Verizon said nearly 62% of all wireless deployments last year were small cells
Verizon Wireless announced plans to install small cells in Napa, California, during 2018 in a move to expand its current coverage in the region famous for its vineyards.
The telco said it has received permits from local authorities to install 24 small cells across the city, at locations including Franklin, Coombs, Jefferson and Greenbach streets as well as Old Sonoma and Browns Valley roads and Cabot Way.
Napa’s City Council executed an agreement with Verizon regarding the deployment of small cells in December 2017. The telco said the small cell build will allow it to offer higher capacity and the fastest internet access speeds for subscribers in the area.
Verizon Wireless also explained that the small cells will be added as attachments to existing power poles in Napa, or included on replacement poles.
The telco is deploying small cells in many regions of the country in a move to meet increasing demand for data. “In 2017, approximately 62% of Verizon’s wireless deployments were small cells, a figure that will only grow larger as we deploy 5G in 2018 and beyond,” Verizon wrote in a recent filing to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) . “Small cells are needed to meet exploding consumer demand for data, drive innovation, create new jobs, and fuel new services and capabilities such as smart communities, connected cars, smart farming, and the internet of things.”
Other U.S. carriers are planning small cell deployments in order to pave the way for future 5G services. AT&T plans to launch mobile 5G this year in 12 U.S. cities, and the carrier highlighted the service will rely on small cells deployed closer to the ground than the tower top radios that support LTE.
AT&T’s first round of mobile 5G will use millimeter wave spectrum, which offers higher capacity rates than low-band spectrum but does not propagate over large distances. That means radios need to closer together than they are in LTE deployments.
“Millimeter wave is more associated with small cell-like ranges and heights,” said AT&T’s Hank Kafka, VP of network architecture. “It can be on telephone poles or light poles or building rooftops or on towers, but generally if you’re putting it on towers it’s at a lower height than you would put a high-powered macrocell, because of the propagation characteristics.”
Last month, the FCC approved new regulation to make it easier for operators to deploy small cell infrastructure in an effort to hasten network densification in support of 5G commercialization. At a high-level, the rule change removes federal oversight of small cells outlined in the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and removes the need to conduct an environmental assessment for small cells in floodplains “as long as certain conditions are met.” State and local regulations are still applicable.
Meredith Atwell Baker, president and CEO of industry association CTIA, said the move “will help America win the global 5G race by significantly reducing the number of months to deploy 5G networks and decreasing the cost to build out new small cells by almost a third.
