EE beefs up network coverage with 1,000 small cells

And now some are hooked up to 5G too.

The UK mobile operator has deployed 400 small cells over the past 12 months to get to this point, it explained on Wednesday. Those 400 include its first 5G small cell sites, which it has installed in Croydon, Greater London, as part of a trial. There are seven 5G small cells in total, four of which are positioned along a busy thoroughfare – London Road – and are carrying more than 3 terabytes of traffic per day.

That alone seems to be justification for the cost and effort associated with small cell rollout, although that's a call EE will have to make as it progresses with the trial.

It once appeared that small cells would play a big part in 5G network rollouts, allowing operators to densify their footprints in high usage, urban areas, but to date deployments have been much more limited than we might have expected. We have even seen the big infrastructure specialists pare back their forecasts for the technology on the back of operators' reluctance to commit.

In the US, for example, Crown Castle recently reduced its small cells build plan for the full year by 3,000-5,000 sites. The US, where the towers company does most of its business, remains a more developed 5G market than the UK, so it's hardly surprising that 5G small cells have not been big news over here so far.

Indeed, the fact that only seven of EE's 1,000-plus small cells use 5G tells its own story.

There have been other recent announcements on 5G small cells in the UK though, which indicates a certain level of market development. Virgin Media O2 recently announced the deployment of 20 units in Manchester in a bid to ease network congestion. The small cells in question are connected to the operator's 4G network, but are apparently 5G-ready. And earlier this year Three detailed an Open RAN-based small cells project in Glasgow, which will also see 20 units deployed initially, rising to 51 over time, in a bid to boost 5G network coverage.

For EE at present though, small cells are mainly about beefing up its 4G network in areas of high demand.

Over the past year it has added 4G small cells in some big town centres – it namechecked Cardiff, Dundee, Luton, Norwich and Stoke-on-Trent specifically – and used the technology to give a capacity boost in areas that attract tourists in the summer season, such as Torbay and Cumbria.

It uses network analytics to identify locations that would benefit from a small cell, then works with vendor partners Nokia and Ericsson to deploy the kit, it said. In the case of 4G, customers can then access speeds of up to 300 Mbps, and double that on 5G, it explained. Presumably those 'up to' speeds are a best case scenario, but nonetheless, it's clear that small cells can make a difference to the end user experience, should an operator choose to deploy them.

EE noted that it is unique in Europe in that it combines licensed 1800 MHz and 2600 Mhz spectrum with unlicensed 5 GHz frequencies for its 4G small cells. The new 5G small cells in Croydon use licensed 1800 MHz spectrum for 4G and 3.5 GHz for 5G.

"Small cells are an integral component within our mobile network," said Greg McCall, Chief Networks Officer at BT, EE's parent company. "To reach 1,000 deployments, including our first 5G sites, demonstrates our commitment to delivering unrivalled mobile connectivity to all four corners of the UK."

That comment suggests there could well be more to come from EE on the small cells front. But thus far the telco has not shared any firm rollout targets, so we'll just have to wait and see.