5G NR rollout, Bogotá metro.

120 standalone 5G NR macro sites deployed as a Nokia subcontractor for a major Colombian carrier, covering roughly 1,650 km² and accepted two weeks ahead of the regulatory deadline.

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1205G sites deployed
0incidents · ~14,000 h
2 wkahead of deadline

Antenna installation on a Bogotá rooftop

RAN · 5G NRNOKIA AIRSCALE

CLIENT: Major Colombian carrier, via Nokia
LOCATION: Bogotá, Colombia
DURATION: 8 months · 2023
SITES: 120 macro sites
EQUIPMENT: AirScale Massive MIMO
STATUS: Completed and accepted

THE BRIEF

Three crews, 18–22 sites a month.

One of the largest 5G NR programs ELETCOL has executed in Colombia. Working as a subcontractor to Nokia Networks, our teams handled the physical deployment of AirScale Massive MIMO radio units across 120 macro sites in the Bogotá metropolitan area.

The carrier had to meet government spectrum-license obligations for 5G coverage by the end of 2023. We ran three parallel field crews at 18–22 site installations per month to hold that schedule, with every step documented photographically for carrier acceptance.

Our RAN service

01

Site build and structural works

Tower structural assessment on every site to confirm load capacity for Massive MIMO units; structural upgrades coordinated with local civil contractors under Nokia specifications.

02

Installation

AirScale radio-unit mounting, feeder routing and grounding, fiber from radio head to baseband unit, DC power cabling from the site rectifier. Nokia global installation procedures throughout.

03

Testing and hand-over

First-call readiness, software verification, parameter audit and drive-test validation against the carrier's acceptance criteria before each site went to network integration.

CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

Rooftops, narrow streets, no cranes.

The Bogotá metro presented conditions typical of dense Latin American cities. Each one had a method behind it.

CHALLENGE 01

Residential rooftops

Many sites sat on the rooftops of mid-rise residential buildings, with residents, administrators and local authorities to coordinate.

SOLUTION

A dedicated site-access coordinator per crew, agreed working windows with each building, and a photographic record shared with administrators at hand-over.

CHALLENGE 02

No street-level equipment

At roughly 30% of sites, narrow streets in older neighbourhoods ruled out cranes and aerial work platforms.

SOLUTION

A rigging-based method using tower-attached hoists and manual hauling, validated by the HSE team, so no street-level equipment was needed and the timeline held.

RESULTS

Accepted two weeks ahead of the deadline.

All 120 sites delivered on schedule. At launch the network reached an estimated 4.2 million potential users, with peak downlink above 2 Gbps in initial drive-test benchmarks.