The invention relates to base stations in communication networks. In more particular the invention relates to cellular base stations such as 3G/4G and WLAN base stations. Some or all of the aforementioned advantages of the invention are accrued with a fully photonic base station (200) that powers itself with solar photons, provides radio network access and relays an optical photonic beam (220, 221, 230, 231) through air encoded with the data from radio signals of computer users and mobile phone users to the Internet and the global telecommunication network. A system engineer can build a network with the inventive base stations in a matter of days. He simply walks to the roof of houses and points the optical beams to other base stations in adjacent houses.