5G mmWave is being hailed as an enabler for things like fixing congestion issues in crowded spaces and revolutionising farming – but wasn’t vanilla 5G supposed to have already done that, and more?
Three of the big four vendors have signed up to a pilot scheme led by Freshwave, pitched as ‘the first small cell network in the UK capable of hosting all four mobile network operators from day one.’
UK telecoms group BT has set up a Cloud RAN trial in Leeds which will ‘serve as a proof of concept for future developments.’
US mobile chip giant Qualcomm has continued its interest in the radio access side of things with a platform that claims to combine the best of macro and small cell technology.
In this final episode before everyone clears off for their summer holidays, the pod is delighted to welcome special guest Mike Ferris – Chief Network Architect of Dense Air. They start by exploring the concept of neutral host infrastructure and how that could provide the solution to a lot of the coverage challenges presented by 5G. That will involve the rollout of a lot of small cells, so they move on to discuss how that is best done, before concluding with a look at the pros and cons of state intervention in telecoms.
UK operator Virgin Media O2 has been busy setting up 5G small cells all around the capital, and it now claims to have more deployed than any other operator in the UK.
UK operator EE has built 200 new small cells across its network to boost 4G coverage in Leeds, London and Manchester, with hundreds more promised over the next 18 months.
Crown Castle has posted a strong set of financials for last year and is already upping its 2022 guidance. But the big news is around small cells; after years of hype, we are finally starting to see some traction.
UK mobile operator EE has announced it will be using at least part of the low frequency spectrum it won at auction earlier this year to improve its 5G indoor coverage.
Australian operator TPG plans to use Nokia Smart Node femtocells to ensure top-notch 4G and 5G indoor coverage for enterprise customers.
UK operator group Vodafone has enlisted the help of US software vendor Mavenir to see if they can add some OpenRAN secret sauce to small cells for businesses.
Finnish kit vendor Nokia has launched a new small cell product designed to boost indoor 5G coverage called Smart Node.
The Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has confirmed it plans to follow European Commission rules to make small cells exempt from planning permission.
The EC has created new market definitions for small cell equipment, also recommending the installation of these antenna should exempt from planning permission requirements.
Irvind Ghai, VP of Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, talks about the launch of a 5G New Radio small cells solution and the announcement of Qualcomm’s partnership with Facebook on its Terragraph fixed wireless project.
If we’re not complaining about poor signal in the middle of a farmers field, it’s the disastrous indoor coverage, but Ericsson is moving to soothe the masses.
No sooner does Ericsson make a 5G kit announcement than its Finnish competitor follows suit.
A recap of the week’s telecoms news. Nokia came to town to extol the virtues of small cells – augmenting coverage and capacity in the short term but ultimately forming a critical component of 5G infrastructure. Meanwhile Verizon launched a small cell of its own in the form of a wifi router that runs on 4G, apparently not put off by the fact that broadband routers will nearly always do that job far better.
At a briefing in London Nokia’s small cells team detailed its current small cells activity and stressed it thinks the category is set to boom, at long last.
Robert Clark, editor of Light Reading visited Huawei Global Services VIP showcase during MWC. Small cells, indoor connectivity as well as network cloudification were three of the topics that caught his attention.
China will hit 1 billion 5G users within a couple of years, new research shows, and operators may have already pass hhttps://t.co/UD36BO3PUw
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Gaston De Arriba, VP of Network & Service Operation Dept. Telecom Argentina, discussed his team's existing role in hhttps://t.co/R3DEYNeyQS
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Scott, Iain and Pierre get some rare quality time together on this week's guest-free pod. Inevitably the preamble i hhttps://t.co/xICC6oXKEx
27 March 2023 @ 14:03:15 UTC
