We’ve now passed the halfway mark of 2011 and the femtocell and small cell industries continue to generate a significant buzz. In recent weeks, we have seen Femtocells World Summit come and go, as well as reports on the importance of small cells to LTE deployments and news of acquisitions within the femto industry. Below is a selection of the most interesting news:
- At the end of last month we saw the annual Femtocells World Summit in London, where the Femto Forum announced that according to an Informa report the number of 3G femtocells deployed now outnumbers conventional 3G base stations. For a full round-up from this year’s event take a look at this previous blog entry.
- Electronics Weekly announced that the world may soon have its first ever global mobile standard with LTE as the mobile industry’s 4G standard, with manufacturers the world round making significant investment in the technology. It is predicted that femtocells and small cells will play a significant role in the rollout of LTE. Analyst IHS iSuppli estimates that global spending on wireless infrastructure equipment will rise by 7.7% this year to reach $43.2bn.
- On a similar note, analyst firm Frost & Sullivan announced that picocells and femtocells will form the core of future LTE deployment strategies. Small cells will help solve the continuous coverage and capacity issues that are likely to be encountered during the rollout of LTE networks, while at the same time providing network operators faster returns on their infrastructure investments.
- Radisys completed its acquisition of Continuous Computing, after an agreement to buy the company in May this year. Continuous Computing is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Radisys.
- In other acquisition news, Connected Planet announced that Taqua, a vendor focused on IP convergence opportunities, had acquired Tatara systems, a pioneer in helping mobile operators deal with the signalling challenges presented by femtocells.
- Finally, TechEye.net reported that ZTE had released the world’s smallest LTE base station. Sylvain Fabre of Gartner commented how the device marks the blurred distinction between regular macro cells and small cells such as femtos.
There’s sure to be plenty more news in the coming weeks building on the exciting developments we’ve seen this month. Feel free to leave a comment below if you’ve spotted anything else interesting.
