How much does a 4G LTE base station, Capex and Opex cost?

Opinion
1

That is a loaded questions. All of this is in USD.

Small cells can run from $2,000 and up and a macro BTS can run from $50,000 and up for the hardware only.

The thing is, that is only part of the cost.

Installation for a small cell may be another $1,000 or more, then you need to install fiber or wireless backhaul, could be another $1,000 or more and then you have the OpEx which is the monthly cost of $500 and up. You also have site acquisition which can run well over $10,000 for access to the site.

For a macro BTS the installation will probably be $30,000 and up. Site acquisition will run well over $20,000 per site. Backhaul installation will probably be over $5,000 a site. OpEx will be over $1,000 per month per site and the backhaul will probably be over $1,500 per month per site.

There are many variations and so much of the cost is location dependent. The specific site matters. Rooftop versus tower versus stealth.

2

How big a base station. How advanced functionality ? Plus the antennae, mast and land rights as well (for a macro cell).

Also, note that many base stations are going to be sold by a vendor as part of a bundle with services - possibly the whole network. So, the individual price as opposed to

A few years ago I know that a single LTE macro base station (but the box - not antennas, mast etc) was being offered at about USD 17000 to a defence contractor.

An individual indoor small cell might be priced at say USD 3000 depending on how powerful and the requested functionality. For this, the Opex is mainly the power, but you would need to consider the cost of connection to the core network, maintenance and software upgrades etc