Nearly half of the world's passive cellular antennas are now more than 7 years old.
Approximately 47% of the installed base of legacy and 5G passive cellular antennas worldwide was designed for a very different network environment—before Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven optimization, before widespread 5G Standalone (SA) deployments, before today's traffic growth, and before energy efficiency became one of the industry's highest priorities.
At first glance, this may not appear to be a problem. Unlike radios, software, or spectrum, passive antennas have historically been viewed as infrastructure assets with exceptionally long replacement cycles. As long as the antenna continues to operate, operators have generally had little reason to replace it.
However, mobile networks have changed dramatically.
Operators today are expected to:
- Increase network capacity without proportionally increasing costs
- Improve uplink performance to support new applications and AI-driven services
- Reduce network energy consumption
- Maximize the return on spectrum and radio investments
- Prepare networks for 5G SA and future network evolution
- Simplify increasingly complex multi-band deployments
Historically, antennas were not considered a major contributor to any of these objectives. Network performance gains were typically associated with radios, software, spectrum, and optimization tools.
That assumption is increasingly being challenged.
Why Antennas Matter More Than Before
Over the past decade, passive antenna technology has evolved significantly.
Modern antennas are no longer designed as isolated hardware components. For example, Ericsson designs the antennas using digital twins, advanced network simulations, and network-level performance models to maximize real-world impact before deployment.
As a result, strategic antenna upgrades can influence several key business outcomes simultaneously:
- Improved beam efficiency and spectral utilization
- Better uplink and downlink performance
- Enhanced coverage consistency
- Improved Passive Intermodulation (PIM) stability
- Reduced site complexity through improved multi-band integration
- Lower energy consumption through more efficient transmission
- Reduced tower loading and structural requirements
- Faster and simpler site deployments
Individually, these improvements may appear incremental. Collectively, however, they can have a material impact on network capacity, Operational Expenditure (OPEX), energy efficiency, and customer experience.
The Hidden Cost of Legacy Antennas
Perhaps the most important question is not the cost of replacing an antenna. It is the cost of not replacing it.
Unlike a failed radio or an overloaded cell site, aging antennas rarely generate alarms. Their impact is gradual rather than abrupt. Coverage may remain acceptable, services continue operating, and performance degradation often goes unnoticed.
Yet, older antennas may prevent operators from fully realizing the benefits of investments already made in:
- Advanced radio platforms
- AI-based optimization systems
- Energy-efficiency initiatives
- 5G SA deployments
- New spectrum assets
In effect, operators may continue investing in network modernization while a critical part of the Radio Access Network (RAN) remains largely unchanged.
The result is a potential hidden Cost of Inaction (COI): unrealized capacity, higher operating costs, avoidable energy consumption, and underutilized network investments.
ABI Research and Ericsson Investigate the Economics of Strategic Antenna Upgrades
To better understand this opportunity, ABI Research and Ericsson have launched a research initiative focused on one of the least understood areas of mobile network economics: the financial impact of passive antenna upgrades.
The project will quantify both:
- Return on Investment (ROI) from upgrading legacy antenna infrastructure
- COI associated with leaving aging antennas in place
The objective is to provide operators with a practical decision-making framework for evaluating strategic antenna upgrades using measurable business outcomes rather than engineering assumptions alone.
What Triggers a Strategic Antenna Upgrade?
The research will examine strategic antenna upgrades across common operator scenarios, including:
- Traffic Growth: As traffic volumes continue to rise, operators seek additional capacity without proportional increases in site costs.
- Energy-Efficiency Programs: Operators are under growing pressure to reduce power consumption and improve network sustainability.
- 5G SA Deployment: 5G SA increases the importance of uplink performance, coverage consistency, and spectrum utilization.
- 2G/3G Sunset Programs: Spectrum refarming often creates an opportunity to reassess whether aging antenna infrastructure remains fit for purpose.
- AI-Driven Networks: AI-based optimization systems increasingly depend on accurate network behavior and efficient radiation characteristics to maximize outcomes.
- Network Modernization Programs: Many operators refresh radios every few years, while antennas remain unchanged for a decade or more. Understanding whether this creates a gap between expected and realized value will be a central focus of the study.
For years, passive cellular antennas have been viewed primarily as infrastructure assets that are installed once and largely forgotten.
The industry may be entering a period where that assumption no longer holds.
As operators seek to extract maximum value from every spectrum license, radio investment, AI initiative, and energy-efficiency program, the antenna is emerging as a strategic contributor to network performance, economics, and growth.
The findings from this research will help determine whether one of the largest remaining opportunities for network improvement has been sitting on the tower all along.