While much industry attention is focussed on 5G, we take another quick progress check on CBRS, the pioneering cellular project soon to launch across the USA. We spoke with Iyad Tarazi, President and CEO of Federated Wireless who shares his insights on current progress and several exciting recent developments.

Ruckus Networks are perhaps best known for Enterprise Wi-Fi, but have been an enthusiastic supporter of the CBRS initiative from the outset. We spoke with Joel Lindholm, VP LTE Business at Ruckus Networks, (an ARRIS company), to ask how their customers perceive CBRS, what use cases attract the greatest interest and how the rollout might play out over the coming year.

We spoke with Chris Stark, Chairman of the CBRS Alliance, for an update on the progress that CBRS (and its brand name OnGo) have been making. He is optimistic that initial commercial deployment will be live before year end. Recent FCC filings by the SAS providers apply throughout more than 47 states, covering both indoor and outdoor solutions.

Federated Wireless focuses on the Spectrum Allocation Server (SAS) element of CBRS but has been very influential in the evolving wider ecosystem. We spoke with their CEO last year on their plans, and now catch up with their Vice President, Products & Marketing Rajeev Shah. He outlined the current state of CBRS, explained each market segment and highlighted what to expect in the coming months.

Nokia have been making great strides with Small Cell deployment in recent years, both indoors and out. I caught up with Stephane Daeuble, Senior Product Marketer for Nokia Small Cells. In addition to growing take-up of indoor and outdoor small cells by traditional operators, he foresees the next pocket of growth for Small Cells expanding into Private LTE for vertical markets.

Last month saw the Small Cell Forum issue yet another tranche of documentation and celebrated it's own 10 year anniversary. We asked David Orloff, Chairman for the past year, what to expect from the organisation in the future. He’s looking 10 years out towards a time with extensive 4G and 5G densification, strong industry collaboration through partnerships and substantial small cell take-up.

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.

Iyad Tarazi, CEO of Federated Wireless, knows a thing or two about Small Cells. In 2007 when at Sprint, he launched the world’s first residential femtocell service (Airave) that has seen millions of units deployed throughout the US. He explained to me how he has helped shape the CBRS ecosystem, what part Federated Wireless plays in it, and predicts the timeline for deployment.

Although there’s no fixed term, the chair of Small Cell Forum changes from time to time. This month, David Orloff of AT&T steps up to the role. He shared his view of the Small Cell landscape, his vision of how Small Cell Forum will address it, and what we should expect to see from them in the years ahead.

MulteFire is a scheme to operate LTE in unlicensed spectrum. Potentially anyone could install and operate a system in a very similar way to Wi-Fi. We asked Stephan Litjens, Chairman of the newly formed MulteFire Alliance and Head of Innovation Steering, Nokia, to explain the purpose, method and timeline of the solution. He’s confident we’ll see commercial deployment in about a year from now.