As data usage continues to increase, the networks must keep up. Small cells provide a quick fix for network infrastructures at an extremely affordable price. They say good things come in small packages. And for wireless networks, this is beginning to ring true. Until now, small cells have had a limited, yet growing presence in [...]

The integration of small cells and Wi-Fi has been a theme throughout this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Just ahead of the show, Alcatel Lucent, NetGear and Broadcom launched an integrated Wi-Fi and small cell router with femtocell technology. On day one of Mobile World Congress, the Small Cell Forum announced a new whitepaper [...]

BARCELONA, Spain – While marketing hype around acronyms, levels of “G” and the sexy devices that run over those networks are seen as the main drivers in the mobile broadband world, at the end of the day it’s how innovative carriers can be in pricing those services that will decide the success or failure of [...]

In the United States, operators are turning to small cells to boost network capacity and revenue opportunities. Small cells are no longer seen as alternatives to DAS or to Wi-Fi; instead operators are starting to see all these technologies as key parts of heterogeneous networks. In emerging markets, some carriers are building new networks completely [...]

BARCELONA, Spain – Nokia Siemens Networks is looking to increase its presence in the North American wireless market, despite its current worldwide position as the No. 2 supplier of infrastructure equipment. The company, which missed out on a number of large-scale LTE network deployments currently being undertaken by Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, has managed [...]

After deciding that the purchase of MetroPCS would be too costly, Sprint Nextel (S) is instead heading back to the capital markets with a plan to raise $2 billion to pay for network upgrades, refinance existing debt, and possibly continue funding Clearwire. Sprint Nextel owns 54% of Clearwire and helped the troubled wholesaler of WiMAX [...]

PolyCom’s RealPresence video conferencing solution will be available for select HTC smartphones later this year, the two companies announced at Mobile World Congress. HTC smartphone owners will be able to download RealPresence from the Android Market by the middle of this year, according to PolyCom. RealPresence has been available for tablets since last October and [...]

LightSquared’s convoluted path continued to twist today as the company announced its CEO Sanjiv Ahuja was leaving stepping down from that position, though was continuing as chairman of the board. Current chief network operator Doug Smith and CFO Marc Montagner were tapped to be interim co-CEOs while the company looks to find a new leader. [...]

Digi International, a leading connectivity provider in the world of Machine to Machine communication, made two big announcements today at Mobile World Congress. First, the company announced that its device-to-cloud connectivity technology will now ship baked-into two products from Freescale. The companies call the Digi/Freescale collaboration “the industry’s first cloud-connected microcontrollers with out-of-box cloud connectivity.” [...]

Almost 90% of all base stations will be small cells by 2016, according to the Small Cell Forum. Wi-Fi integration is a key to leveraging these small cells, according to the independent industry group, which has published a report at Mobile World Congress outlining the opportunities and challenges of Wi-Fi integration. The Small Cell Forum [...]