Operators Identify Small Cell Challenges and Buildout Plans in New Infonetics Survey

CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its October 2013 Small Cell Coverage Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey, for which Infonetics interviewed wireless, incumbent, and competitive operators around the world about their small cell buildout plans.

ANALYST NOTE

“As evidenced by our latest small cell study, operators are seriously gearing up small cells for significant macrocellular network enhancements,” says Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.

“Since service providers will be adding small cells to existing macro sites in very specific parts of their networks, there’s good reason to believe the total number of small cells will surpass that of macrocell sites, but definitely not by large proportions,” continues Téral. “Operators need to look at their spectrum resources and apply them as the need for capacity increases. This means selecting the right tool in the coverage and capacity toolbox.”

SMALL CELL SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

• 83% of respondent operators have deployed small cells, an increase of 11% from Infonetics’ 2012 survey
• 78% of respondents rate “multimode” and “seamless integration with macrocellular networks” as very important small cell features
• Small cell backhaul staged a comeback as a barrier to deploying small cells in this year’s survey, but overall barriers are waning with the exception of outdoor site acquisition, which remains challenging
• Respondents don’t expect small cells to take the place of distributed antenna systems (DAS) anytime soon, instead viewing the technologies as complementary
• New alternatives to small cells like Ericsson’s Radio Dot System hold the potential to reduce the need for DAS in very specific applications such as medium and large enterprises
• A majority of survey respondents say they will definitely require self-organizing networks (SON) and coordinated multipoint (CoMP) to optimize network performance while diminishing the need for units

SMALL CELL SURVEY SYNOPSIS

For its 28-page small cell survey, Infonetics interviewed independent wireless, incumbent, and competitive operators from Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America about their small cell buildout plans. The study helps manufacturers and operators better understand the use cases for small cells, the number and types of small cells needed, frequency bands required, and best-suited architectures. To buy the survey, contact Infonetics: http://www.infonetics.com/contact.asp

RELATED RESEARCH

• Infonetics’ October Small Cells and Carrier WiFi research brief: http://bit.ly/1buxO0T
• Small cell ramp won’t happen this year
• Enterprise femtocell adoption growing; Cisco takes lead in overall femtocell market
• Infonetics survey identifies operators’ LTE deployment challenges, top LTE vendors
• 2013 is peak year for macrocell mobile deployments; Huawei gets big boost
• M2M services to hit $31 billion, M2M connections to top 4 billion by 2017
• Tight race between Huawei, Ericsson, Cisco at top of Infonetics telecom vendor scorecard
• Mobile operators reveal plans to monetize WiFi

UPCOMING MARKET FORECAST REPORTS & SURVEYS

Download Infonetics’ 2013 market research brochure, publication calendar, events brochure, report highlights, tables of contents, and more at http://www.infonetics.com/login.

• Infonetics’ 2014 Market Research Lineup
• Residential Femtocell Service Strategies and Vendor Leadership Survey
• Mobile M2M Modules
• SON and Optimization Software
• Carrier WiFi Equipment
• Service Provider Outsourcing to Vendors
• Service Provider Capex, Revenue and Capex by Equipment Type

INFONETICS WEBINARS

Visit https://www.infonetics.com/infonetics-events to register for upcoming webinars, view recent webinars on demand, or learn about sponsoring a webinar.

• Multi-Vendor Service Provisioning for NFV (Nov. 14: Sign up / learn more)
• Small Cells Reality Check (View on demand)
• The Business Rationale for M2M (View on demand)
• 5G and LTE-Advanced: What You Need to Know Now (Dec. 10: Sponsor)
• Distributed Antenna Systems: What's Next (2014: Sponsor)

TO BUY REPORTS, CONTACT:

N. America (West), Asia Pacific: Larry Howard, [e-mail], [phone]

N. America (East), Midwest, L. America: Scott Coyne, [e-mail], [phone]

EMEA, India, Singapore: George Stojsavljevic, [e-mail], [phone]

Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan: http://www.infonetics.com/contact.asp

ABOUT INFONETICS

Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete effectively. View Infonetics’ About Us slides at http://bit.ly/QUrbrV.