Small cellular base stations or small cells are low-powered radio access points that improve 3G and 4G cellular coverage in order to increase capacity and backhaul traffic at a lower cost.

Small cells, which consist of femtocells, picocells and macrocells, allow mobile operators to deploy IP based devices using the existing IP infrastructure while providing a seamless evolution to IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert) (IMS).Recently, Strategy Analytics released a complimentary Executive Summary, ‘Too Good to be True? Small Cells Solve the Capacity Crunch and Improve Service.’

According to Strategy Analytics (News - Alert), the next generation small cells will match the challenge of mobile broadband traffic growth through 2017 with new capacity, premium data coverage and dynamic load management across multiple wireless access networks.

The executive summary is prepared based on recent analyses of small cell economics, market opportunities and Public Femto, Pico, Metro and Macro Cell shipment projections.

Strategy Analytics finds that small cells will bridge the capacity gap for 3G networks until new spectrum is available. They will multiple the capacities from new spectrum and spectral efficiency by three to five times to relieve the capacity crunch.

“Mobile broadband operators are being challenged to bring new capacity to market that delivers high quality content everywhere, at ever increasing speeds to match the performance of the fixed Internet,” Phil Kendall, director Wireless Operator Strategies (WOS), in a statement. “Small cells now offer a cost effective way to enhance Macro Cell coverage to meet that promise.”

Among different types of small cells, public Femto Cells lead shipment volumes for the next two years, and then Pico Cells will overtake Public Femtos. Metro Cells will eventually overtake Macro Cells in unit volume.

Strategy Analytics, however, states that not all small cells are alike. It has identified seven use cases where different small cell types meet different requirements. They cover a wide range of scenarios from urban ‘Hot Zones’, to football stadiums or peripheral rural coverage areas were created.

“For each case we estimated the Total Available Market (TAM) and the likely penetration rate to project the Served Available Market (SAM) for the relevant cell types through 2017,” said Sue Rudd, director Service Provider Analysis.

“The Use Cases indicate potentially profitable segments for multiple differentiated vendors,” Rudd added.

Leading small cell vendors targeting these small cell opportunities include Airspan, Airvana, Alcatel Lucent, Bel-Air Networks, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, ip-access, Intel, NEC, Nokia Siemens (News - Alert) Networks, Qualcomm, Samsung, Taqua and Ubiquisys.

A recent TMCnet piece says small cells also have certain limitations and telecom providers have been aware of these limitations since before the mass appeal of smartphones and other mobile devices utilizing data applications.

These limitations include the fact that  femtocell wasn't the best solution for handing off a call when the user was on the move. In the femtocell area, the hand off wasn't always very consistent.

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