Light Reading - AT&T Has LTE Small Cells 'in the Lab'
AT&T's HSPA+ metrocells are getting ready for nationwide prime time, with the operator testing combo LTE/3G & Wi-Fi units in the lab
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ThinkSmallCell Interview with Jared Headley, Cisco, about the Ubiquisys Acquisition
Read Full ArticleCisco has just announced their intention to buy Ubiquisys for $310M. We spoke with Jared Headley, Director of Service Provider Mobility at Cisco, to establish why they made the purchase, what will happen to Ubiquisys staff, and how Cisco will take this forward. He revealed some of the unique capabilities they valued most within Ubiquisys, explains their go-to-market plans and highlights that it isn't just about coverage or capacity.
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Cisco buys Ubiquisys for $310m
Read Full ArticleThe global market for small cell infrastructure, excluding micro cells, was worth $1.8bn in 2012, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. Cisco's drive into mobile networking has also included the acquisitions of Israel's Intucell for $475m and the US's
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Maravedis-Rethink Imago: Vendor rankings
Read Full ArticleThese are the first outputs from our Imago offering, which ranks vendors in various key infrastructure categories. A combination of quantitative and qualitative measures are used with different weighting for each.
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The Small Cell Forum Says: Backhaul is NOT a barrier to Small Cell Deployment
Read Full ArticleThe Small Cell Forum has just published Release One, the first in a series which aim to provide “all you need to know” packages to help operators deploy small cells, and for solution providers to understand technology trends and requirements.
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Free about to deliver femtocells to its subscribers (Translated)
Read Full ArticleUn fabricant taiwanais fait état de livraisons massives à un opérateur français pour ce début d'année. On sait que Free a l'intention d'équiper gratuitement ses abonnés de ce boîtier permettant d'améliorer le signal 3G dans les foyers.
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Small Cell Wireless Backhaul Vendor Landscape for Metrocells
Read Full ArticleSmall Cell Wireless Backhaul for Metrocells has attracted a lot of attention in recent months, with vendors launching new products, introducing new technologies and agreeing new sales channels. We've assembled a fairly comprehensive list of potential suppliers across all wireless technologies, and discuss each briefly in turn. The properties and trade-offs for each type of technology lead to a toolkit approach, using different techniques depending on the deployment scenario as summarised in this article.
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Few SMBs Use Small Cells
Read Full ArticleThat's according to a recent iGR survey last month of IT managers that found only 9 percent of SMBs say they have deployed a small cell. And the blame for the awareness gap appears to fall on wireless carriers. "Most of the SMBs have not been approached
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Metrocells need a breath of fresh air to survive
Read Full ArticleAn important part of the business case for metrocells is that they need to have a relatively long, trouble-free working life, with minimal maintenance. This leads to demands for plenty of processing power "headroom" to allow more complex software to be remotely downloaded in the future, RF front ends that can cope with either 3G or LTE, and long-life components that won't age prematurely or fail quickly.
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Interview with Esteban Monturus, Backhaul Market Analyst at Rethink-Maravedis, on Small Cell Backhaul
Read Full ArticleEsteban has been tracking small cell backhaul developments for some time. He pinpoints why and where wireless backhaul will be critical for metrocells, highlights the key factors/requirements driving the choice of technology, and reveals some technical limitations of today's products. While some people forecast that as many as 80 or 90% of outdoor metrocells will be connected by wireless backhaul, he thinks we'll see something more akin to today's macrocell split – about 55% wireless and 45% fibre. While it's true there isn't fibre everywhere, operators will use that wherever possible and install short range ...
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The technologies that will save us from the “mobile data crunch”
Read Full ArticleThe mobile explosion has meant an exponential growth in data use – and punishing traffic to our cellular networks. In the eyes of VCs, that mobile misfortune spells opportunity.
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Wireless Capacity Crunch Answers At MWC 2013 - Mobility - Smartphones
Read Full ArticleI traveled to Mobile World Congress to learn about possible solutions to the looming mobile data capacity crunch. Meet the small cell, for starters.
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MWC 2013: Small cells – is the industry trying to run before it can walk? | News Analysis | News
Read Full ArticleAt Mobile World Congress 2013 last week, the Small Cell Forum announced its latest market status report, which revealed three key results.
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Vodafone Sure Signal stock shortages highlight what a residential femtocell is really worth
Read Full ArticleVodafone UK ran out of supplies of their latest Sure Signal femtocell last week – their latest 3rd generation model is sometimes called a femtoplug because it resembles a mains electrical plug. Their online shop posted a "currently unavailable" status on the product, and shops with stock found they were being quickly snapped up or redirected elsewhere.This led to rumours on the Vodafone forum that the service itself might be discontinued, with one customer being told by customer services that "we've had a top level instruction saying NO more Sure Signal devices are to be supplied". In practice, this ...
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Mobile World Congress 2013 - Small Cell Report
Read Full ArticlePerhaps the GSMA felt it was time to remind the industry what traffic congestion might feel like. Getting to and from the new venue for Mobile World Congress seemed to be a choice between long delays (the taxi queue), going offpeak (7am was quiet), offloading (onto buses) or compression (into tightly packed trains). The frustration of the 80,000 people was plain to see, despite valiant attempts by the organisers to handle traffic flow (a attempt at policy management) and the presence of security patrols. Even the VIP priority entrance round the back looked a bit congested to me at ...
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Small cells go large to help meet data demand
Read Full ArticleBARCELONA (Reuters) - Small cell radio equipment that boosts network coverage is providing big opportunities for telecom operators as they face growing demand for smartphone Internet access in busy streets, shopping centres and stadiums.
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Join the backhaul conversation
Read Full ArticleThis week sees the publication of the SCF white paper Backhaul Technologies for Small Cells — and yes, the timing is deliberate. This year’s Mobile World Congress has already seen increasing discussion and debate around small cell backhaul and this document aims to offer as definitive an assessment as possible of the state of play in this complex and fascinating area of small cell deployment.
Of course many of us have, for months and even years, been having conversations around the merits (or otherwise) of the technologies examined in the white paper — technologies like millimetre wave, microwave, sub-6 GHz licensed ...
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Will Africa lead the way? - Richard Deasington, Chair, Small Cell Forum Rural SiG
Read Full ArticleI admit to being excited about the potential of rural small cells. Of course SoftBank in Japan has been a pioneer in rural rollout. The operator has installed small cells in remote villages that would not normally be economic to serve, as the population and usage is too sparse to justify traditional infrastructure — but using more cost-effective small cells changes that calculation. And the same company is one of a number looking at the potential of small cells in the developing world.
But where, you may say, is the mass market? Of course, it would be unwise to overplay this ...
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Time to move out! - Richard Deasington, Chair, Small Cell Forum Rural SiG
Read Full ArticleExtending rural and remote coverage using small cells sounds like a rather counter-intuitive concept. Where is the broadband connection if you happen to be in a meadow?
And yet the business model for small cells in remote areas can be justified, although it rather depends on the area. Take backhaul. Some rural and remote small cell sites will be in locations accessible from existing operator backhaul infrastructure. Of course some won’t. Microwave or even satellite could fill the gap if the price is right.
Which brings us to not one but two recent Small Cell Forum white papers. The ...
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Small Cell Forum release programme: an essential — and exciting — initiative
Read Full ArticleTwenty-seven important documents. Seven entirely new. A major piece of work on backhaul, another on the rural business case. Plus major updates of all our significant technical work to date. And all packaged up at scf.io with a comprehensive overview of all our residential outputs available for the first time.
Why now? Well that’s easy enough to answer – we wanted to make all this available in time for MWC 2013. This is a major undertaking and we want to ensure it gets exposure to a wide audience as soon as possible. This is possibly the world’s biggest ...
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LTE: more demands, more opportunities - Jorge Marcos, SistelNetworks, Hall Congress Square, Stand CS60
Read Full ArticleGiven that our output includes both the SN4G: 4G Network Simulator and the SN40 HeNodeB: LTE Femtocell, SistelNetworks has a strong interest in discussions about the effect of LTE on small cells. However, I do think we are very much reacting to mobile operator concerns. This year in particular there is much more interest in LTE across the mobile industry but especially from the operator side
Many operators feel that LTE deployments will permit more, but more bandwidth-hungry, applications that will require much more network capacity. That capacity has to be much smarter. Operators need to put the network resources ...
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It’s about productivity - Ronny Haraldvik, SpiderCloud Wireless (Hall 2, Stand 2A130)
Read Full ArticleI’ve been going to this show for some 12 years. It is, pretty much, the only mobile operator show where operators and vendors get together and don’t just have meetings, but actually make decisions.
This year, more than anything else, multi-mode, multi-access small cells will be a key focus. However, beyond the coverage and capacity questions I think this year more decisions will be made on what else can you enable. By that I mean not just generating new services for the operators but helping SMEs to do more with mobile. If I was going to use one ...
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Cisco, Intucell make their MWC debut eyeing a bigger mobile role
Read Full ArticleCisco Systems' acquisition of network optimization vendor Intucell closed just three days before the start of this week's Mobile World Congress, great timing for a deal that is likely to play a big role in Cisco's mobile future. read more
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Small Cell Forum cranks up rollout efforts
Read Full ArticleMost operators see small cells as important, but only a few are rolling them out. According to the Small Cell Forum, which champions the technology, 98 per cent of operators think small cells are essential, but deployment has been limited to only 46 operators.
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