VIDEO INTERVIEW: In the dense urban areas of Asia’s mega cities, such as Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo, Rajeev Singh-Molares, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s operations in the Asia-Pacific region, sees small cells as a more cost-effective way to deliver a consistently good mobile broadband experience than networks relying solely on macro cells.

“Three years ago there was an industry debate about whether or not macro cells were all you needed,” he told Mobile World Live at the recent Mobile Asia Expo event in Shanghai. “That debate is now finished. You need big and small cells. The reality has been proven.”

As mobile data volumes explode – which, says Singh-Molares, is “putting an incredible strain on the network” – the Alcatel-Lucent executive sees a role for cells of various sizes and configurations, as well as Wi-Fi, to help networks cope. “The key will be to offload as quickly as possible the data use onto a fixed-line network,” he said.

To find out more about Singh-Molares’ views on Asia’s telecoms growth prospects, plus his thoughts on LTE-Advanced, watch the full video here.