A study compiled by the Small Cell Forum from three independent research bodies found that the enterprise small cell deployment market is entering a new phase in its evolution. The report, called “Crossing the Chasm,” said the enterprise small cell market made the transition from the “market-testing” phase to the “market-deployment” phase in 2015. The report also said that by 2020, the enterprise market will be the largest market for small cells.
“This reports effectively signals the end of the first phase of the small cell industry – the ‘why’ phase,” Small Cell Forum Chairman Alan Law said at the Small Cell Americas conference in Dallas, Texas. “What matters now to operators all over the world is not why, but ‘how?’”
“In phase two we must drive forward to address the deployment and market challenges that operators face,” he added. “The challenges of integration and optimization across the small cell layer, of increasing network virtualization, of multiple frequency usage, and of multicarrier small cells.”
The report predicts the enterprise market, which includes small cell installations in offices, indoor public spaces and for business machine-to-machine applications, will be the first small cell market outside of residential deployments to reach critical mass. According to the report, by the end of 2015, enterprise small cell will reach 400,000 deployments, an increase of 110% over last year.
“It’s now beyond question that networks need to densify to cope with the data demand from businesses, consumers and the I’nternet of Things’,” Law explained. “But I think this report highlights that it is also beyond doubt that small cells will be at the heart of the solution.”
Creating new revenue-driving services based on small cell connectivity will be a crucial market driver in the enterprise space moving forward. The report estimates 40% of small cells will be managed through the cloud by 2020, which will result in $4 billion in revenue for mobile cloud services based on small cell infrastructure.
Densification is also a factor that is driving growth in the enterprise space. In 2014, 88% of nonresidential small cells were deployed in low or medium density configurations. In 2016, the report predicts half of all small cell deployments will be in high-density configurations, 15% of those could be in areas with more than 150 small cells per square kilometer.
“Our new operator-led work programs are addressing all the key components of our changing world – including IoT, virtualization, the use of unlicensed spectrum and the complexities of network orchestration. All of these issues are vital to the network densification challenge,” Law said.
The “Crossing the Chasm” report compiled information from Mobile Experts’ “2015 Q3 Small Cell Market Status Report,” “The Potential for Small Cells Infrastructure-as-a-service in the USA” report by iGR and the “Small Cell Operator Survey 2015” by Rethink Technology Research.
