Only weeks after the first Small Cell World Summit in Latin America, the roadshow moves to Asia, with the SCWS event in Singapore from April 12-13. If the LATAM event highlighted huge growth potential, Asia-Pacific is the engine of the small cell industry.

 Everything in this region is about superlatives. Asia dominates shipments (68% of the total last year, according to IHS) while China alone accounted for more than 10% of cells deployed last year (Mobile Experts). The biggest roll-outs are in this area – Reliance Jio implemented 30,000 small cells in the space of nine months, China Mobile could reach five million in the coming couple of years.

Asia drives scale and diversity into the sector and is also a hotbed for innovative technologies and business cases, so the Singapore conference will be the place to see the latest exciting developments and learn about the Forum’s latest activities in Asia. CEO Sue Monahan will set out the regional agenda and the impact of current projects like the HetNet Release.

 Many of the Forum’s key areas of interest are reflected in the packed two-day agenda. There will be a wide range of operator case studies and discussions, from companies as diverse as SingTel, Reliance Communications, NTT Docomo and Thaicom. The urgent need for new sources of spectrum for dense networks will be reflected in presentations from regulators and from the Singapore White Spaces Pilot Group. And technical advances, which will help improve the business case going forward, will be on display, from Telekom Malaysia R&D’s radio-over-fiber convergence solution to LightNet, a macro/small cell integration architecture under development at China Unicom.

There are huge challenges to address in this region, and they vary significantly between different countries. South Korea, with the world’s greatest mobile broadband density and usage, is continually seeking cost-effective ways to boost capacity still further. India has rapidly growing mobile usage, since in many areas there are few fixed broadband links, but operators are severely spectrum-limited. Singapore itself talks not just about smart cities but an entire smart nation. Meanwhile, enterprises across the region need better in-building coverage, with 45% saying their business is affected by this issue, according to a study by Nemertes.

 Small cells are vital to address all these very different challenges and they will take an increasingly important role in mobile operators’ strategies in Asia, as in any area where the dense HetNet will be the only way to keep pace with demand for mobile capacity while supporting sound economics and new revenues for operators.

SCWS Asia will be an invaluable place to learn more about the way carriers are planning for those developments, in the world’s most mobile region. And it will be a great chance to catch up with the Small Cell Forum’s latest activities, including its HetNet program and its regional projects. SCF will also host a workshop on Monday 11 April, the day before the conference begins, to debate and discuss what’s in store for small cell technology in the future. The workshop also features deployment case studies from some of the leading vendors and operators in the ecosystem. Book your place here>>

See you in Singapore!