In August last year we reviewed the 5G Myth, a book questioning the rationale behind 5G. In recent weeks I’ve read several journalists and analysts reinforce that line of reasoning, asking which flavour of 5G would be deployed, and based on what business case.
It’s been a couple of years since we specifically reviewed the status of Small Cell adoption in China. Time to revisit and look at how the industry has moved on in that time. The scale of the operation and high adoption levels of 4G are substantial. While residential small cells haven't taken off, there is renewed interest for in-building systems for medium to large sized buildings.
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.
February’s OpenSignal report ranks coverage and capacity across many countries. It included several surprises alongside general trends although doesn’t tell the whole story. We dig deeper for some insights.
5G dominated this year’s event, where major operators and vendors vied for position as the fastest, most prepared and technically advanced. A variety of 4G technology was also on display, from Gigabit LTE to MIMO antennas, and this is where most of the immediate investment is going. Virtual Reality demos and games were again popular attractions. We delved behind the hype to assess and digest what's really going on.
Like most analysts, my “dance card”/schedule is filling up with prearranged meetings, my inbox is filling up with press releases and my phone is ringing with calls about all sorts of new developments. If you plan to attend Mobile World Congress yourself, or just monitor remotely, here are a few high level areas to keep in mind from a Small Cell perspective.
Over the past year, LAA development has quietly matured with several commercial network launches around the world. Offering superfast Gigabit data rates, the technology is ready to be rolled out in-building. We review the current state of the ecosystem and share some insights from SpiderCloud who have been an early pioneer of the technology.
Our recent case study of the City of London highlighted how urban small cells deployed at street level are becoming a viable solution for busy metropolitan areas. Nokia have also been active in New York and other US cities, where densification is essential to maintain high performance and customer satisfaction. We review a Nokia case study for a major US network.
There is a promised nirvana from installing a single set of CBRS small cells in a building where everybody can seamlessly access cellular service at much higher performance and lower cost. But this involves sharing the available capacity. We explore four different options to achieve that and discuss some of the implications.
A significant number of users continue to report poor mobile coverage in their homes. There will always be areas which are uneconomic for mobile operator to reach. They range from rural areas
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The term Enterprise addresses any non-residential in-building including hotels, convention centres, transport hubs, offices, hospitals and retail outlets. It's not just intended for businesses to
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Urban small cells (sometimes also named metrocells) are compact and discrete mobile phone basestations, unobstrusively located in urban areas. They can be mounted on lampposts, positioned on the
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A rural small cell is a low power mobile phone base station designed to bring mobile phone service to small pockets of population in remote rural areas. These could be hamlets, small villages or
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