Objectives & scope
Mission
Our mission is to advance the development and adoption of small cells for the provision of high-quality 2G/3G/4G coverage and services within residential, enterprise, public and rural access markets.
Scope
Our work incorporates all small cell technology that uses licensed spectrum and is managed by a carrier. We are concerned with the multiple ways in which licensed small cells can be deployed by carriers across network architectures including metro femto, rural femto, metrocells, picocells and microcells.
In some areas we cooperate with organisations where they overlap or integrate with small cells, such as the interworking of unlicensed technologies such as Wi-Fi.
Other areas may also be represented in Small Cell Forum workstreams where they overlap with small cell technology (for example this may include HetNet, SON, Cloud RAN and DAS).
Key policies
Under the direction of our Executive Board and informed by members our key policy priorities include:
- providing an independent impartial voice for all stakeholders in the small cell sector, including vendors and operators. This is a global committment, with all this implies in the context of technology options and choices;
- developing a policy framework that encourages and drives the standardisation of key aspects of small cell technologies worldwide;
- building and maintaining dialogue with other relevant industry and official standards bodies to further small cell technologies for the benefit of residential & business consumers, the industry and Forum members;
- the promotion of such standards-based solutions across the industry and to the relevant industry standards bodies, opinion formers and the broader communications community;
- building and maintaining an eco-system that delivers the most commercial and technically efficient solutions.
This implies focus on two main areas of activity:
1. Standardisation, regulation & interoperability - The Small Cell Forum supports and drives forward the adoption of industry wide standards, regulatory enablers, common architectures and interoperability to enable the widespread adoption and deployment of femtocells by telecom operators around the world.
2. Marketing, promotion & business case - The Small Cell Forum directs and implements a multi-faceted campaign to raise the profile, drive technology development & deployment and to promote the potential of small cell solutions across the industry and to journalists, analysts, regulators, special interest groups and standards bodies.
