Amdocs, which focuses on customer experience and OSS and also has a small cell planning solution, released some research on deploying and managing small cells at last week’s Cable Congress event. The January 2014 survey from Real Wireless included 40 wireless and wireline operators from North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region and found that small cell rollouts are being delayed. A clear majority — 70% of the MNOs surveyed expected to have “significant” small cell deployments by 2018, but most predicted a slow roll-out of the technology.
The survey also laid out the challenges of small cells as seen by in the industry: project management, negotiation with partners and technical aspects. Partnerships are expected to have a large impact, as 70% of MNOs said they were prepared to use small cells rolled out by or owned by a third-part such as an MSO. Automation tools for small cells are also expected to be a significant factor in the technology’s success.
Download the full report here.
—Cisco says that more than 200 service providers around the world are now using its carrier Wi-Fi technology, with more than 18 million carrier-grade access points deployed globally.
—Cloudpath Networks has enabled North Dakota State University to automatically enroll campus users to a secure certificate-based Wi-Fi network that covers 89 buildings and a user base of more than 20,000. The university reported that students have an average of two or three devices each and at least 3,000 new, unique devices each year since 2008. NDSU deployed Cloudpath’s XpressConnect Enrollment System to establish policy-related access rather than passwords, and new management capabilities for the network.
–Meanwhile, Aruba Networks launched a new architecture for IT departments that focuses on mobile: its Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks. Aruba introduced five new software solutions to support that architecture, including a next-gen mobility firewall; an interactive unified communications dashboard; its new ClearPass Exchange that has common APIs to work with other technology partners; auto sign-on; and AirGroup for sharing screens and streaming media with Apple, Digital Living Network Alliance and Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices.
—Axell Wireless was named most innovative vendor in a recent ABI Research report on in-building wireless, in particular for its idDAS system launched at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
–Digging into AT&T’s updates on its network investments gives some more insight into its in-building additions in various markets, particularly in distributed antenna systems. Some of those include a DAS at the Milwaukee festival grounds, one at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, a DAS at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver as well as at Sports Authoriry Field at Mile High Stadium, and the announcement that it will be doing a multi-year, multi-million dollar DAS installation at the University of Kansas Lawrence campus.
—Aerohive Networks’ Wi-Fi networking solution has been deployed by the Burgerville restaurant chain, which has 39 locations in the Pacific Northwest.
—ADTRAN has launched a new Wi-Fi help desk for resellers and service providers that offer its ProCloud wireless LAN managed services, which is designed to be part of a private-label managed service offering and help end-users with issues such as configuring their mobile devices, dealing with password resets and resolve connectivity issues.
