Next week the wireless industry converges in Chicago for HetNet Expo. Panelists at the show include leading analysts and executives from the distributed antenna systems world as well as a some noteworthy small cell experts.
Hetnet update
Mobile subscribers want reliable, homogeneous coverage, which is enabled by heterogeneous networks. Hetnets combine multiple types of equipment from various vendors to create networks that can provide coverage even in places that are hard to reach with signals from macro sites.
While projections for overall carrier infrastructure spending are slipping, spending on DAS and small cells is expected to continue its robust growth trajectory.
To date, indoor DAS and enterprise small cells have seen more deployments than outdoor solutions, but investment around outdoor deployments is increasing. Verizon Wireless has recently signaled renewed interest in outdoor DAS, and many in the DAS industry were further encouraged by a Silicon Valley municipality’s recent decision to allow DAS nodes on utility poles.
On the small cell front, Alcatel-Lucent is working hard to facilitate outdoor deployments by working with municipalities and with outdoor advertising companies. The current leader in the small cell market, Alcatel-Lucent recently announced a new partnership with the world’s largest outdoor advertising company.
Indoors, the value of DAS is well established and discrete small cells have also been successfully deployed by several operators. Indoor DAS is the largest hetnet use case, and while most large public venues already have a DAS, there is still lots of work to be done. Many smaller venues are exploring their options and looking at revenue sharing models, and vendors are also busy upgrading existing DAS for LTE. New DAS contracts continue to be announced regularly, and Chicago may be the site of several new announcements.
The morning after
Next week’s best news for hetnet deployments is likely to come the day after the show ends. On Oct. 17, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve the Wireless Infrastructure Report and Order at its open meeting.
“That October 17 order is like the SuperBowl of regulatory proceedings for those of us in the wireless infrastructure industry,” said PCIA president and CEO Jonathan Adelstein. “It’s going to clarify the rules for upgrading technology on existing infrastructure, including co-location. It’s going to streamline the environmental historic preservation review process for newer technologies, such as distributed antenna systems and small cells. It’s going to tighten the FCC shot clock order that sets the time periods for state and local governments to review siting applications. It will infuse greater certainty in the FCC’s overall process which will spur greater broadband investment, and it will remove barriers to the deployment of temporary towers to boost coverage at large events. This is a huge accomplishment.”
While the FCC may be getting mixed reactions from the wireless industry on issues like net neutrality and spectrum allocation, those who work on towers and distributed antenna systems are very positive about the agency’s recognition of the need for broadband infrastructure.
“The FCC, I am very pleased to say, has been a very big advocate for our model [of shared infrastructure],” said Crown Castle CEO Ben Moreland. “We are as necessary as the wireless spectrum that tends to get a little more airtime. Spectrum obviously has to be deployed around infrastructure and one cannot exist without the other.”
