The Neutral Host model: An opportunity for the future of telecom networks

We are pleased to have had the opportunity to exchange impressions with Mirko Masi on the assessment of the Neutral Host market that we share in this blog post. Mirko is an experienced telecom industry professional and a respected voice in the Neutral Host space. His insights are invaluable to our interpretation of the research.

The telecom market is undergoing a transformation, and a new paradigm is emerging: the de-layering of the value chain of telecom services, along with the rise of specialized infrastructure operators and service providers that focus on delivering optimized services to multiple tenants. 

In the case of Mobile Network Operators, these new players can include LandCos, which own and manage land that houses cellular tower assets; TowerCos, which own cellular towers; RANCos, which own or deploy radio access equipment; Trans-Cos, which own or deploy transport equipment); and ServiceCos, which offer mobile services to consumers and enterprises.

These specialized providers, also called Neutral Hosts, aim to achieve the best performance and maximum efficiency from infrastructure management, share infrastructure among different customers, and offer services with defined service-level agreements (SLAs). Sharing infrastructure provides value for money and allows for better sustainability and optimized investment. It also improves profitability because multiple tenants can be served with the same infrastructure.

This is what the telecom market needs. It is probably one of the few opportunities to maintain sustainable competition among different operators, ensure accessible service for users, and guarantee a certain level of network innovation and evolution.

A new report tracks the rise of the Neutral Host model

A newly updated version of the Global Neutral Host Index report, prepared by Téral Research and commissioned by Nokia, explores the evolution of this new paradigm and shows how it is emerging in various infrastructure domains, including telecom sites and towers, fiber, data centers and network-as-a-service in general. It also highlights some impressive economic figures relating to Neutral Hosts. For example, Neutral Hosts accounted for 9% of global telecom services revenues in 2024. 

The report indicates that the consolidation of the Neutral Host model depends on the local conditions, market and regulatory situation in any given country. 

Researchers also found that Neutral Hosts are taking on a bigger chunk of the large CAPEX investments required to deploy, maintain and evolve the digital infrastructure for telecom services, which have traditionally been undertaken by communications service providers (CSPs). Neutral Hosts now account for a 13% share of the global CAPEX investment in telecom services. This share will grow to 17% by 2030. In fact, the report indicates that CAPEX is poised to increase in every shared telecom infrastructure domain until at least the end of this decade, contrasting with a slight CAPEX decrease for the global telecom sector. 

These findings raise some key questions: 

• Will Neutral Hosts be ready to assume this commitment? 
• How will the Neutral Hosts act depending on the return rate and macro-economic environment?
• Will Neutral Hosts be able to manage telecom infrastructures more efficiently than CSPs? 
• How will sharing policies, synergies, and management efficiency affect the success of the Neutral Host model? 
• Can regulators and policymakers play a role of “nudging” the Neutral Host model into wider adoption across the regions? 

Making the Neutral Host model work

Many markets have seen the consolidation of several telecom operators in different domains. Regulators are supervising this consolidation and introducing remedies or limiting mergers or acquisitions to reduce the impact on the final users and maintain a competitive ecosystem. 

The Neutral Host model can be a way to extract synergies, allow operators to be sustainable and reduce the need for consolidation. But making it work requires a better definition of the framework and the regulatory context. In addition, regulators and policymakers in many countries—with widely varying economic conditions—favor digital infrastructure sharing as a way to accelerate plans to extend broadband service access to all citizens. 

An opportunity to reshape the telecom market

For many individual operators, the business case for building wide-area or rural networks may limit their ability to invest in innovative new services for consumers and enterprises, which will slow the pace of infrastructure builds. Furthermore, some local authorities are imposing stricter limitations on active equipment deployments in urban areas to comply with more stringent sustainability requirement. This is pushing telecom operators to consider passive and active network sharing.

As a result, the affirmation of the Neutral Host model may allow the telecom market to reshape itself and enter a new phase, where specialized infrastructure operators develop digital infrastructure platforms for specific countries and ServiceCos use the platforms to provide more cost-effective services to their customers. 

The development of this model requires the industry to focus on providing equipment and services that are optimized for networks built on shared infrastructures in multiple domains. It must enable multi-tenancy with automated access to network resources, provisioning, management and service activation. 

Future editions of the Global Neutral Host Index report will be critical for tracking the rate of adoption of the Neutral Host model globally and in individual markets. They will also shed light on its evolving requirements to help the telecom market adapt to this promising new phase. Stay tuned for version 2.0 of the report, which is now in development.

Find out more

Visit our web page to find out more about how we help Neutral Hosts succeed with digital transformation and adopt a profitable platform-as-a-service model that will benefit the whole telecom industry.

Download the latest version of the Global Neutral Host Index Report to find out how the Neutral Host model is transforming the telecom sector by enabling cost-effective and scalable use of shared passive and active assets.