Small Cells crucial for future networks: Informa

A survey report conducted by Informa Telecoms & Media highlighted that mobile operators believe that small cell deployments are key to 3G data offloading and to managing LTE spectrum more efficiently compared to macrocells. According to the report, 98% of mobile operators believe small cells are essential for the future of the networks.

At present, there are 46 small-cell deployments by operators, including nine of the top 10 operators by revenue globally. The report found that 55% of the mobile operator are most interested in public access deployments over the next 12 months followed by enterprise rollouts with 35% of responses.

Almost 49% of operators said that the greatest concern surrounding outdoor metro deployments are the planning issues such as finding suitable sites, power, etc and as many as 35% of operators raised concern over backhaul challenges.

Almost all the operators believe that LTE will be the biggest technology driver for small-cell deployments over the next five years although interest in LTE-A is growing, said the report. The survey also found that Wi-Fi was deemed to be complementary to small cells with deployments of both expected to take place in parallel.

“Our research shows that operators now regard small cells as essential to the future of their networks. Furthermore, their attention over the next 12 months is centering on the public-access models which have been undergoing intense trials this year and will turn into widescale deployments in 2013 — AT&T looks set to lead this trend,” said Dimitris Mavrakis, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.

He further added, “With public deployments set to start in earnest, the next major stage in small-cell evolution surrounds the effective incorporation of Wi-Fi. Although this technology is being added to new models, there is work to be done to ensure that traffic is managed across all radio types intelligently. We're seeing this work start in the Small Cell Forum and WBA — the fact that Cisco is now building small cells incorporating Wi-Fi can only help this movement.”