UPDATED 4/12: As part of its efforts to persuade operators to deploy small cells in their networks, the Small Cell Forum – an independent industry organisation championing the technology – has published what it calls a “comprehensive package” of documents aimed at overcoming deployment barriers in the enterprise.
It is Release Two of the Forum’s campaigning efforts.
Release One – launched at this year’s Mobile World Congress in February – focused on best practice for 3G femtocell installation in homes and small offices.
As part of Release Two, the twenty or so documents include such things as market drivers, independent business cases, enterprise reference architecture, SON use cases, co-deployment of cellular with Wi-Fi, enterprise IT integration, plus backhaul and deployment advice.
Taken as a whole, the release is being pitched as giving readers the benefit of the Forum members’ experiences and best practice from successful deployments to date.
“Addressing the wide range of enterprise cellular requirements has conventionally been challenging for operators both from a technical and a business perspective,” said Gordon Mansfield (pictured), chair of the Small Cell Forum. “Using small cells enables challenges to be addressed in unique ways, to the benefit of operators and enterprises alike, delivering value for both.”
In a recent study of US enterprises with more than 500 employees, iGR, a market consultancy, found there are two basic strategies – aggressive or defensive – that mobile operator incumbents or new entrants could adopt with regard to small cells.
For example, incumbent mobile operators could deploy picocells in the enterprise as a way to prevent churn. Conversely, mobile operators with a minority share of the market could use an aggressive, picocell-led strategy to disrupt the enterprise market for cellular voice and data service and gain subscribers.
“US large companies represent a significant opportunity for small cell solutions, both for vendors and mobile operators,” said Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR. “However, there are significant obstacles in this segment and it is clear from this new study that the vendors must provide the correct combination of small cell features and deployment and operating model to be successful.”
The Small Cell Forum intends to publish its “Urban” material in two releases in 2014.
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