Small Cell Forum announced nine new members, in a move “further expanding its breadth of expertise – especially in key Asian markets”.

It also said its expanded membership strengthens its efforts in “laying the groundwork for robust and interoperable 5G networks”.

The new members are Ciena, Druid, Fastback Networks, InCoax, NextNav, Plasma Antennas, Raycap, Shenzhen Gongjin Electronics and Technicolor.

In a statement, the organisation said its operator members serve more than 2 billion customers and operate more than 15 million hotspots globally.

“Small cells are now widely accepted as the key way in which large scale capacity will be delivered across mobile networks. Therefore, it remains critical that the whole telecoms and services ecosystem is ready to support the growing wave of small cell deployments both on today’s LTE networks as well as future evolutions,” said David Orloff, chair of Small Cell Forum.

The group is working on issues including the densification of networks to support future 5G technologies.