Tuesday, August 11, 2026
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Telecom Tweets of the Week: Mapping 100K small cells

by Kelly Hill
written by Kelly Hill Share
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Steel in the Air President Ken Schmidt has some recent analysis of what the national distribution of 100,000 small cells over the next few years could look like, if you assume that deployment will more or less follow population. His estimates crown California as the undisputed small cell champ (shocker!), with more than 12,000 small cells; followed by Texas with nearly 8,400. Schmidt notes that in reality, the deployment of small cells isn’t only based on population (and therefore, presumed need for capacity) — you have to factor in population density in different areas, carriers’ spectrum positions in various markets, market competition and how easy or difficult the permitting process is. Still, it’s an intriguing exploration of potential small cell activity.

Nokia was demonstrating its CBRS spectrum access system for the Federal Communications Commission this week. Can this be taken as any hint that we might actually see some resolution on the CBRS framework, at some point, some day? Commissioner Michael O’Reilly tweets that “we’re getting closer!”

T-Mobile US appears to be making good on its 600 MHz build out, with CTO Neville Ray tweeting that the carrier has “added lowband LTE to 100s of sites in just two weeks, which means more and better coverage.”

Ransomware has struck the city of Atlanta, with city systems being held hostage for a reported $51,000 and employees being told to turn off their PCs.

City customers are stuck paying bills by phone.

In the European Union, a new program launched this week to fund public Wi-Fi hot spots, to the tune of about $150 million. The European Commission launched a web portal this week where municipalities can register ahead of the first call for projects next month. Cities and towns will be able to apply for vouchers worth about $18,000 to set up free public Wi-Fi networks, with the stated goal of providing “every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centers of public life by 2020.”

Dropping this here without comment:

This is a pretty cool IoT use case, outlining the use of sensors and IBM artificial intelligence at a vineyard:

And finally, it is #NationalPuppyDay. There’s a Friday hashtag if ever there was one.

 

 

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Kelly Hill reports on network test and measurement, AI infrastructure and regulatory issues, including spectrum, for RCR Wireless News. She began covering the wireless industry in 2005, focusing on carriers and MVNOs, then took a few years’ hiatus and returned to RCR Wireless News to write about heterogeneous networks (remember those?) and network infrastructure. Kelly is an Ohio native with a masters degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where she focused on science writing and multimedia. She has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, The Oregonian and The Canton Repository. She lives in northern Virginia, not far from Data Center Alley.

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