Telecom Lead America: Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens,
Ericsson, Samsung and Huawei are likely to gain from small cell deployments by
telecom operators.
Total indoor and outdoor small cell shipment numbers will
be reaching 4.55 million by end 2013.
The inspiration for small cell deployments will be the
latest deal between Sprint and Alcatel-Lucent.
Sprint Nextel will deploy Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio
Cube Metro Cell to densify its Network Vision LTE network. Sprint plans to use
lightRadio metrocells starting in high traffic indoor areas such as
entertainment venues, transportation hubs, and business campuses.
Nick Marshall, principal analyst at ABI Research, said
this type of indoor public-access small cell will become a popular method for
operators wishing to preserve spectrum and augment the data capacity of their
networks while improving QoS in high traffic areas.
This is a significant win for Alcatel-Lucent and its
lightRadio technology, but more importantly dispels the notion of small cells
being hyped, and that heterogeneous networks represent a major shift in mobile
radio network architecture.
Korean and Japanese operators are forging ahead with
small cells both indoors and outdoors especially in public spaces. Sprint’s
announcement could spark off other operators in North America and possibly
Europe to accelerate plans for metro cell deployments.
Alcatel-Lucent has contracted with Sprint for its LTE
macro deployment and upgrade along the East Coast and Southwest. Ericsson and
Samsung are the other two vendors on the LTE Sprint Network Vision project, and
are known to be supplying macro base station equipment.
