Small cells can be big investments for regional operators, many of whom may not be ready to invest $1M or more in a small cell gateway. These are the target customers for ClearSky Technologies’ hosted small cell solution. The company sells access to its GSM/LTE gateways to regional carriers, enabling them to treat small cells as an operating expense instead of a capital expenditure.
Operators have deployed the ClearSky hosted small cell solution to boost in-building coverage and to add capacity to their networks. ClearSky’s Tony Tagliarini said that when it comes to the small cell access points, Cisco products are the best choices for operators deploying ClearSky’s hosted solution. The Cisco/Ubiquisys solutions offer the best interoperability with ClearSky gateways, and Cisco’s small cell LTE roadmap is in place already. “Any operator that’s going to deploy a 3G small cell solution really needs to be thinking about the future [LTE],” said Tagliarini.
ClearSky is researching a multi-tenant small cell gateway, with the goal of creating a neutral host solution. The biggest challenge, said Tagliarini, is access to the carrier networks. “They’re really averse to allowing a foreign entity to connect into their network for any reason,” explained Tagliarini.
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Small cells: hosted solution lets carriers test the waters
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