Press Release Headlines

New Forecast Predicts Shipment of 70 Million Small Cells by 2017

Carrier-grade femtocells will grow by 200% CAGR

CAMPBELL, Calif., Feb. 13, 2012 — A new forecast published today predicts strong growth in new types of small cells, including femtocells deployed by mobile operators and picocells used for high-capacity urban networks. LTE small cells are a major part of the forecasted growth over the next five years, with more than 2/3 of small cells deployed in 2017 devoted to LTE-FDD or TD-LTE.

"Mobile operators now have experience with residential femtocells," explained Joe Madden, Principal Analyst at Mobile Experts. "They are getting ready to extend this experience into enterprise and high-capacity scenarios. We have talked with more than 30 mobile operators, as well as chipset and backhaul vendors to determine how quickly this market can grow. In short, explosive growth is coming."

"Rising demand for mobile data has already driven some networks to their capacity limits during the peak hours of the day. Adding more spectrum and 4G spectral efficiency will help. Adding Wi-Fi will help. But mobile operators anticipate that these steps won't be enough … and small cells are the answer. Femtocells, picocells, and some kinds of DAS systems will be useful tools to address increasing data density."

Small Cells and HetNets: Femtocells, Picocells, DAS, Repeaters, Relays and Wi-Fi includes more than 74 charts and tables, providing:

A five-year small cell forecast, including:

  • Microcells
  • Picocells
  • Femtocells, including residential, enterprise, and carrier-grade femtocells
  • Metro Femtocells or "Metrocells"
  • Indoor and Outdoor Distributed Antenna Systems (I-DAS and O-DAS)
  • Repeaters sold to operators and to end users
  • Relays
  • Wi-Fi integration with small cells

Analysis of the small cell forecast, including:

  • Small Cells by world region
  • Small Cells by air interface
  • Small Cells by multimode and single mode
  • Small Cells by frequency band
  • Small Cells by power level
  • Small Cells vs. DAS analysis in North America

Cost analysis of macro base stations vs. small cells to illustrate the cost benefits of small cells, including CAPEX and OPEX over an 8-year depreciation cycle

About Mobile Experts LLC:

Mobile Experts provides insightful market analysis for the mobile infrastructure and mobile handset markets. Research topics center on technology introduction for radio frequency (RF) and communications innovation. Recent publications focus on Semiconductors for Small Cells, Backhaul for Small Cells, Semiconductors for Remote Radio Heads, MIMO, AAS, and Macro Base Station Transceiver Forecast.

Contact:

Rachel Lorraine
Mobile Experts LLC
Email
+1 (408) 540-7284
www.mobile-experts.net

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