Prestigious hotel resort complexes need to deliver 21^st Century wireless service. Neutral host provider ClearSky Technologies employed a novel technique to raise service levels for all guests and employees, regardless of which host network operator they subscribe to. Clearwater resort General Manager Paul Andrews shared his perspective on the project and what it means for his guests, employees and business.

We often hear how uncooperative municipal planners can be regarding approval for siting of urban small cells. Network operators have pushed hard at national levels to relax the rules, with success in many countries. One Californian city planner, speaking on a personal basis, provides an opposing view and cites examples where the rules have been abused and suggests ways to accelerate the process for the benefit of all.

Sometimes headline figures can be misleading. With both cellular and Wi-Fi claiming to have broken the Gigabit barrier, you might be surprised to learn that wired Gigabit Ethernet can still outperform. We clarify the terminology to ensure you are making a fair comparison. This is important when dimensioning Ethernet backhaul for Wi-Fi and small cells.

Paul Bruce, Director of Business Development at Node-H, argues that Enterprise small cell technology is technically mature and ready to be exploited. The much anticipated growth of this industry pivots on new business models, whether adopted by existing operators or by new market entrants seeking to address the special opportunities and requirements associated with in-building coverage.

50% of calls to complain about residential broadband relate to poor in-home Wi-Fi. The industry has responded with Wi-Fi access points that co-ordinate between themselves, wired or wirelessly, and many new products are coming to market. These dramatically improve performance towards that found from more costly Enterprise Wi-Fi solutions. How do these work, what do they cost and what are the longer term implications.

CBRS is a US scheme that dynamically allocates 3.5GHz spectrum on demand to anyone, such as a building owner, for their exclusive use. A similar scheme is being developed by ETSI for use in Europe in the 2.3 and 2.4GHz band. Both have huge potential for standalone or neutral host small cell networks, and incorporate strategies to avoid incumbent users being disadvantaged.

We often hear that video and virtual reality will drive huge growth in mobile data consumption. It’s a major theme for 5G. So last week I attended Virtual Reality World Congress to find out what all the fuss is about. It helped me clarify the differences in several immersive video technologies, realise that the majority of opportunities are business-related rather than purely for pleasure and that super low latency/super fast broadband aren't mandatory for all applications.

There are several competing standards for ubiquitous wireless connection of the Internet of Things, including two specific to LTE alone. Operators are actively deploying both on a nationwide basis. We summarise what these are, review their commercial status and consider the implications.