Small cell benefits
Commentators predict the volume of wireless data will exceed that of wired data by 2015. The question is how this enormous data capacity will be realised, while meeting customer quality of service expectations and operators’ requirements for cost-effective service delivery. The answer is a significant ramping up of small cell deployment.
The consumer case for small cells is straightforward. More and more of us want to use mobile phones wherever we are, even at home or at work when there’s a fixed line available. We also expect ubiquitous coverage on the go and innovative mobile data services with sufficient bandwidth to enjoy them.
Yet it is often the case that for operators providing full or even adequate in-building coverage is a significant challenge. It's also important for carriers to find cost-effective ways of providing coverage and capacity in dense urban areas and to rural communities.
For mobile operators, improving user experience in the home, office, or in public spaces, is essential for reducing churn and gaining marketshare and new revenues.
However, high deployment costs ensure that mobile networks rarely extend beyond the regulatory minimum.
Home
Using femtocells solves residential challenges with a device that employs power and backhaul via the user’s existing resources. It also enables capacity equivalent to a full 3G network sector at very low transmit powers, dramatically increasing battery life of existing phones, without needing to introduce WiFi enabled handsets.
Office
Small cells also make sense in many enterprise contexts, providing a simpler, low-cost alternative to traditional in-building solutions. Enterprise femtocells emable business users to take advantage of high-quality mobile services in the office, while improving coverage, accelerating data rates and significantly reducing capital costs.
Public & rural
Due to their low cost and easy deployment, small cells are also a viable and cost-effective alternative to traditional macro networks in remote rural areas with little or no terrestrial network infrastructure . Likewise in metro hotspots, operators can deploy small cells to improve local coverage, increase capacity and offload macro network traffic.
