Global shipments and deployments of small cells have both surpassed the 10 million mark, according to new market research carried out by Mobile Experts for the Small Cell Forum. Some 10.2 million small cells have been shipped worldwide and more than 10 million have been deployed across 75 operators, “a significant milestone for the industry,” Small Cell Forum highlights in a news release.
Small Cell Forum expects deployments to accelerate over the next 12 months as “[s]mall cells are now becoming an integral part of operator strategies. “This significant milestone shows how small cells are fast becoming key components in networks with over ten million units now in the market,” Alan Law, Small Cell Forum chair, commented.
“This is being backed up by what we saw recently at Mobile World Congress with an incredible variety of announcements from operators, vendors and partners all pointing to a maturing market for a really exciting technology.”
Small Cell Deployments
“With careful cross-checking of industry sources, we’ve been able to verify that 10.2 million small cells have now been shipped globally, with over ten million now deployed,” added Mobile Experts’ Principal Analyst Joe Madden. “The majority of these to date have been deployed in residential scenarios, but we have also seen a significant step upward in the enterprise and urban sectors. Our longstanding prediction that non-residential small cells will ramp up in 2015 is becoming a reality, as capacity and indoor coverage are now critical for operators.”
Of the total, 17 million small cells have been deployed in rural and remote locations, Small Cell Forum notes.
