The worldwide small cell market revenue is expected to grow 65 percent in 2014 to $1.3 billion from $771 million last year in 2013, said telecom market research firm Infonetics Research.
The year 2013 did not produce good result for the global small cell market.
Infonetics Research’s Small Cell Equipment market size and forecast report tracks 3G microcells, picocells, and metrocells and LTE mini eNodeBs and metrocells.
Significant small cell deployment did not happen in 2013. Testing activity remained solid, but actual deployments were modest. Small cell revenue was just $771 million last year, a sharp contrast to the $24 billion 2G/3G RAN market.
The need to enhance existing saturated macrocellular networks that are struggling to maintain a decent mobile broadband experience, as well as to add capacity to existing LTE networks, will be the growth drivers this year.
Infonetics Research said as mobile operators have to approach a critical mass of data traffic before small cells even become a consideration, developed countries such as Japan, South Korea, the UK and US are driving early adoption.
Small cell shipments increased 143 percent in 2013 to 642,000 cell units; over half of these units are of the 3G variety.
4G metrocells will close the gap with 3G, becoming the main growth engine, in 2014, said Infonetics today.
Backhaul is no longer a major inhibitor to small cell deployment, but it will remain an issue for some mobile operators due to the locations in which they operate.
5G is coming, fully loaded with small cells: NTT DOCOMO in Japan plans to have 5G commercially available in 2020, in time for the Tokyo Olympics.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com