As mobile data demand continues to grow, driven by video streaming, IoT and remote working, mobile operators are being placed under greater pressure to improve coverage and capacity. Small cells are playing a vital role in meeting this demand and supporting the continued rollout of 5G technology.
Despite strong forecasts, the actual number of small cell deployments has consistently fallen short of expectations over the past decade. This gap can largely be attributed to challenges in site selection, high deployment costs and difficulties in demonstrating clear business value. However, recent findings from the Small Cell Forum highlight a renewed opportunity for progress through the adoption of new technologies.
According to the report, “Technology and business innovations are addressing traditional barriers, enabling new economics, new use cases and opening up networks to many potential network deployers and operators.” These advancements could drive a 12% increase in small cell deployment between 2024 and 2030 and support the continued 5G rollout.
Several of our technologies are already in use to support intelligent small cell deployment:
Aptus passively collects anonymous network performance data and can be embedded into any IOS or Android application. The crowdsourced data provides insights into end user's network experience and enables rapid data collection.
Benefit: Crowdsourcing data from users enables rapid data collection to reveal insights into network performance and demonstrate where networks are under the most demand. These insights can then be used to strategically deploy small cell units to improve 5G network coverage.
The platform enables geospatial and crowdsourced data to be visualised in a single view. Supplementary data streams, such as coverage predictions or maintenance tickets, an be included to provide additional insights.
Benefit: Visualising crowdsourced data on a GIS platform supports teams to effectively plan small cell deployment to maximise impact on 5G network coverage. Using a single, web-based platform to visualise and analyse the data enables improves operational efficiency and cross-team collaboration.
Our dashboard and reporting module enables boards to be designed around one set of metrics or expanded to include data from multiple sources: network information, OSS KPIs, crowdsource and other measurement data.
Benefit: The module provides full customisation capabilities to extract insights from the data. Teams are able to monitor specific datapoints, such as comparing network performance before and after deploying a new small cell unit to monitor the impact.
AutoMobile & Beacon:
Data collected using our network testing devices complements crowdsourced data. AutoMobile and Beacon devices can be used to collect network data from a specific area before and after small cell deployment.
Benefit: Units can be used to collect data before and after deployment to validate the small cell placement to provide teams with data that can be used to guide future small cell deployment.
As end-user’s expectations of their mobile network connectivity evolve and the demand for 5G increases, operators must move beyond estimated coverage maps and use real experience data to guide network improvements. Crowdsource data, especially when integrated with business and network data streams, offers a practical and scalable way to intellligently plan small cell deployments with precision and confidence.
Learn more about how our technologies can support your small cell strategy with real-world data and practical planning tools. Contact the team today.
