The massive surge in data consumption and the ever-increasing demand for ubiquitous connectivity have led to a rise in small cell deployments across the globe. Small cells can significantly enhance connectivity in uncovered areas such as residential buildings and transport hubs. The demand for indoor connectivity has increased after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic as people started working from home, leading to a surge in indoor data consumption. The new normal during the pandemic calls for greater small cell deployments to meet the growing data consumption needs and lay down the groundwork for 5G services.

Telcos scale up deployments

At present, telcos across the globe are scaling up small cell deployments. Japan-based Rakuten is in the midst of deploying around 20,000 mmWave small cells from Airspan. Further, Korea-based operator LG Uplus has entered into a partnership with Nokia to expand 5G coverage by installing small cell solutions from Nokia’s AirScale portfolio across the country. Under the partnership, Nokia will install its small cell AirScale Indoor systems in a range of indoor locations, including shopping malls and office buildings. The US-based Verizon is deploying mmWave 5G small cells to cater to the enterprise market. Commercial deployments began at the end of 2020.

In India too, operators have started increasing their focus on small cells to ensure seamless network connectivity and build 5G-ready networks. In 2020, Airtel produced its own 4G small cells by collaborating with Altiostar and Sercomm. The small cells developed in partnership with Sercomm are the world’s first virtual radio access network-based time division duplexing small cells, which offer a plug-and-play approach for the cloud radio network connection and deliver enhanced efficiencies. After the successful development of 4G small cells, the telco has now diverted focus towards developing 5G equipment including small cells. Recently, Reliance Jio too announced its plans to develop indoor 5G small cells to build a future-ready 5G network. The in-house development of these cells is currently at advanced stages.

Both Reliance Jio and Airtel have been active in terms of small cell deployments. In the past, Jio has undertaken small cell deployments with its exclusive partners, Samsung and Airspan. While Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) has not disclosed any plans of in-house small cell development, the telco is actively engaged in scaling up deployments. So far, Vi has deployed around 11,800 small cells across the country. Of these, over 2,100 small cells have been deployed in the Delhi-NCR region to improve network coverage in congested areas.

An attractive opportunity for towercos

Towercos are benefiting from the small cell deployments being undertaken by towercos. For towercos, providing small cell solutions to telcos presents a revenue generating opportunity and a new growth avenue. Towercos’ know-how in securing contracts from municipalities for small cell sites can enable them to strengthen their value proposition. Further, they can explore fiberised small cells, which would position them as integrated players.

Globally, towercos are already adding small cells to their inventory of site typologies, mostly functioning as site acquirers while small cells are owned by telcos. According to T.R. Dua, director general, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association, “A bigger opportunity for towercos lies in acquiring and owning their small cells, and offering fiberised small cell sites to telcos.”

In India, Indus Towers Limited has stated that it will explore new growth areas such as fibre sharing, small cells, data centres and Wi-Fi offloading. Further, Indus is planning to deploy around 30,000 smart small cells in India in the near term. As per the tower infrastructure provider, India’s Smart Cities Mission has provided towercos an opportunity to add a layer of smart connectivity to urban landscapes. To this end, Indus Towers has been actively involved in developing scalable models for smart cities and small cell deployment is a key strategy in this regard.

Emerging segments

Apart from telcos and towercos, enterprises have emerged as key growth drivers for the deployment of small cells. The rapid digitalisation being witnessed by enterprises has led organisations to explore small cell solutions as a means to deliver improved coverage, capacity and offer innovative solutions. In fact, as per a report by the Small Cell Forum, the enterprise segment is expected to account for a 68 per cent share in the total installed base by 2026.

The report, which is primarily based on a survey of 78 mobile operators worldwide and 26 other small cell deployers including private network operators and neutral host providers, states that around 4 million enterprise small cells will be deployed during the year 2026. This would take the cumulative small cell deployments in the enterprise space to 26.2 million.

In terms of adoption, dense networks by enterprises will focus mainly on indoor environments, or indoor/outdoor campus scenarios, where cellular has particular advantages over wireline or Wi-Fi alternatives as staff, visitors and robots move between buildings. Retail parks, government centres, universities and manufacturing complexes are examples of these kinds of environments, which are expected to witness high demand. The highest deployment between 2019 and 2021 will be in the retail, government, finance and entertainment sectors. Post 2021, verticals with a greater reliance on 5G or emerging technologies like edge computing and artificial intelligence (AI) will start deploying small cells, with transport and manufacturing gaining significant momentum.

 

Focus on manufacturing

With telcos and enterprises scaling up small cell deployment, telecom equipment manufacturers have also started exploring opportunities in this space. Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan aims to incentivise indigenous manufacturing of telecom and networking equipment. Thus, a number of domestic equipment manufacturers seem to be shifting gears towards indigenous development of small cells. For instance, in August 2020, VVDN Technologies signed a 5G manufacturing deal with STL to develop 5G radio products including small cells. STL has now launched a new 5G indoor small cell solution called “Garuda”. The solution serves as a single board optical-to-radio interface solution for 5G low power picocell applications. Through this solution, STL aims to tap both the local and global markets.

Recently, Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited  announced its plans to design small cells and micro cells to

drive revenues. To this end, the company plans to kick-start designing these cells at its Gurugram and Bengaluru facilities soon. The move is being undertaken to tap the ever-growing 5G ecosystem in India and fast-track 5G commercialisation.

The way forward

Overall, the small cell space seems to be abuzz with activity with stakeholders across the value chain exploring opportunities in this domain. Going forward, the commercialisation of 5G services across regions coupled with its numerous applications is going to act as a catalyst for small cell deployment. As per industry reports, global small cell deployments are expected to cross the 10 million mark by 2025.

However, to attain this level of deployment, stakeholders will need to adopt a viable business model that is beneficial for all. This would involve setting up independent infrastructure companies to deploy small cells, which could be shared among communication service providers. Besides expediting 5G roll-out and enhancing coverage, such a model could lower the capex for telcos that already have severe debt and investment commitments. Apart from this, governments need to play an active role in supporting small cell roll-out through enabling policies and a proper framework for identifying best sites, speeding up the approval process and keeping deployment costs in check. These initiatives can significantly expedite small cell deployments.