Verizon's rumored demands may help explain small cell slowdown

The following article was published on Wednesday, 25 September 2013 17:00 www.thinksmallcell.com

http://blog.towerstream.com/2013/10/16/thinksmallcell-interview-with-arthur-giftakis-towerstream/

Written by David Chambers

We’ve heard a lot about Small Cell hosting services in Europe but not that much in other countries. Towerstream has been quietly building up a portfolio of suitable sites for urban outdoor metrocells across the US, and we spoke to Arthur Giftakis, VP Engineering and Operations, to learn how that came about.

His view contrasts with the street level/lightpole only deployments promoted in other countries, serves outdoor rather than indoors, and suggests wholesale Wi-Fi expanding to multi-operator cellular small cells may be the long term solution.

 

Towerstream’s Background

This US listed company (TWER:NASDAQ) was founded 10 years ago to offer fixed wireless access and has grown to serve 16 markets across the US, mostly by organic growth but also through a few acquisitions (e.g. firesales of struggling small local fixed wireless (operators). They’ve built a comprehensive wireless IP backbone which delivers anything from 1Mbps to 1Gbps for business customers, with double digit quarterly revenue growth.

They recently formed a new subsidiary company, HetNets Tower Corporation, which is similar to a tower rental business and leases space for Wi-Fi and Small Cells in urban outdoor rooftop locations.

Moving into Wholesale Wi-Fi for data offload

“As the iPhone and other smartphone traffic took off and cellular operator networks started to become capacity constrained, we looked at offering a data offload solution to alleviate their capacity issues. After trials, we settled on Ruckus Wireless as our Wi-Fi access point partner and have become a premier customer. We deployed over 200 public Wi-Fi access points across Manhattan first, and marketed the service to cellular carriers, MSOs and internet companies.

“We soon found we had a crazy number of data sessions and traffic flow, and realised this was an opportunity that could grow fast. We focused on site acquisition of rooftops suitable for both Wi-Fi and small cells – typically 2-3 storey rooftops. This has become a bit of a “landgrab” scenario, with premium properties such as at Times Square strongly in demand. We now have almost 2,000 outdoor Access Points deployed across Manhattan, and substantial deployments in Miami, Chicago and San Francisco.

“Our wireless backhaul infrastructure is a real differentiator – most of these sites don’t have fibre connections in place. We use standard 400Mbps point-to-point microwave radios from Dragonwave, Siklu and Ceragon, meaning we don’t have any real backhaul capacity issues. Each site has its own high capacity Ethernet switches, with 24 or more GigE ports equipped with PoE (Power over Ethernet) allowing us to connect virtually as many devices as we want. Each site has plenty of access, space, power and backhaul to meet our customers’ needs.

“So far, we are finding our proposition of being able to provide premier locations with backhaul available over our fixed wireless network to be fairly unique

First to achieve WBA ICP certification

“The Wi-Fi Broadband Alliance publishes standards on the technical and commercial interfaces between wholesale and retail Wi-Fi service providers. We are proud to be the one of the first to gain Interoperability Compliance Program (ICP) certification. This makes it much easier to wholesale Wi-Fi services to any operator. It’s now almost as straightforward as setting up another GSM roaming agreement – the commercial and technical procedures are all in place.

“Hotspot 2.0 and Passpoint will also make it easier and transparent for customers to connect through Service Provider Wi-Fi, which will continue to be an important component of a wider package of wireless services provided by network operators.”

Like a tower company, but for small cells

“There are several large and well known tower site businesses, such as American Tower and Crown Castle, who own many sites and physical towers across the country. Perhaps surprisingly, they have less penetration in the urban areas.

“We effectively operate like a tower company, renting space and power but also backhaul in capacity increments of 50Mbps. Our locations are suitable for small cells and Wi-Fi access points in the urban high traffic areas.”

2-3 storey rooftop sites rather than at street level

“We’ve been primarily looking at 2 to 3 storey rooftops, which form about 95% of our portfolio, with a few first floor or awnings for special situations. We have not used light poles/lampposts because of power and backhaul issues.

“Being down low at street level has advantages – the closest antenna to a device always wins – but the flip side is if you position at door height, you would have a much smaller coverage footprint. We’ve found that by using Ruckus Wireless and taking advantage of their smart antenna technology using beam forming, we can achieve a larger Wi-Fi coverage outdoors of up to 300-400 feet radius even in very noisy RF environments. These APs handle noise very well, reacting to interference and adapt easily to a 2nd storey rooftop building location.

“By contrast, we’ve found some street level locations can become temporarily blocked by trucks parking etc.”

“Initial research with our partners indicates that LTE small cells would be positioned on the rooftops with antennas tilted down to avoid macrocell interference.

“We expect each of our sites to evolve to host multiple small cells from different operators, serving both 3G and LTE. Some of these cells may have an external antenna, and there’s plenty of space to support either multiple or shared small antennas on the roofline.

“So far, we’ve not seen much interest in 3G small cells – here in the US, requirements are for LTE and possibly dual-mode Wi-Fi/LTE products.

“Timing and sync will be important for LTE and is commonly provided using GPS. However even in outdoor Manhattan, you are often limited to a sky view of only two satellites which can become a challenge in some locations.”

Carrying outdoor rather than indoor traffic

“Building construction materials and higher frequencies used for Wi-Fi and cellular make it more difficult to penetrate signals into buildings from outdoors.

“Today, a large number of macrocells deployed in downtown Manhattan are pointing into skyscraper buildings to serve traffic indoors. This isn’t sustainable, and we’d expect more indoor capacity to be installed in the future. One method involves the latest 5GHz Wi-Fi frequency band, which rarely leaks out from modern buildings, reducing interference and allowing frequency reuse both inside and outside.

“Our approach is to provide capacity outdoors in the street and we do not attempt to penetrate inside buildings from our outdoor deployments.”

Visit www.thinksmallcell.com for more info.

Small cell ramp won’t happen this year

http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2013/1H13-Small-Cell-Equipment-Market-Highlights.asp Campbell, CALIFORNIA, October 4, 2013—Telecom market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest Small Cell Equipment market size and forecast report, which tracks 3G microcells, picocells, and metrocells and 4G LTE mini eNodeBs and metrocells. ANALYST NOTES “The large service providers remain committed to their small cell deployment plans, but the pace of deployment is much slower than expected due to a sad reality: Small cell and macrocell rollouts share nothing in common,” explains Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research. Téral continues: “Each technology requires its own internal business processes, which have been in place for decades with macrocells but have to be built from the ground up for small cells taking into consideration things like footfall, building dimensions, backhaul availability, and wireless technology. There is no cookie-cutter template for small cell deployments!” Co-author of the report Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave and carrier WiFi at Infonetics, adds: “Given that service providers are in the process of retooling their plan of attack, we’re not expecting the small cell ramp to happen in 2013.” SMALL CELL MARKET HIGHLIGHTS Operators’ chief purpose for deploying small cells is to complement and enhance the macrocell layer from a capacity standpoint, to enrich the mobile broadband experience Beginning in 2014, 4G metrocells will become the main growth engine in the small cell market, driven by in-building deployments in retail malls, stadiums, transportation stations, hotels, and event venues Asia Pacific is where the action is and where it will stay through 2017: The largest macrocell network density, with more than 100,000-site footprints, can be found in China, Japan, and South Korea Infonetics forecasts the global small cell market to grow to $2.4 billion by 2017

Verizon makes a foursome for NYC subway DAS

August 21, 2013 |

Read more: Verizon makes a foursome for NYC subway DAS - FierceBroadbandWireless http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/verizon-makes-foursome-nyc-subway-das/2013-08-21#ixzz2cjtp9300

Click here for Transit Wireless' video.

Transit was formed specifically to respond to the Metropolitan Transit Authority's requirement to provide a shared wireless infrastructure to enable commercial wireless services for the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) riders within 277 underground subway stations. In addition to delivering wireless services to subways travelers, Transit envisions the DAS enabling localized business promotion and providing a backbone for digital advertising to New York's more than 1.6 billion annual subway riders.

The company's subway DAS buildout will be completed in seven phases, which are slated for ultimate completion by April 2017. Phase two of Transit's DAS project, which will comprise 40 new stations including Grand Central Station, is slated for completion in early 2014.

In April, Transit announced that its neutral-host DAS had already signed as anchor tenants AT&T (NYSE:T) and T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS). Sprint (NYSE:S) signed on last month. Boingo Wireless is also using Transit's DAS to expand its sponsored Wi-Fi hotspot offering within the New York City subway system.

Read more: Verizon makes a foursome for NYC subway DAS - FierceBroadbandWireless http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/verizon-makes-foursome-nyc-subway-das/2013-08-21#ixzz2cjtgTRUL


Moody's: Sprint, AT&T LTE rollouts will boost tower companies

August 21, 2013

Read more: Moody's: Sprint, AT&T LTE rollouts will boost tower companies - FierceBroadbandWireless http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/moodys-sprint-att-lte-rollouts-will-boost-tower-companies/2013-08-21#ixzz2cjsdIIsy

Both Sprint (NYSE:S) and AT&T (NYSE:T) are expected to deploy LTE on thousands of additional cell tower sites, including sites gained through acquisitions and subsequently repurposed, which will lift the bottom lines of independent tower companies, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

The ratings agency pointed to Sprint's recent announcement that it will launch a nationwide TD-LTE network using 2.5 GHz spectrum from its now wholly owned subsidiary Clearwire. Due to the weak propagation characteristics of that high-band spectrum, Sprint said it will need to deploy more sites beyond the 38,000 Network Vision sites that it has already mapped out.

Sprint's strategy should benefit independent tower companies such as American Tower, Crown Castle International and SBA Communications, Moody's said. It predicted each will enjoy a boost in EBITDA during 2014 due to Sprint's actions.

"We expect that Sprint will repurpose the Clearwire tower sites and add an estimated 15,000 to 18,000 cell tower sites, which will generate increased leasing revenue that the carrier pays to the tower companies," says Gregory Fraser, Moody's vice president-senior analyst. "These new tower sites will replace the 16,500 Clearwire sites scheduled to be decommissioned and will therefore eliminate the risk that lost rent from those towers would not be replaced with new rental revenue."

Moody's assessment echoes an earlier research note issued by New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin, who predicted Sprint's total cell site count will increase to somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 sites, more than offsetting disconnects of old Clearwire sites.

Moody's also said that once AT&T acquires Leap Wireless (NASDAQ:LEAP), it "may take similar steps to those of Sprint," which will likewise benefit independent tower firms. AT&T is expected to further its LTE deployment by taking advantage of Leap's underutilized spectrum on roughly 15,000 to 20,000 sites, including the 9,700 leased sites AT&T will gain through buying the regional carrier.

AT&T announced on July 12 that it intends to pay $1.2 billion for Leap. The deal is expected to close in the next six to nine months.

Yesterday, AT&T disclosed the names of 50 additional markets where it intends to deploy LTE by year's end, bringing its total LTE coverage to more than 400 markets and nearly 270 million POPs. The operator already provides LTE coverage to more than 370 markets with 225 million POPs.

In November 2012, AT&T announced Project Velocity IP (or Project VIP), through which it will expand its LTE network to 300 million covered POPs by the end of 2014 and deploy more than 10,000 new macrocells, 40,000 small cells and 1,000 distributed antenna systems (DAS) throughout its network.

For more:

Related articles:

Posted By Elizabeth Carney On August 6, 2013 @ 6:25 pm

In Elizabeth Carney,Energy,Internet,Mobile Technology,Technology Stocks,Telecom |

If you’re looking for a relentless technology growth trend, look no further than the mobile revolution.

We’ve covered it many times before, and some of the forecasts are mind-boggling. For example…

By 2015, an estimated 15 billion mobile devices will be in use worldwide. That’s two devices for every man, woman and child.

There are, of course, implications to such rapid growth.

With so many more devices connected to the web, data usage is going to explode.

In fact, it’s already happening…

We already created 2.8 zettabytes (a zettabyte is one quadrillion gigabytes) of digital data in 2012, according to research firm, IDC. To put that in perspective, the entire world wide web totaled 0.5 zettabytes as recently as 2009.

As more phones, tablets, cars and even watches go online, how the heck are we going to handle all this data generation?

Some have suggested auctioning off bandwidth to the highest bidder. But a better solution may be to explore lesser-known parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Specifically, the rarely used terahertz (THz) frequency might be the answer. That’s because there’s 30 times more bandwidth available in the THz region than in the entire allocated radio spectrum.

Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Leeds and University College London were recently granted nearly $10 million to explore the commercial viability of the terahertz frequency. Says Program Director, Alwyn Seeds, “This program will enable us to address the THz spectrum with the same precision and sensitivity as is possible with radio frequencies, leading to this underused part of the electromagnetic spectrum finally achieving its full scientific and commercial potential.”

A lofty goal, indeed.

But there are other advantages to “T-Rays,” as they’re known.

For a start, unlike X-rays, they don’t appear to be harmful to human tissue. And they boast a range of applications – from homeland security (for example, the millimeter wave body scanners used in airports rely on T-Rays), to medical scanning, to detecting fake art.

T-Rays are also making an appearance in law enforcement. Because they can penetrate long distances, a T-Ray scanner can quickly sweep a crowd for guns or explosive chemicals and penetrate walls during sting operations. The NYPD has already deployed a “multimillion dollar” version of the scanner mounted on a truck. The scanner comes from British security company, Digital Barriers (DGB.L ^[2]).

In addition, IBM (IBM ^[4]) has developed a stable microchip the size of a penny in the THz spectrum. Such a breakthrough means that current terahertz uses could get much smaller in scale. So those intimidating scanners at airports could be transformed into a wand. A chip this size could also make its way into smartphones several years from now.

As the technology matures, the researchers believe InfraStructs could be used for a range of other applications. For example, keeping track of inventory, enabling systems to sense objects (even if they’re stacked or hidden from view), helping robots to recognize and differentiate between objects, or encoding information into custom gaming accessories.

There are a few drawbacks with tapping the terahertz frequency, however. Namely, the current machinery is quite bulky and uses a sizeable amount of power. That’s why the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research is looking to graphene as a conducting material. As I explained recently, graphene is a great conductor of both electricity and heat ^[7]. And despite being ultra-light, it’s also the strongest material on Earth – and its super-strong properties make it an excellent contender for efficiently harnessing T-Rays.

Ultimately, though, T-Rays could rapidly replace X-rays. No more fear over X-ray exposure at the airport. No more lead drape at the dentist’s office. In fact, those two reasons alone might be reason enough to embrace the terahertz spectrum!

Ahead of the tape,

Elizabeth Carney

Article printed from Tech & Innovation Daily: http://www.techandinnovationdaily.com

URL to article: http://www.techandinnovationdaily.com/2013/08/06/digital-data-t-rays/

Read more: AT&T hints at big news to be announced July 16 - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-hints-big-news-be-announced-july-16/2013-07-10#ixzz2YqUqArFB

AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) notified members of the media yesterday that it will be announcing news on July 16. The email teaser invited us to "Get ready for what's next in wireless" on July 16 and included a bunch of testimonials about the company's LTE network.

Although there was little detail about what the July 16 announcement will entail, an AT&T spokesman said the company will not be hosting an event, just making an announcement. Because of the testimonials about AT&T's network, it's likely the news will involve the operator's network. AT&T has said it will deploy LTE Advanced this year and carrier aggregation, which is one component of LTE Advanced, is top-of-mind for the company.

In an interview late last year, Kris Rinne, executive vice president of network technology at AT&T Labs, said the company will first deploy carrier aggregation in the 700 MHz and AWS spectrum and then in the 700 MHz and 1900 MHz.

Of course, AT&T isn't the only U.S. operator moving to LTE Advanced. Last month, Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) announced that its LTE network is now "substantially" complete, covering more than 99 percent of its 3G footprint. In addition, the company's chief network officer, Nicola Palmer, confidently said Verizon will lead in LTE Advanced and will likely deploy carrier aggregation "where we need it and when we need it."

Read more: AT&T hints at big news to be announced July 16 - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-hints-big-news-be-announced-july-16/2013-07-10#ixzz2YqUjsX00

Frontier, FairPoint, others find new wholesale life with wireless backhaul

July 9, 2013

Like the top four wireline telcos, the differences between members of this segment vary widely in terms of size and focus.

The largest Tier 2 telcos, Frontier (Nasdaq: FTR) and FairPoint (Nasdaq: FRP), have launched aggressive wireless backhaul network expansions that span multiple states.

FairPoint announced it would bring fiber and Ethernet services to about 1,800 towers in its New England footprint, while simultaneously expanding its retail and wholesale Ethernet capabilities into other areas including Boston.

Likewise, Frontier provides backhaul services in the 27 states it serves. With the integration of the Verizon wireline assets it purchased in 2010 completed, the telco last year began expanding its backhaul capabilities to support 100 Mbps and future demands for 500 Mbps. 

Then, there are smaller telcos such as Shenandoah Telecommunications (Nasdaq: SHEN) and Hawaiian Telcom (Nasdaq: HCOM). Shentel mainly provides backhaul to its own wireless network and other tower companies over its fiber network in Virginia and West Virginia, while Hawaiian Telcom provides services on the Hawaiian Islands.

In the second installment of our four-part FTTT series, we examine how the top seven independent ILECs are tackling the wireless backhaul opportunity and the unique challenges they face. 

Also, check out the first report in our wireless backhaul series: AT&T, Verizon, others hone their wireless backhaul skills.

Read more: Frontier, FairPoint, others find new wholesale life with wireless backhaul - FierceTelecom http://www.fiercetelecom.com/special-reports/frontier-fairpoint-others-find-new-wholesale-life-wireless-backhaul#ixzz2YZwPThNg


Report: Cable companies will deploy 250,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by mid-2014

July 8, 2013 | By Sue Marek

Cable MSOs are planning a big push into the Wi-Fi space as a way to extend their broadband footprint and add more value to their cable packages. According to a research report from Heavy Reading, U.S. cable firms will deploy more than 250,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by mid-2014, an increase of more than 60 percent on the current installed base.

According to Heavy Reading, the cable industry has already spent more than $175 million in deploying Wi-Fi hotspots, and that will likely double to $350 million by mid-2014. Currently, the cable companies have deployed about 174,000 Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the United States, which is up from the 150,000-plus hotspots deployed by the members of the CableWiFi roaming alliance, which includes Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox  Communications, Cablevision and Bright House Networks.

The cable industry's aggressive movement into Wi-Fi isn't surprising. Over the past few months, major cable companies like Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Cox have all made announcements about plans to deploy Wi-Fi in their service areas.

For wireless operators, the cable industry's growing Wi-Fi footprint could be used for Wi-Fi offloading. However, some believe that the cable industry's widespread deployment of Wi-Fi networks coupled with new roaming technologies could disrupt the current wireless marketplace.

Last month, Jefferies analyst Thomas Seitz wrote in a research note that he believes the cable industry will enter the wireless market in a disruptive, Wi-Fi/MVNO manner. These efforts, he said, coupled with Passpoint Hotspot 2.0 technology that supports cellular-Wi-Fi roaming, could allow cable companies to cut into a wireless industry currently dominated by the likes of AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) as early as next year.

Read more: Report: Cable companies will deploy 250,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by mid-2014 - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/report-cable-companies-will-deploy-250000-wi-fi-hotspots-mid-2014/2013-07-08#ixzz2YaAwcd5T

If you thought U.S. cable operators had already deployed lots of Wi-Fi hotspots, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

That's one of the conclusions of a recent report from Heavy Reading, which predicts that cable hotspot growth will continue apace as MSOs scramble to extend their broadband networks wirelessly, add more value to their cable packages and guard against potential encroachment by over-the-top (OTT) video players.

The Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider report, From Wired to Wireless: Cable Uses Wi-Fi to Extend Its Reach, projects that the U.S. cable industry will deploy more than 250,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by mid-2014, an increase of more than 60 percent on the current installed base.

The report also estimates that the cable industry has already sunk more than $175 million in capital expenditures into deploying Wi-Fi hotspots during the past couple of years. Heavy Reading expects that total to double to more than $350 million by mid-2014 as the deployment pace picks up further.

"Wi-Fi has given cable a vital entry point into wireless," said Craig Leddy, a Heavy Reading contributing analyst who authored the report, in an emailed response to questions. "We found that the major MSOs are aggressively deploying hotspots and we expect that their role in wireless will continue to grow. For wired service providers, wireless has become an imperative."

Indeed, just in the past month, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications have all announced aggressive new deployments of Wi-Fi in their service territories.

In the latest instance, Time Warner said it will install 10,000 hotspots throughout its New York City service area by the end of the year, up from about 2,000 hotspots now.

As a result, cable operators have now deployed more than 174,000 hotspots throughout the U.S., according to the latest data tracked by Heavy Reading. That's up noticeably from the 150,000-plus hotspots that the five big MSO members of the CableWiFi roaming alliance -- Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Cablevision Systems and Bright House Networks -- reported at the Cable Show in Washington, D.C. just last month.

Cablevision leads the way with more than 80,000 hotspots deployed in the greater New York metro area. Comcast, which recently unveiled plans to convert wireless modem gateways in its customers' homes into Wi-Fi "neighborhood" hotspots, follows with more than 58,000 hotspots rolled out throughout its Northeastern, mid-Atlantic, Atlanta, Chicago and California markets. (See Comcast Turns Homes into Hotspots.)

The Heavy Reading report also points out, however, that cable operators face numerous technical and operational challenges in extending their Wi-Fi reach further. These challenges include quality of service, scalability and security, with service quality probably topping the list.

"Wi-Fi is an unlicensed, best-effort technology that faces traffic congestion and quality issues as public hotspots multiply," Leddy said. "So the nightmare for cable operators is if they roll out hotspots, promote mobile broadband and out-of-home video capabilities and then the Wi-Fi service just downright sucks [and] customers can't get access."

In addition, Leddy finds fault with the five big cable partners for not doing more to take advantage of their CableWiFi cross-MSO roaming capability so far. For example, he noted, although CableWiFi is available across the New York and Los Angeles areas, few cable broadband customers are actually aware of it yet. "The MSOs need to combine more hotspots and do more promotion to raise awareness of CableWiFi," he said.

Bur Leddy expects that situation to improve as such technological enhancements as HotSpot 2.0 and other emerging Wi-Fi capabilities are implemented, enabling more seamless roaming across wireless networks. "Then you might see MSOs pay more attention to promoting CableWiFi as a metropolitan, regional or even nationwide service," he said.

Although they now mostly offer Wi-Fi service for free, Leddy also believes that cable operators have the opportunity to generate revenues from the service. He said MSOs have the potential to sell daily service to non-cable customers, upsell high-speed Internet tiers and add revenue-producing business apps and services. In addition, he sees financial promise in MSOs offloading smartphone data traffic onto their Wi-Fi networks, much as they already do with cellular backhaul traffic.


Time is right for Wi-Fi integration

June 24, 2013

http://www.telecomasia.net/content/time-right-wi-fi-integration

 

The theory is simple. Embedding Wi-Fi into a heterogeneous network allows operators to use the network in conjunction with 3G and 4G networks. The network steers consumers to the best radio access technology available based on real-time analysis of traffic

While the ability to smoothly move subscribers between radio access technologies is one clear benefit of Wi-Fi integration, it is not the only one. Mobile operators can also use the technology to boost coverage in areas where their cellular networks are weak, such as indoors.

Andres Torres, strategic marketing manager for South East Asia and Oceania at Ericsson, notes the low output power of Wi-Fi equipment, combined with its use of the 5-GHz frequency, offers hundreds of MHz of additional spectrum, making Wi-Fi “a perfect technology to use for both indoor and outdoor short range deployments.” He also notes that a growing number of devices now incorporate Wi-Fi chips, providing operators with additional subscriber opportunities beyond the obvious smartphones and tablets.

The growing availability of devices can only add to the current surge in demand for mobile data. Ericsson’s annual Mobility Report, published early June, shows mobile data traffic hit just under 1,600 petabytes in 1Q13, double that of 1Q12, and predicts traffic of at least 10 exabytes per month in 2017 – the majority of which will be video traffic.

Jake Saunders, vice president and practice director for core forecasting at ABI Research, says mobile operators have several options to handle the growing data traffic, however, he notes that by end 1Q13 “only a handful” had committed to a small-cell strategy incorporating Wi-Fi hotspots and 4G LTE base stations. Those carriers are mostly based in Asia Pacific, with Softbank, NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom, and KT among those pursuing a “comprehensive small cell strategy”.

Informa Telecoms & Media principal analyst, Dimitris Mavrakis, adds Vodafone UK to the list, noting the firm began trialing small cells combining 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi in March. He predicts public access small cells in busy urban areas will become “one of the defining mobile network trends in the coming years,” and that vendors that succeed in the market “are going to win the lion’s share of small cell revenues”.

Recent research by firm for the Small Cell Forum shows the number of installed small cell units now stands at close to 11 million, and forecasts the number will hit 92 million in 2016. It also tips the value of the small cell market to hit $22 billion by 2016.

Wi-Fi integration offers the potential to match consumer’s expectations of broadband access. The public’s habits have been formed in the all-you-can-eat world of fixed internet, meaning they expect the same level of service on mobile networks. Ericsson’s Torres said developments including Hotspot 2.0 – a new WFA Wi-Fi device standard designed to simplify discovery of, and access to, the networks – and SIM authentication are aiding Wi-Fi’s cause, with the latter making verification on Wi-Fi networks “as simple and secure as it is on current 3GPP (mobile) networks”.

While Hotspot 2.0 goes some way to addressing Wi-Fi integration, Torres argues that the standard alone can’t offer carriers the same ability to control radio access technology selection as embedding Wi-Fi, because the new standard can’t cope with the rapid changes smartphones can need to make in access technology.

“The network is the entity that should be making this [access] decision by steering the traffic to the most appropriate radio technology, based on the network’s underlying knowledge of performance across different connectivity alternatives at any given time. This makes much more sense as the network knows both the situation on the cellular side and the Wi-Fi side and also has information about user subscriptions, services and location.

“What is important with the network-centric approach is that it is handled by the operator’s RAN.”

Torres says Ericsson’s approach is different to that of other vendors, because it advocates putting the network in control of steering mobile data traffic, rather than end-user devices. Indeed, the vendor claims to be the only firm supplying real-time steering of traffic on cellular networks with integrated Wi-Fi.

Carriers’ integration efforts may well be boosted by the 3GPP’s recent standardization of the S2a-GTP based interface for anchoring IP addresses in the core network. Operators that have already invested in the standard can utilize it for Wi-Fi users, meaning subscribers’ devices don’t need to acquire a new IP address when they switch access technology.

The main benefit of integrating Wi-Fi into cellular networks is improving network performance. A recent study from Ericsson reveals that 30% of smartphone users experience problems daily when web browsing or using apps. The figure doubles when measured on a weekly basis.

 

Network performance is one of the drivers of loyalty for a mobile operator, according to the firm’s research, and improving the quality can have twice the impact on loyalty compared to improving areas such as customer support.

 

Improved loyalty will have obvious benefits on subscriber churn, but integrated Wi-Fi has more to offer.

Carriers can offer multiple business models by uses virtual access points, which enable a single physical access point to provide several secure and independent branded Wi-Fi services to subscribers. Those can also be offered to other network operators and businesses as a managed service. The management element also opens the door to providing services to large venues or for special events, based on a fixed fee, a consumption based tariff, or even sponsorship deals.

Other options for mobile operators include packaging Wi-Fi access into subscription bundles, and selling wholesale access to other carriers, or local authorities seeking to offer Wi-Fi hotspots.

 

Future developments

In addition to Hotspot 2.0 and S2a-GTP, the 3GPP is also working to expand current Access Network Detection and Selection Function (ANDSF) capabilities to Wi-Fi. ANDSF is a commonly deployed core network policy enforcement tool, so the goal is to extend it to cover devices accessing Wi-Fi networks by enabling the network to distribute policies to end-user equipment.

Torres says Ericsson has demonstrated ANDSF at the Mobile World Congress 2013 last February and predicts the first compatible devices will appear in 2014. Despite conceding the standardization efforts will improve the overall performance of Wi-Fi networks, Torres does not believe they are an instant cure. He notes that because user connectivity isn’t qualified in real time, carriers with LTE and Wi-Fi may see most users sitting on the latter network even if the cellular network is empty.

A proliferation of free public hotspots in places including cafes, bars and airports means consumers have come to expect the service to cost nothing, meaning operators may struggle to monetize a Wi-Fi loving subscriber base. It also means consumers are just as likely to enter a café or bar to enjoy free access, rather than using carriers’ 3G and 4G networks.

The standardization efforts may offer mobile carriers a key advantage over rival Wi-Fi hotspots, though, by ensuring seamless access to the networks – currently regarded as a major problem for consumers trying to access Wi-Fi alone.

Staff writer

http://gigaom.com/2013/06/04/t-mobiles-plan-to-supercharge-lte-a-whole-lot-of-antennas/

Exclusive to GigaOM: Over the next 12 months, T-Mobile USA will bolt thousands of new LTE antennas to its cell towers, utilizing a technique called 4X2 MIMO. It’s not LTE-Advanced, but it will create a faster and more resilient network.

T-Mobile USA has been talking some smack lately about how its brand-spanking-new LTE network gives it an edge over the competition. Being the last major U.S. carrier to launch LTE means T-Mobile is using the most up-to-date radio access gear and is thus better positioned to implement future LTE-Advanced techniques and other fancy next-generation network technologies.

T-Mobile, though, has been short on specifics, so far keeping mum on what particular tweaks it plans to make that will beat out its rivals. But talking to T-Mobile’s equipment vendors, GigaOM has learned some of those details of its network roadmap. The most impressive upgrade on its list is a plan to blanket its network with extra antennas in order to achieve significant performance gains.

The smart antenna technique is called 4×2 MIMO (shorthand for Multiple Input-Multiple Output) and T-Mobile will be among the first if not the first global operator to implement it. Those of you familiar with 4G probably have already heard of 2X2 MIMO, which is used in all LTE networks today. It sends the same data transmission over parallel paths from two antennas at the tower, which are then picked up by two antennas at the receiver. 4X2 MIMO actually doubles the number of antennas — and thus the number of transmission paths — at the tower while the number of antennas in the device remains the same.

In English, that means there are a lot more signals flying at your smartphone, and there will be a lot more antennas at the tower to pick up your phone’s generally weaker return signals. That increases your chance of getting a decent link at the edge of a cell’s coverage zone where connection speeds tend to trail off. 4X2 MIMO won’t increase the maximum speed of the network beyond its 50-to 75-Mbps theoretical limits, but it will ensure that customers at the fringes of the network get much better connections.

How much better? Nokia Siemens Networks North American head of technology Petri Hautakangas said that in lab trials, T-Mobile and NSN are seeing speed gains at the cell edge as high as 100 percent on the uplink and anywhere from a 50 percent to 60 percent increase in downlink bandwidth. Simple geometry means overall network gains would be big (the further the distance from the tower the more space is covered). The end result is a big boost in the real-world capacity of the cell — it can support more simultaneous connections while making more of those connections faster and more resilient.

The best news is for T-Mobile’s accountants. Implementing 4X2 MIMO on T-Mobile’s network will require simple software upgrades to Ericsson and NSN’s base stations as well the installation and the mounting of new antennas on T-Mobile’s towers – many of which are already in place. Since 4X2 MIMO is already in the baseline LTE standard, most current generation handsets will automatically support the technique.

As for timing, Hautakangas had to be a little cagey when talking about a customer’s rollout plans. “I can say that in less than 12 months we’ll have a commercial 4X2 MIMO network rolled out with a major U.S. operator,” he said during an interview. NSN has only one Tier 1 radio infrastructure customer in the U.S., and that’s T-Mobile.

I talked to T-Mobile VP of radio network engineering Mark McDiarmid, and while he wouldn’t discuss the specifics of T-Mobile’s network blueprint, he did confirm that 4X2 MIMO was one of the multiple LTE and LTE-Advanced technologies T-Mobile was considering for future use.

“We have a very good handle on what 4X2 MIMO can do for us,” McDiarmid said. “And we’re one of the few that are in a position to use it.”

As for other technologies on T-Mobile’s roadmap, both Ericsson and NSN confirmed that their network gear will support the eventual upgrade to carrier aggregation, the first of a long list of LTE-Advanced techniques (though it’s still a far cry from being LTE-Advanced ready as T-Mobile likes to claim).

Carrier aggregation bonds two disparate LTE bands together creating a super-fast connection. T-Mobile already uses carrier aggregation in its HSPA+ network, which is how it achieves 42 Mbps speeds over what is technically a 3G network.

Again McDiarmid wouldn’t comment on T-Mobile’s specific plans, but he said T-Mobile is weighing the use carrier aggregation in two ways. First, it could glue together different parts of its current LTE network in the Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) band, giving it bigger channels in markets where it doesn’t have contiguous spectrum. Second, when it launches LTE in the PCS band, it could bind together two completely separate frequency bands, creating the mother of all mobile broadband connections.

Jeb,

     With every negative, there is a positive.  Please see the highlighted lines below in yellow… As you know TWER has the ONLY carrier-grade Wi-Fi network in the country, so the CTIA show next week should probably be very interesting for them… I will be attending the show, as well as, specifically watching TWER’s CEO give his presentation on the small cell network panel.

Overland Park, KS 66223

_____________________________________________

(http://www.fiercewireless.com)

5G (and 4G improvements) likely to take center stage - CTIA 2013

By Mike Dano

Samsung's announcement this week that it is working on "5G" wireless network technology is one of the first shots across the bow in an area that will likely dominate trade show discussions for years to come: What comes after LTE? As wireless operators across the globe put the finishing touches on their LTE network deployments this year, next year and beyond, vendors like Samsung are sure to begin pushing the next, best thing.

To be clear, Samsung's technology works in the millimeter-wave Ka bands and likely won't be ready for prime time for another decade or so. But the company's announcement serves to highlight the growing interest in technologies beyond LTE.

Already in the United States, Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) expects to complete its initial LTE buildout this year. AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T), Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) and T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) are each expected to complete their own LTE buildouts in the next year or two. Thus, Tier 1 U.S. operators likely will attend CTIA next week with an eye toward improving and expanding their LTE networks and planning their next steps.

At next week's CTIA Wireless 2013 show, "I think we are going to see more talk about 5G, LTE-Beyond, or whatever label vendors are slapping on LTE-Advanced," said Daryl Schoolar, an Ovum analyst and FierceWireless contributor. "Obviously we are starting to see some movement in that area (LTE-A) with small cell deployments. However, as the U.S. is one of the leading LTE markets, I fully expect the LTE-Whatever talk to heat up."

LTE-Advanced is generally described as a collection of technologies meant to enhance LTE, and small cells have been pegged as a major element of the LTE-Advanced push. At next week's show, Radisys plans to show off its LTE-Advanced small cell solution along with live demonstrations of HD VoLTE calls and Rich Communication Services including video ringback tones, video conferencing and more. Separately, Aeroflex will be discussing its new LTE-Advanced product developments; Ceragon Networks will show off its Holistic HetNet Hauling approach to organizing the HetNet's wireless hauling requirements; and SpiderCloud will display its small cell system designed for use indoors.

The larger network players will also be on hand: Nokia Siemens Networks has a press event scheduled for Wednesday morning at the show to discuss "Making money with Mobile Broadband," while Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has promised to show off how its "vision of the future, the Networked Society, is being realized." Finally, both Qualcomm's (NASDAQ:QCOM) Peggy Johnson and Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE:ALU) Allison Cerra will participate in CTIA's Day One keynote session, starting Tuesday at 9 a.m.

Other network-focused events at the show that could generate interest include the FierceWireless "Designing Tomorrow's Wireless Network" breakfast on Tuesday morning; the CDMA Development Group's CDMA-LTE Interworking event on Tuesday afternoon; and the Tower & Small Cell Summit that runs both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ovum's Schoolar said that, aside from LTE-Advanced, carrier-grade Wi-Fi could also be a big topic at this year's CTIA show, as carriers continue to investigate Hotspot 2.0 (a technology intended to introduce the roaming and security protocols from cellular networks into the Wi-Fi realm).

Finally, Schoolar said he expects "plenty of action around network optimization and big data analytics. These topics are going to be everywhere for the next couple of years." Indeed, AirSage will be at the show to discuss how it can provide "anonymous data from more than 100 million mobile devices, which is almost 70 percent of all U.S. cellular devices." Razorsight and Ciena too plan to show off similar analytics technologies.

Per PwC 2012 N.A wireless industry survey

http://www.pwc.com/us/en/industry/communications/publications/north-american-wireless-industry-survey.jhtml

That plan was unveiled by Bill Smith, president of network operations at AT&T, on Thursday morning at the Jefferies 2013 Global Technology Media and Telecom Conference in New York City as he provided some insight into what was characterized as AT&T's "lead" in U.S. small-cell deployments.

Small cells are tiny, standalone base stations that, in theory at least, help add voice capacity and enhanced data access in high usage areas such as urban centers.

"The early small cells that we're deploying today are single-technology ... our plan is to go to units that can support UMTS [3G], LTE and Wi-Fi," Smith said.

AT&T has previously said it plans to deploy 3G HSPA+ "metrocells" that are currently being installed across a significant portion of the U.S.

"Yesterday morning I was in St Louis looking at one of early trials," said Smith of the operator's small-cell efforts so far. He explains that AT&T has been covering a residential neighborhood using cells attached to every third or fourth street light pole and connected back to the metro network via a VDSL connection.

This will be one of the uses for small cells for the operator -- working around the "not-in-my-backyard" mentality that greets macro cellular deployments by using much smaller and more discreet radio access units. "As beautiful as I think a new cell site might be, you know, not everybody does," Smith quipped.

Initially, however, AT&T will be using early small cells to bolster in-building coverage. "Most of what we do this year ... will be indoors," says Smith.

"Shopping malls are a problem for us," he added.

All of this involves a lot more work than just bolting down a small cell and connecting it to the network. The network head says AT&T has learnt a lot from its deployment of 3G femtocells during the past few years. They work well in a rural area where macro cellular coverage is unavailable, Smith explained.

AT&T has been working on its own and with others to deal with some of these issues for several years, Smith said. "I think we ultimately will get to point where we characterize each connection at the control plane and define where they go," he said.

This is part of the reason why AT&T's planned combo LTE/3G/Wi-Fi Multi-Standard Metrocell (MSM) small cells are still in the lab right now and not expected to arrive on the network until some time in 2014 or 2015. Putting in the smarts to decide the right connection for the right application while not fighting the larger macro network gets exponentially more difficult when layering together and managing 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi connections.

Smith says that AT&T is working with technologies such as "Hotspot 2.0" in a bid to fix some of these issues for Wi-Fi. All this will lead to an eventual goal that every cellular small cell deployed by AT&T will also have Wi-Fi onboard.

The CEO of AT&T's major rival, Verizon Wireless, said Wednesday at the conference that it will be deploying its first small cells sometime in 2013. (See Verizon CEO: Small Cells Coming in 2013.)

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile

May 08, 2013 | Dan Jones |

Dan Mead told the Jefferies 2013 Global Technology Media and Telecom Conference in New York City Wednesday that the operator regards small cells as "complementary" to its larger 4G LTE networks.

Small cells are tiny base stations that can be deployed in high-traffic areas to increase call capacity and data speed.

"We're going to have small cells deployed in our network later this year," Mead says. He says the deployment of the tiny radios will become more dense in 2014. (See Verizon Ready for LTE Small-Cell Advance.)

"We're going to be aggressive in that area," he said.

Mead talked about small cells after being asked whether the operator would need more dense LTE coverage for voice-over-LTE services. He once again reiterated that Verizon is planning to "commercialize" VoLTE services in 2014. (See Verizon Promises Voice-Over-LTE in 2014.)

"We’re going to make sure it's an exceptional experience," he said of the deployment, saying it will be a "value-add" service that will layer in video calling and other messaging updates.

He pointed out that Verizon has a 4G voice advantage over rivals because it has by far the largest LTE network in the U.S.

"You can't have VoLTE without the LTE network ... we're around 95 percent complete now," Mead says of Verizon's 4G deployment. The network is expected to be "substantially complete" by the end of the year.

The Small Tech Solution to America’s Massive Mobile Problem

Picture the scene…

One minute, you’re happily tapping away on your smartphone. The next minute… nothing.

You’ve hit a “dead spot” and the signal is lost.

That important call you were on… dropped.

Whatever business you were doing… hold, please.

The streaming music or video you were enjoying… how about silence instead?

It’s happened to all of us. And these days, it’s not surprising.

With the incredible growth of smartphones and tablets – and the applications available on them – our digital data consumption is exploding and putting an incredible strain on telecom networks.

And as mobile data demand continues to rise, the capacity problem is only going to worsen.

That’s why the tech and telecom sectors’ biggest names are busy looking for an equally “mobile” solution…

More Phones… More Data… Same Old Network

The amount of digital data we created last year hit 2.8 zettabytes, according to research firm, IDC. Of that, three-quarters of it comes from consumers.

What’s a zettabyte?

Well, it’s one quadrillion gigabytes. And as we noted a few weeks ago, the entire World Wide Web only contained half a zettabyte of data as recently as 2009.

What’s more, that 2.8 zettabyte number is expected to double by 2015, with a whopping 2,000% surge in global data traffic by 2020.

But as the number of mobile devices grows – and data usage grows with it – the existing network infrastructure isn’t keeping pace. AT&T (T) alone says mobile data consumption on its network has rocketed 250 times higher in just five years.

So how do we go about effectively connecting all these devices to networks and handling the ever-increasing amount of data that they produce?

As it turns out, the cure for mobile problems is… mobility itself…

There’s simply no way for mobile networks to keep up with the insatiable data demand without some help.

But this problem has opened up a big opportunity for companies trying to solve it.

Mobile chip giant, Qualcomm (QCOM), and wireless providers are tackling the growth of mobile data by essentially becoming more mobile themselves.

And they’re doing it through small cell technology.

We pinpointed this technology as one of our Seven Most Investable Technology Trends of 2013 back in January.

Simply put, small cells are cellular base stations that are installed in homes and neighborhoods to complement the existing network infrastructure from traditional cell towers.

Unlike cell towers, however, these small base stations are obviously much cheaper and easier to install. In fact, Qualcomm’s Chief Technology Officer, Matt Grob, says a station is small enough to work with a regular home router.

Quoted in MIT Tech Review, Grob, confirms, “We’re working extensively with operators on this particular project.”

The company has also installed 20 stations around its San Diego campus, which means mobile users get a better, faster connection as they pass by.

The question is: Will consumers go for this “communal connectivity”?

There’s no doubt that in densely populated areas, where mobile and data usage is higher, networks could use a hand.

But in some areas, it’s already happening. MIT says Verizon (VZ) and Sprint Nextel (S) customers living in areas with patchy connectivity, who’ve received base stations for “personal” use to improve their signals, may also be helping the masses – even if the owners don’t know it. Verizon and Sprint disable the personal/private configuration feature by default, whereas AT&T does not.

Grob says there needs to be more transparency – both in design and marketing – making it clear that these stations are for the public infrastructure, in addition to their own needs.

But the model is attractive in terms of finding an innovative way of beefing up bandwidth without needing to build more expensive, unsightly cell towers.

He says companies like Qualcomm could work with mobile and cable operators to install base stations in routers. Qualcomm and AT&T have found that it wouldn’t take many base stations in local homes or offices to improve coverage and essentially serve as another network.

Of course, any plan would need to ensure that the connectivity of homes and offices that actually own the base stations isn’t weakened and that online activity is secure.

But with mobile connections expected to increase five-fold between now and 2015, and mobile operators already offering more public Wi-Fi to ease the data burden, this small cell technology and home base station model is the next step toward handling the smartphone and data overload.

Ahead of the tape,

Louis Basenese

With sales already rising, I believe it’s only a matter of time before the company is acquired. I just crunched some numbers to find out how much it would be worth in a takeover – between 100% and 171% higher than its current share price. To get the name of the company – and all the others in our portfolio – sign up for a risk-free trial to WSDI here.

April 9, 2013 | by Dawn Hightower | Backhaul | No Comments

http://agl-mag.com/carrier-grade-small-cells-to-outnumber-consumer-femtocells-in-2016/

Mobile Experts has released a small-cell market forecast, which predicts more than 5 million metrocells to be shipped in 2017. The company predicts slow growth for residential femtocells at only 12 percent per year, based on weak shipment data during 2012. As mobile operators push hard for high-capacity small cells, faster growth will come from capacity upgrades.

The research company predicts that outdoor metrocells and indoor capacity nodes will overtake residential femtocell shipments in the 2016 time frame. More than 100,000 public small cells are already deployed in Korea and Japan. “The Asian market is stretching the femtocell into areas where small cells are handling capacity effectively for operators like KT, SKT and NTT DoCoMo. Other operators around the world will follow this example as the LTE macro rollout is completed and capacity tightens up in North America, China, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East,” explained Joe Madden, principal analyst at Mobile Experts. According to Madden, the bottom line is that small cells are 65 percent less expensive than macro base stations, for adding mobile capacity.

Eight different types of small cells, by architecture and by power level, are identified in the forecast. In this year’s analysis, Mobile Experts included low-power remote radio head units, multiband small cells, and carrier aggregation into the forecast, with 33 band combinations identified for interband CA. The report breaks down small-cell shipments by frequency band and identified 38 frequency bands for small-cell deployment.

TowerStream has formed Hetnets Tower Corporation, which will offer wireless carriers and others a range of shared infrastructure services and access for mobile wireless Internet services.

“We are excited to launch our new subsidiary, Hetnets Tower Corporation,” said Jeffrey Thompson, Tower Stream president and CEO, during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. “The explosion in mobile data in urban markets is driving a migration to small cell architecture, and the major carriers are presently focused on the densification of their networks.”

TowerStream’s fixed wireless infrastructure includes 1,500 rooftops with 3,000 Wi-Fi nodes. “Our fixed wireless, backhaul network and street-level rooftop locations enables us to quickly deliver solutions to the challenges associated with small cell deployments,” Thompson said.

Since 2010, TowerStream has been exploring opportunities to leverage its fixed wireless network in major urban markets to provide other wireless technology solutions and services. With the rise of mobile data placing a tremendous demand on the networks of the carriers, TowerStream concluded that its Wi-Fi network can serve carriers’ data offload needs.

“Densification is now the focus of the carriers. The densification calls for very large quantities of small cell and Wi-Fi antennas. We will align our rollout with the surgical approach and roll out with them as we sign each anchor tenant,” Thompson said. “Our buildup over the last 1.5 years has given us a significant first-mover advantage and has put us in a leadership position in small cell wireless shared infrastructure.”

The strategy of the wireless carriers in terms of small cell and Wi-Fi offload has evolved since the advent of Big Data. When TowerStream built its first test network two years ago, the business opportunity looked to include only pure Wi-Fi offload and it was considered by some to be short-term solution to the data congestion.

“Carriers expected through consolidation to acquire the spectrum needed for capacity,” Thompson said. “The consolidation did not end up being the solution, and the carriers have now looked to small cell network architecture and heterogeneous networks, also called hetnets, to meet the capacity demands. Wi-Fi is now part of the small cell architecture and part of the long-term solution along with metro cells and picocells.”

To serve this need, Hetnets Tower Corporation plans to rent space on street level rooftops for the installation of customer-owned small cells, which includes Wi-Fi antennas, DAS, and metro and pico cells. Channels on TowerStream’s Wi-Fi network will also be available for rent for the offloading of mobile data. Additionally, the new company will rent cabinets, switch ports, backhaul, transport, and power and power backup. The company will operate in 13 major metro markets, including New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, Seattle, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Philadelphia, Nashville, and Las Vegas/Reno.
Mindspeed Reaffirms Small Cell Leadership Position with 63% Market Share

in 3GPP, press-release, Mindspeed, Small Cell, HSPA, LTE

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.-- Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MSPD), the industry leader in technology for small cell base stations, announced today that according to Infonetics Research, it had 63% of the 3GPP small cell market. Most of these shipments were for commercial deployment of HSPA small cells.

With LTE small cells starting to deploy, Mindspeed announced that it is in pole position in this segment too with commercial deployments in SK Telecom, Korea Telecom and other operators around the world. The company has 34 design engagements for LTE and dual-mode small-cells, including market-leading OEMs and is well positioned as operators launch. Finally, the company has deployments in China for TD-SCDMA and has announced a technical collaboration agreement with China Mobile Research Institute.

"Mindspeed has a very strong position in small cells," said Richard Webb, chief analyst of Infonetics. "It is clear that they have the leadership position in 3G small cells and a strong place in the emerging segment for LTE. We believe that the economics will favor dual-mode and multi-mode small cells, so having this portfolio will help Mindspeed in their position as the market evolves and competition intensifies."

Mindspeed is the only SoC company with commercially deployed products for both 3G and LTE. Additionally, it is the only company to have demonstrated both FDD and TDD versions of LTE. Finally, Mindspeed is the only company with an SoC solution for TD-SCDMA. As such, Mindspeed has, by far, the most mature and the most comprehensive range of small cell SoCs.

Many semiconductor companies are looking to the small cell segment. Based on Infonetics' data, Mindspeed has 63% of the 3GPP segment. The remaining 37% is shared between all other suppliers.

"Small cells represent one of the most exciting segments in the wireless market today, and we are proud of our position in it," said Raouf Y. Halim, chief executive officer at Mindspeed. "A year ago Mindspeed acquired Picochip, who had pioneered this market and built a dominant position. In the twelve months following the acquisition, we have extended our lead — not only are we number one in 3G, we are number one in LTE and are still the only SoC company with field-proven products in both technologies. We have integrated the teams, gained the synergies we had aimed for and, as a result, are the only SoC company with credible dual-mode solutions."

The company will be hosting small cell technology demonstrations for service providers, OEM customers, press and analysts during Mobile World Congress 2013 at stand 7E.104 from February 25 - 28, 2013 at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain.