Anyone who doubts the importance of small cell technology as it relates to the future of expanding networks needs to be given a voice, but that may soon change. Currently, only 2 percent of network operators believe small cells don’t play a significant part in the infrastructure of tomorrow.

According to a recent report from Informa (News - Alert) Telecoms and Media, featured in a Billing World piece, the majority of operators are integrating small cells and public Wi-Fi into their platforms.

The report reveals that nine out of the 10 largest operators on the globe are currently working with small cell deployments.

AT&T said recently that starting in the first quarter of 2013, the company will deploy 40k public-access small cells. It’s expected that other telecom giants – Sprint (News - Alert) and Verizon – will follow suit.

Over the next five years, according to the report, small cell deployment will be driven by LTE, but there’s a growing interest in LTE (News - Alert)-A technology that could also be pushing the small cell deployments.

Taqua, a company that develops next-generation telecommunication systems and applications, is also a top supplier of convergence switching, IP peering and small cell deployment solutions. The company’s approach to small cells is based on the needs of operators.

Mobile operators must evolve their infrastructure to keep up with the demand of their customers, which are increasingly plugged in and pushing the current infrastructure to its limits. Operators are experiencing a network capacity issue, and small cells like those developed at Taqua (News - Alert) are easing those tensions.

Operators are deploying Taqua’s small cells so that their range can be extended and their services improved. Once deployed, operators are finding that their subscriber churn is reduced and satisfaction improved. Services to homes and enterprises are affected through Taqua’s small cells, which are operating over unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum.

Taqua leverages mobile core systems and practices that are already established to run its TCS6100, the small cell core that delivers macro network features that small cell services rely on.

This method meets the reliability and quality standards of all carriers, and the cost of deployment is kept low as operators use these existing infrastructures.

Operators are also able to offer IP-based applications that expand the capacity of networks, which allows for easier migration to new IMS architectures and VoIP technology without getting into complete restructuring of the mobile core.

The TCS6100 operates as a SIP-MSC (News - Alert)/IWF in the pre-IMS network. But the technology operates as an SIP multimedia telephony application server in the IMS network. With this approach to deploying small cells, operators can streamline the process of expanding capacity with a more cost-effective method. 

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