Many MNOs plan to deploy 5G initially in the macrocell layer, despite earlier expectations that the technology would often be rolled out first in limited hotzones of high capacity. However, the base station numbers that are being quoted by early adopters indicate that even a conventional deployment pattern will require large numbers of sites to be provisioned within a short time. Vodafone UK, for instance, said it would switch on 1,000 5G sites by 2020, starting with trials in seven cities from next month, and then starting commercial services in 2019, including in rural areas of Cornwall and the Lake District in Cumbria. And T-Mobile USA would need to deploy 38,000 cell sites by 2021, entailing an increase in network…