consists of following activities:

• RF and site survey

• Site Lay-out & Marking
• Obtaining no objection certificate for setting up cell site
• Liaison with State Electricity Boards for obtaining required power
• Contracting and identifications of risks
• Soil Testing ,structural design and layout of ground based sites

• Structural analysis of existing buildings and layout of roof top sites

• Finalization of specifications for equipment, works in consultation with
technical and commercial teams
• Preparation of bill of quantities and bill of services.
• Preparation of schedules in co-ordination with all suppliers.
• Plan & scheduling of equipment and inform to warehouse & logistics
department
 • Monitoring all the activities on daily basis and reporting through a MIS
(including critical area and critical activity analysis).
• Warehouse management
• Provision of Security at Site.
• Supervision of Civil, Electrical, Tower and other equipment installations
• Quality inspections and punch points
• Site RFI
• Co-ordination with all suppliers and Subcontractors for liquidation of punch
points
• Documentation
• Final inspection & Handing over of site
• Bills verification and certification

Organization Structure

The Project Management Team is organized to cater for various activities

covered in the scope of Project Management of Cell Sites as per the Customer
requirements. The PMC general Organization Structure is as follows:

RF & Site Survey

Cellular tower locations are the result of an engineering field called Radio
Frequency Engineering or RF, for short. RF engineers at the various wireless
companies such as work closely with their marketing departments to determine
areas where the placement of a new tower will accomplish one (or more) of three
goals:
 1. Expansion: The tower site provides coverage over areas that do not
currently have coverage.
2. Capacity: The tower site provides additional capacity for the carrier to
handle more calls in areas where existing towers are overloaded.
3. Quality: The tower fills in a hole or an area where customer calls are
frequently dropped or call service is poor.

RF Design

RF design consists of the following:

• Site survey of search areas, selection of suitable site and evaluation.
• Detailed RF site design including site configuration
• Site parameter settings
• Frequency planning
• Continuing post- launch optimization to ensure optimum level performance
level

The benefits of RF Optimization service are increased revenues and reduced

costs.

• Network quality resulting in higher speech quality index.

• Satisfied customers resulting in low churn

Efficient network utilization resulting in reduced investment costs.

RF Optimization services include the following:

• Study of network performances through OMC Statistics, drive tests and

customer feedback.
• Post-processing and analysis of the performance data to bench mark the
network performance against the set quality of service targets and
identify eventual problems.
• Proposing an action plan for solving the problems. The proposed action
plan may include parameter changes and/or network configuration
changes and/or network Hardware elements changes.
• In close coordination with the customer, implementing the proposed
action plan.
Performance Verification to ensure that the optimization process has resulted in
network performance improvements such that it meets the set quality of service
targets.

Site Build up Process

The comprehensive site acquisition and installation process helps to deliver high
quality and cost effective services to the customers.

Based on rollout plan and requirements of respective companies, potential sites

are located. Site acquisition teams narrow down the best feasible locations
through RF planning tools, field survey, real estate agents, references, and
existing cell site owners.

Thereafter, internal technical department comprising planning, civil & acquisition

team to assess the suitability in terms of radio coverage, soil & structural
suitability and optimal site shares opportunities with other potential service
providers. Based on the clearance report from internal technical department, a
suitability survey is again carried out by RF Transmission & Electrical teams to
assess the suitability from the point of view of Line of Sight & Electrical
Requirement, including back up power through DG sets. After the site is
technically selected, commercial negotiation are initiated with the property owner.
Commercial negotiation includes cost/ rent, advance, security deposit etc. It will
also include due diligence of property documents, period of lease/ rent,
escalation conditions and 24 hrs accesses to the site to carry out routine and
emergency maintenance. Other risks like institutional land, defense area, land for
religious purpose, land use rights etc will also be considered during the due
diligence and a risk mitigation strategy will be appropriately developed.

Once commercial terms and conditions are finalized with the site owner and
internal approval is obtained, NOC is required to be collected from site owner to
ensure that the he does not pose any resistance while integrating the cell sites.

In addition to other terms NOC contains the following essential clauses

• Owner is the legal heir of the property and the same has not been
mortgaged or is under dispute
• Agrees to give out on lease/rent as per mutually agreed terms and
conditions
• Will not sell the property during the duration of the agreement
• The company is permitted to undertake and execute all activities required
for development of cell site.

After receiving NOC from the site owner, all necessary clearance/ documentation
are obtained from legal/ government authorities. Once all documents are in
place, the site is handed over to the site development team to construct tower
and all accessories including shelter, DG, HVAC etc.

Certain changes are generally found necessary, varying from the quality and
nature of work from those agreed by the parties. The need is therefore, to resolve
these variations before they manifest into disputes. Effective resolutions of
variations arising out of variations during the execution of project has been an
area of concern as significant number of projects suffer in terms of time, cost and
quality performance due to obstruction in project objectives on account of
conflicting individual interests.

Identification of Risks
Risk management is a systematic process in which risk factors are identified,
evaluated and planned. It is formal approach to set out numerous varied
uncertainties in order to identify critical issues and provide measures for tackling
difficulties that occur. It includes identification and assessment of risks together
with development of strategies to minimize them when they occur, mitigate
adverse effect or take advantage of beneficial ones.

Risk is an unforeseen event, which is abstract in nature and is difficult to

measure with precision or accuracy. It results in loss in terms of time, money,
materials, manpower, machinery and other associated activities. Risk will apply
to price, weather, inflation, strikes, labor problem and other aspects of project.
Risk can therefore be defined as” exposure to the possibility of economic and
financial loss or gain, physical damage or injury or delays as a consequence of
uncertainty associated with perusing particular course of action.

Undertaking GSM/CDMA project is fraught with risks and obstacles owning to the
very nature and terrain of the project. This results in additional cost of
remobilization, reworks, additions and alterations.

Documentation: The need to specify the type of documents, the format, and
acceptance and certification procedures needs no emphasis. It directly affects
the payment terms and thus the cash flow. GSM/CDMA projects demand
considerable outlay of funds and therefore it is imperative that the revenue
generation is expeditious and procedure for releasing the payment is
documented before commencement of the project.

Non-Availability of Sites: Non-availability of sites, cancellation, sites on hold

and disputed sites has adverse affect on the roll out plan. Many a timework has
stopped after the major portion has been completed. Remobilization of teams
and machinery is not only time consuming but also results in avoidable
expenditure.
Change in Specifications: Due to the very nature of the project changes in
specifications occur. The need is to investigate the project in dept at pre
tender stage in order to avoid changes as repeated changes result in
dismantling of existing facilities and executing the new works causing delay
and additional cost both direct and indirect.

Tenancy: During the preliminary survey certain sites are selected based on the
anticipated traffic and location. However during the course of construction
priorities or/and the requirement of the service providers change resulting
rescheduling the project or delay in renting out the cell site, especially in pro
active sites.

Integration of supply of material: Diverse kinds of material and equipment

are supplied by respective agencies and their delivery is coordinated with the
progress at respective sites. Any delay in supply of material not only delays the
project but also results in idle labor and increase in both direct and indirect costs.
To avoid this it is important that prequalification of vendors are done after in
depth verification of their capabilities and financial worthiness. The contractor
should have reserve funds to tide over the financial crunch so as to manage
working capital cash flow.

Soil Testing
To under take field and laboratory investigations to assess the nature of sub-soil,
strata and to evaluate the bearing capacity and other parameters suitable for
construction of foundations at cell sites

Design
Design should be simple, flexible executable on ground, standardized as far as
possible and should cater for site and location specific constraints and
requirements. The commitments and decisions during design phase have a very
high level of influence on the project cost as any alterations results in avoidable
reworks and disruption of work.
Some of the features which are recommended to be considered within the frame
work of site constraints are given below:
• Standardized the dimensions of beam and columns thereby reducing the
number of set of forms and ease of construction
• Reduce number of bars in a given concrete placement to avoid dense
congestion of reinforcement by either using larger bar sizes or increasing
the cross sectional area at critical sections.
 • Reduce the number of various sizes of rebar. This will reduce the chances
of errors in erection of reinforcement.
• It should be practical, executable at site with realistic tolerance.
• Avoid wordy and redundant specifications, seeking liability avoidance
through inclusion of excessive requirement and unnecessary standards.
• Specify specific clause in the code rather than entire code. It will reduce
cost, availability time and expedite inspection of material.
• Avoidance of duplication of specifications and drawings so as to ensure
that there is no conflict between specifications and notes on drawings. the
specifications and drawings are to guide the physical construction of
projects and therefore there should be no inconsistencies between
drawings and specifications
• Specify approved material and components.
• Specify clearly the desired standards of quality and performance required
at site
• Provide quick response to requests for clarification or changes in design
details.
• Testing of materials for quality level

Structural Analysis of Existing Building

It is of utmost importance that the structural analysis of the existing structure is
assessed prior to its consideration for installation of tower and allied equipment
• Framed structure should be preferred over structure on walls
• In multistory building the suitability should be assessed after analyzing the
structural suitability of each floor.
• As far as possible avoid structure with RBC roof slab as exposing the
reinforcement of the slab will affect the strength of the slab
• Separate approach to the cell site should be or made available
• The existing reinforcement of columns, beams and/or slabs should be
exposed to check their respective sizes.
• The design and layout should cater for the restricted availability of space
so as to avoid dense reinforcement and for ease of laying of form work.

Logistics
The progress of cell site at optimal cost requires judicious allocation of available
resources including material and equipment. The quality and progress of
constructional activities depend upon providing matching resource at every stage
of activity. Procurement of material and equipment in GSM/CDMA project spans
across 85-90% of the overall cost and duration. Late delivery of material and
equipment merge as the most important factor contributing to the delays in
project implementation. The scenario in India is further complicated by the fact
that most vendors over trade themselves and book orders much beyond their
capability and capacity.

Bill of Material: Based on technical requirement, past experience,

documented site wise requirement, availability and cost of material bill of material
is prepared which lays down the quantity of each item. This gives a very fair idea
of the scope of work to the vendor and also to the client in monitoring and
controlling the cost.

Scheduling of delivery of material and equipment: Delivery schedule of

material and equipment is prepared based on the roll out plan, site wise
requirement of equipment and material, planned progress at site, capabilities of
vendors and to cater for reserves against unforeseen contingency. The
warehouse and logistic department is informed accordingly for procurement and
storage.

Networking
Network analysis is a generic term used to signify techniques that use networks
and basic critical path concepts for planning and scheduling and are graphical
numeric in nature. This depends basically upon graphical portrayal of work plan
in the form of network and then their numerical analysis to yield information. It
requires complete break down of the tasks into its component jobs and
preparation of network showing the sequence as well as the inter-relation ship
between the various operations.

However, developing separate networks for each cell site is time consuming,
consisting of voluminous paperwork and difficult to decipher quickly and
objectively. Keeping this in view project planning schedule customized to the
specific requirement of GSM/CDMA projects was designed and developed. This
schedule lays down the planned duration of each activity and the delivery of the
material was integrated with the planned progress

Daily Progress Reports (DPR): DPR is customized by individual clients

based on essential information required, terrain and activities. Generally it
consists of name/ID of site, planned and actual completion of site layout,
excavations, reinforcement, concreting, bolt casting, tower delivery and erection,
shelter delivery and installation DG installation & commissioning, AC
commissioning, Electrical works, EB connection, boundary wall and security
room.

The systems are most effective as at a glance the management is able to assess
the progress of each activity at respective sites, identify the problems, if any, and
take immediate corrective measures.

Tracking Sheet for Civil Works: Civil works is the critical activity in the
completion of cell site as erection of tower; shelter and DG depend on its timely
completion. Further the quality of civil work play a major role in the stability of the
structures. With this in view the tracking of civil work is of paramount importance
and accordingly tracking sheet was designed and developed which lays down the
planned and actual duration of completion of each activity. The progress is
monitored, delivery of the material re-scheduled if required.

Documentation
Documentation helps in standardization of work methods to attain consistency in
operations. It serves as reference to management, site staff and contractors to
create commonality of views and communication between them. It helps in
providing feed back for improvement in practices, techniques, methods and
specification for future projects. Accurate, complete and detailed records can be
invaluable in time of accidents or structure failures.

The major types of records to be maintained are:

• Site Folders:
o Drawings of the location & key plan, structural and as built
drawings, electrical, ear thing grid and equipment layout in shelter.
o Vendor details
o Commissioning reports of AC and DG
o Warranty certificates
o Electrical configuration
o Check lists, pour certificates
o Acceptance testing report
o Cube test results
o Punch points Register

• Security guard attendance registers. Verified by respective site

engineers
• Diesel Consumption Register: Giving hour and energy meter
readings, quantity of diesel in tank and filled. Verification by security
 • Material register: Details of receipt and dispatch of material to other
site/warehouse etc
• Visitors register: Incorporates details of visits by site engineers,
quality teams and others

QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In recent years industry has increasingly aware of rising construction cost and
perception of increased quality problems and the way to increase profit is to
reduce the cost of poor quality rather than to increase sales. The need for
structured and formal systems of construction management to address the
aspects of performance, workmanship and quality has arisen as a direct result of
deficiencies and problems in design, construction, materials, and maintenance
operations. These deficiencies cost the industry a huge amount of money and
many might be alleviated through training, greater care and attention to
standards of performance and quality at design and construction stages.

Explicit as possible, identification and meeting/exceeding the customer

requirements is fundamental basing point of effective quality control. Customer
satisfaction is of prime importance and it should be a continuous process rather
than one time endeavor. It is ever changing. What is considered quality today
may not be good enough to be considered quality tomorrow.

• Achieve the highest standard and expertise through continuously,

developing and improving the quality plans and standards.
• Meeting commitments
• Monitoring the quality plan in respect of performance vis-à-vis laid down
quality parameters, cost, time or any other activity.
• Human resource development
• Stringent quality standards for pre-qualification of vendors.
• Documenting punch points and corrective measures undertaken.

Quality Plans and Standards

Specific to GSM/CDMA projects the plan should include the standard for each
activity. Instead of quoting the IS code the relevant features of the code should
be included and the focus should be on practicality and nature of construction.
For example incase of civil works instead of quoting IS 456, add the clauses and
standards on water cement ratio, form work, cover, concreting, reinforcement
amongst others.

Few of the salient requirements in respect of major equipment are as under:

Tower
• Galvanizing of fabricated steel as per IS 2595 with a minimum thickness of
85 microns
• Welding by electrodes conforming to AWS:E6013
• All members provided with marking for ease of construction
• Bolts and nuts as per IS 1363 and washers IS 5369
• Incase of new customer prototype of tower be got approved before
dispatch to site

Erection
• Verticality of the tower to be ensured and tightening of bolts after proper
alignment and verticality of tower is ensured
• Check nuts must be provided as in addition to assistance in achieving
verticality of tower it also provides additional support to the bolts.
• Painting of tower with one coat of primer and two coats of approved
enamel paint
• Erector to comply with safe erection practices and guard against
hazardous and unsafe working conditions.
• Provision of sitcom below base plate

DG
• Fuel tank with level indicator, filler cap with lock, feed connection to engine
amongst other accessories.
• AVM pads of poly pond make
• Locking arrangements for canopy
• Residential silence
• Alarm systems
• Neutral for ear thing

Shelter
• No breakages in walls, roofs, doors of the shelter
• No depression in floors
• Proper anti static flooring
• Locking arrangements for door
Electrical
• Earth pits as per drawings
• Earth value not exceeding
• Provision of insulators, especially below bus bars
• Proper crimping of joints and provision of clamps
• Proper routing of cables
• Use of approved makes and brands

Civil Works
• Layout as per drawing and jointly verified by client, vendor and owner
• Approved makes of cement, steel and bricks to be used.
• Check date of manufacture and quality cement before use
• Bending and laying of steel as per drawing and bar bending schedule
• Provision of cover blocks. No bricks/ wooden pieces will be used
• Water cement ratio to be maintained
• Center to center distances and level of columns to be ensured.
• Compaction of earth work ensured
• Cube tests for compressive strength to be undertaken and documented.

Meeting of Commitments
In order to gain the confidence of clients it is of paramount importance that
commitments are met within the mutually acceptable time frame. Failure to meet
commitments is due to unrealistic assessment of time, cost and orders in hand.
Commitment should be made after analyzing the following:
• Financial resource including capability to raise funds through banks or/
and financial institutions
• Availability of experienced and qualified human resource
• Order book
• Availability of teams
• Availability of sub- contractors

Monitoring of Quality
Laying down detailed plans and preparation of check lists are of no value incase
these are not implemented on ground. The quality needs to be checked during
the design phase and thereafter during and after construction at site. In addition
to quality checks it is important that the site staff is trained at site on the quality
measures to be adopted and on immediate corrective actions.

Human Resource Development

Human resource development is one of the most essential ingredients of
developing customer’s confidence and meeting commitments made to the
customer. Training plays an important role in developing the knowledge,
methods, techniques and awareness of human resource.

Training method as a change replaces the old view with new tangible, practical
and concrete behaviors and techniques. The curriculum should be need based
and correlated to the engineering operations in the field. Paramount features of
technique are:
• Consist of project specific requirement
• Project management techniques and methods
• Tools and techniques to improve quality and project delivery performance
• Identification of risks and remedial measures to overcome them
• Changes and trends in customer requirements, business management
systems and practices
• Continual improvements in preventive and corrective actions.
• Realistic and specific case studies which in addition highlight lessons
learnt.

Pre qualification of Vendors

Vendor pre-qualification analysis is defined as a process used to determine his
competence to meet specific requirement for performance of specific task.
Selection of appropriate vendor is very important in achieving quality
performance failing which multiple problems will be encountered in the project.

Expertise: The selection of vendor for particular work will depend upon his
expertise in a particular sector of operation and business segments. For example
electrical contractor with knowledge of electrification of buildings will not be
effective in executing electrical works at cell sites.

Financial Stability: Depending upon the liquidity situation in the economy,

payment to vendors may become erratic. The vendor should have reserve funds
to tide over the financial stringency.

Liquidated Damages: Analysis of the vendor’s exposure to penalties and

liquidated damages is essential. It indicates its attitude towards commitment to
complete the work as per schedule achieving customer satisfaction

Order Book of the Vendor: The vendors have the tendency to book orders
beyond their capability and resources. This results in delay and poor quality. To
avoid facing problems during the execution of project; need is to analyze the
order book of the vendor with its available resources.
Dispute with Clients: Few vendors have a history of raising claims, enter
into disputes and go into arbitration instead of mutually resolving the issues.
Such vendors are avoided.

Documentation of Punch Points

After under taking quality inspections the punch points need to be documented
indicating the name of site, punch points, person who has carried out the
inspection and name of cluster head/site engineer. Corrective action taken and
removal of each point is recorded against respective punch points.

Supervision at site
The main objective of site supervision is to ensure that requirement as defined in
contract documents are correctly interpreted and problems are satisfactorily
resolved. Salient features are:

• Define responsibility so that there is no overlapping of activities and

responsibilities
• Define specific functions of personnel and extent of delegation of powers,
responsibilities and authority.
• Avoid passing of responsibilities especially incase of failures
• Supervisors are thoroughly conversant regarding the scope of work,
quality standard required and resource available to him.
• Supervisors possess requisite knowledge
• Regular quality and performance checks by managers

FINANCIAL AND WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT

Financial Management
Financial management of construction industry in general and
telecommunications in particular are unique as well as complex. Unique
because they are both different from manufacturing industry and complex
because there are many areas where financing is required
A good accounting system is a sine-qua-non for success of any project. It is
no less for telecommunication projects, which involves execution of diverse
 tasks in a tight frame through involvement of many agencies, vendors and
person. The system should be transparent and meet the specific requirement
of the project.

o In telecommunication projects comprising of diverse types and

numbers of items it is likely that few items are not invoiced,
especially when terms of payments specify invoicing in phases.
o Ensure that double payment is not released to the vendor
o At a glance indicate the respective vendors work load
o Indicate the overall expenditure per site.

In order to meet the above requirements the following systems cater for the
specific customized need of capitalization of expenditure site wise, financial
control and cash flow to monitor expenditure.

o Template of Operations
o Invoices for all items raised to the customer
o Invoices of all materials and services raised by vendors
o Assists in compiling the estimated cost of respective sites.

o Vendors invoices Account

o Gives details of PO, amount, payment released taxes etc
o Monitor the release of payment
o Avoids double payment for the site

o Billing Status
o Correlates the expenditure between sites and respective vendors
o Compiles over all expenditure of sites.
o At a glance indicates the vendors work load

Warehouse Management

Scope
o Design, develop the operating and accounting system of all telecom and
passive infrastructure items
o Round the clock security and up keep of warehouse
o Provide adequate fire fighting equipment
o Stock verification every month
o Keep the management informed on the stock position
 o Monitor the stock position of equipment and material critical to the project.
o Monitor the unused material in good or non serviceable condition.

MIS
o Stock position indicating the receipt , issue and balance material
o Site wise distribution of material and equipment
o Correlate the distribution of material to sites with respective invoices.
o Configuration of equipment: Gives details of vendors, make, serial
numbers and capacity
o Warranty and commissioning dates of each equipment

Work Plan
o Staff: It will depend upon the work load, customer’s requirement and the
quantity and types of materials and equipment handled. Generally the
following are required:
o Ware House Manger One
o Executive/Supervisor One
o Helpers Two
o Security guards 3 on 8 hourly basis

Timings
o Suitable timings for receipt and issue of materials/equipment are fixed
depending upon terrain, location, customers/project requirement
o Incase of emergency the material may be received or/and issued other
than specified timings with specific permission of circle head or project
manager.

Stock Reconciliation
It is of paramount importance that reconciliation of stock is carried out every
month, preferably on the last day of the month and the variations, if any, are
resolved at the earliest.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Scope
 • To coordinate the entire O&M activities required for as well as warranty
support as per the provision in respective agreements with the vendors
and customers
• Coordinate with State Electricity Boards with regard to supply and
consumption of power
• Filling and accounting of diesel for DG sets
• Assessing the requirements of running and major spares based on the
past experience
• Ensure implementation of repairs and replacement parts covered under
respective warranty clauses.
• Lay down response time for repairs and rectification in coordination of
vendors and clients.

Parameters

While designing the system the following to be considered:

o Keeping in view the experienced gained from similar projects, compile the
likely faults and the urgency of repairs.
o The terrain, driving time and transportation system
o Availability of vendors, type and availability of skilled labor and facilities
o Analysis of running spares and repairs.

Equipment
Generally the following major types of equipment/services are required to be
maintained:
o 15/25 KVA DG sets
o 2x1.5 Ton/2x2ton Air conditioners
o 400/330/360 Battery bank
o SMPS
o ACDB/Power Interface Unit
o Commercial mains supply(including energy meter, power cables etc)
o Fire detection system
o Prefab shelter
o Tower/ mast. (MW, GSM antennas if in scope)
o Alarm system

Documentation
• Site wise details of commissioning reports of all equipment on sites
• Warranty certificates and clauses.
 • Details of equipment installed giving the vendor, capacity and serial
numbers of each equipment.
• Details indicating site wise date and time of receipt and description of
complaint, complaints, completion, spares used duly verified by the
customer/site engineer.

Conclusion

Managed services projects have always been complex and are becoming
even more so due to the evolution of telecommunication service providers’
(TCSP) requirements and new business expectations.

As a result, it is becoming increasingly challenging to fully achieve all the

business objectives associated with managed services today. In order to
ensure success, TCSPs need to follow best practices for planning and
implementing managed services.

A set of success factors which will help in meeting business objectives for
managed services projects: long-term business objectives, defining the
scope for relevant services, a feasible and optimized implementation
roadmap, customer-experience related business policies, business plan
driven SLAs, alignment of commercial terms with business goals, proper
vendor qualification, Business/Operations Support Systems (B/OSS)
specific best practice implementation methodology, effective and efficient
governance and leverage of market experience.