Size matters: the value of small cells
In the run up to the Asia LTE conference in September, we speak to Dr Shahram G Niri, director of global LTE/SAE strategy & solution at NEC Europe and visiting professor at the University of Surrey.
A growth in markets with multiple femtocell offerings is driving operators to offer the products for free, according to a new study from Informa Telecoms & Media. Femtocell services are currently available in 23 countries around the world, and 43 per cent of these countries have multiple operators offering the technology, the firm said. For the majority of these countries, at least one operator offers the devices free of charge.
Small cells promise to boost capacity and throughput in areas of high usage more cheaply than macro cell deployments, while allowing more efficient use of spectrum than macros, and providing improved coverage at the cell edge and indoors. Bringing the radio signal closer to the user should also help to improve device battery life.
In the run up to the Asia LTE conference in September, we speak to Dr Shahram G Niri, director of global LTE/SAE strategy & solution at NEC Europe and visiting professor at the University of Surrey.

With mobile data traffic expected to double annually, small cell base stations are set to play an important role in expanding the capacity of wireless networks. Mobile operators are realizing that to meet the demands for data, video and application access caused by smart phones and other devices, there is a real beauty to going small.
Informa Telecoms & Media today issued its latest femtocell market status report which revealed that there are now in excess of 2.3 million 3G femtocells globally compared to 1.6 million 3G macrocells, highlighting the growing popularity of the technology.
Ubiquisys, the femtocell vendor, has announced a partnership with chip manufacturer Intel to develop a new range of intelligent small cell base stations. The devices will feature Ubiquisys application software and will be powered by Intel architecture.
IP networking firm RadiSys has acquired traffic management specialist Continuous Computing, to better target opportunities in the rapidly growing 3G and 4G, femtocell and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) sectors.

Informa’s Wi-Fi and femtocell research program includes a selection of best-case examples of operators in various regions that are successfully deploying these technologies. The research focuses on the commercial, marketing, pricing and positioning perspective of operators that are adopting Wi-Fi and femtocells in their core strategy.
With 18 operators now having deployed more than 1.7 million femtocells, the baby of the infrastructure sectors is finding its feet. And like all babies, it’s ready to grow, as it looks to move away from its original model of miniaturisation.