Taara & GSMA launch calculator for middle-mile costs

Taara and GSMA Intelligence have launched a total cost of ownership calculator for telecoms operators to compare middle-mile transport economics across different deployment scenarios.

The browser-based tool is designed to help network operators assess the costs of fibre, microwave, mmWave and wireless optical communications. It is part of a joint study on how operators can evaluate transport links between cell sites, aggregation points and core networks as data demand rises.

The work focuses on the middle mile, the section of network infrastructure that carries traffic across the wider transport layer. This part of telecoms networks is under pressure as operators expand 5G and adapt infrastructure for more distributed computing tied to artificial intelligence workloads.

GSMA Intelligence examined deployment scenarios in Europe, North America and the ASEAN region. Its modelling covered dense urban, suburban and rural settings, using cost per bit delivered per kilometre as a central measure for comparing options.

The research found that no single transport technology fits every use case. Operators are instead likely to use a mix of fibre, microwave and optical wireless links depending on geography, build costs and network requirements.

Fibre remains widely regarded in the industry as the benchmark for capacity and latency, but it can involve high civil engineering costs, permitting hurdles and long build times. Microwave systems can often be installed more quickly, though they face limits as traffic volumes rise and network requirements become more demanding.

The study presents wireless optical communications as another option for operators looking to expand capacity without laying physical cable. The technology uses focused beams of light to transmit data through the air, and Taara argues that this changes the economics of some middle-mile deployments.

Planning pressures

The launch comes as mobile network groups weigh major capital decisions around 5G Advanced, future 6G planning, Open RAN and AI-RAN. Those shifts are changing how operators think about transport infrastructure, especially in areas where new radio architectures require stronger connections between radio access networks and the core.

Shiv Putcha, Director of Research and Consulting at GSMA Intelligence, outlined the rationale for the project.

"As mobile operators transition to 5G Advanced and eventually 6G, they are faced with and are evaluating a number of deployment scenarios, with tremendous complexity, regional variation and associated tradeoffs," said Shiv Putcha, Director of Research and Consulting at GSMA Intelligence.

"Established middle-mile technologies like fiber and microwave will continue to thrive but there is a need for alternative technologies including the latest iterations of free space optics (FSO), mmWave and even satellite in the future to fit specific requirements and deployment scenarios. The TCO Calculator provides an objective tool to compare the relative cost and underlying economics associated with different technology options, thereby providing a valuable decision-making tool for mobile operators," Putcha added.

For operators, the central issue is not only technical performance but also the long-term economics of each deployment path. Network planners have historically focused on bandwidth, latency and coverage, but cost has become more prominent as operators seek to expand capacity while controlling capital expenditure.

The calculator allows users to test deployment assumptions and compare how technology choices affect network economics over time. Operators can model scenarios across different geographies and density profiles rather than relying on a single template for all markets.

Market position

Taara emerged from X, Google's Moonshot Factory, and focuses on wireless optical communications. It says it is deployed in more than 20 countries and works with operators including T-Mobile, Airtel, Digicel, Liquid and SoftBank.

The project also reflects a wider debate in the telecoms industry over how to fund network expansion as traffic grows. Operators are under pressure to improve network performance in urban areas while extending coverage in rural and remote locations, where traditional fibre deployment can be harder to justify economically.

Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Taara, said operators are now dealing with a different investment climate.

"Mobile and fiber operators and service providers are facing a very different set of network planning challenges than they were even a few years ago to support the growing demands of AI infrastructure," said Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Taara.

"Internet traffic continues to grow, network architectures are becoming more distributed in the wake of AI, and the economics of deployment now matter just as much as technical performance. The TCO calculator gives operators a practical way to compare technologies in real-world deployment scenarios and make better-informed decisions about how they build and scale their networks," Krishnaswamy added.