# Transitioning to Society 5.0 in Africa: Tools to Support ICT Infrastructure Sharing
## 2 Background and Related Work  
### Barriers and Enablers of Mobile Telecommunication Infrastructure Sharing  
The government has a major role to play by enacting laws to stipulate how telecommunication businesses are run and as well providing the necessary facilities that will help the growth and development of the industry to thrive [6; 12]. Regulatory bodies like the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), National Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA) should both be able to establish a clearer blueprint for the industry to ensure the atmosphere is conducive for the industry and ensure people's safety [3; 13]. Mobile infrastructure sharing holds significant cost saving potential, but the standalone operator sacrifices some of its control over the network operator, thereby affecting the ability of operators to compete and differentiate themselves based on network quality [5]. While infrastructure sharing in developing markets is used due to difficulties in new site acquisition, it is less likely to occur in rural regions where coverage can be used as a service differentiator and investment reduction for continued network rollout can potentially be avoided. In this context, Nigeria can potentially have a differentiated strategy based on geographical regions. As investment in telecommunications is critical to economic growth in Nigeria [14], the government needs to focus equitably on standalone operators and infrastructure sharing mechanisms. Infrastructure sharing significantly reduces equipment revenues as operators share the cost. However, differentiation by assisting in the network planning process and offering managed services can support equipment manufacturers.  
Previous investigations by the current authors have found some commonly described problems in the Nigerian context [15]. Many operators often complain of incompatibility of equipment and systems employed by other operators as a major setback to infrastructure sharing. This hinders interoperability, which is the ability of systems or equipment from both sides to operate without the problems of mismatched configurations. Many operators often employ different suppliers, leading to some systems of substandard quality, and so others that are deemed to have superior systems might not be willing to share. New entrants into some telecoms markets in Africa often complain of anticompetitive or unfair monopolistic behaviors adopted by dominant incumbent players who have established wide network coverage before the entry of the inexperienced players. Hence, these monopolistic players create barriers of entry by showing unwillingness to share infrastructure. Towers are usually designed with specified permissible loading. In many instances, antennas are placed at a height that does not exactly match specifications. Tower loading covers anything added to the tower, initially or later, that will be exposed to the environment. A critical look at tower loading in an era of sharing passive network infrastructure has become very important. Since most existing towers were designed for a single operator, they are incompatible with sharing, and some modification/upgrading may be required. Finally, tower overload introduces complexity into microwave link design and quality. Compromising on optimal microwave antenna size or height to prevent overloading affects the quality of the links.