@MWC: Kyocera goes small for LTE infrastructure equipment play

BARCELONA – One advantage of the wireless industry’s move to the LTE technology standard is the plethora of new equipment that will be required to support those networks. Whether its upgrading from a current GSM-based network or a Greenfield build, carriers are going to be in need of a lot of base station equipment.
Most of the usual names in the business have already begun announcing LTE contract wins, including the likes of Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei Technologies Inc., but a number of smaller players are also looking to gain some wins in the space.
One of those is Kyocera Corp., which at this week’s Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain, showed off what it claims was the industry’s first LTE micro base station. In addition the company said the unit is also the world’s smallest, lightest and most efficient. (The disclaimer here of course being that those claims were based on Kyocera’s research as of Feb. 1 and of course there is no third-party verification on such claims.
The prototype being shown was an all-in-one unit that the company said was targeted as a complement to a traditional network build allowing carriers to fill in any coverage gaps as well as provide additional capacity on installed sites. Kyocera said the prototype unit weighs in at 26.5 pounds and would be made available later this year.
In addition to its micro unit, Kyocera also showed off a macro LTE base station unit that was only slightly larger than the micro model sporting a claimed weight of just less than 40 pounds. Kyocera touted the macro unit was significantly more energy efficient than traditional LTE designs because of its all-in-one architecture.
Both units are designed to support the same number of users per site, approximately 440 data sessions or 800 voice sessions, with the main difference being size, power consumption and range.
Kyocera may be more known for its handsets in the North American market, but the company said its infrastructure division has more than 634,000 PHS base stations installed globally. The company <a href=https://rcrwireless.com/article/20080121/FREE/114307871/Its-official–Sanyo-sells-handset-division-to-Kyocera-for-$375M
Target=_blank>announced in early 2008 that it was acquiring Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd.’s handset and wireless infrastructure business for $375 million.