ey Parameter planning Figure 2.2 Network planning process steps Market analysis Competitor analysis Potential customers User profiles: services required and usage Customer requirements Coverage requirements Capacity requirements Quality targets: call setup success, drop call rate, etc. Financial limitations Future deployment plans Environment factors and other boundary conditions Area morthography Area topography Hotspot locations Available frequency band Recommended base transceiver station (BTS) locations The radio network planning deliverables are final BTS configurations and site locations. The final COV- erage predictions including dominance and composite maps are delivered. Power budgets are calculated for all the configurations. Related to the frequency plan, the allocated frequencies are documented and an interference analysis is also presented. Deliverables also include the adjacency plan and allocated parameters, either default or optimized ones. 2.1.4 Network Planning Process Steps The network planning process consists of several phases, which can be combined at a higher level to main phases that differ depending on the logics. The radio network planning process is divided into five main steps, from which four are before the network launch and the last one after the network has been launched. The five main phases then include subphases, which are introduced in this section and then each is explained in detail in later sections. The flowchart for the network planning process is shown in Figure 2.2. After detailed planning the network is ready for commercial launch, but the postplanning phase continues the process and targets the most optimal network configuration. Actually the network planning process is a never ending cycle due to changes in the design parameters. Radio Network Planning Process The five main steps in the network planning process are: preplanning, planning, detailed planning, acceptance and optimisation. The input for the preplanning phase is the network planning criteria. The main acti