TMCnews Featured Article

In connection with the upcoming World’s Communications Conference in Austin in September, TMC’s CEO, Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) interviewed AirWalk (News - Alert) Communications’ Serge Pequeux, President and CEO.

Discussing the small cell wireless space, where AirWalk is one of the more well-known firms, Pequeux said they’re known as micro cells or metro cells, among other names, and AirWalk specializes in making them “small, inexpensive and easy to deploy.”

The future is in small cells, liquid networks and seamless networks jumping from larger to smaller cells, Tehrani noted. Pequeux agreed, saying in the past, macro systems were designed to cover large areas and along highways. But today with data devices requiring more and more data, what’s needed is more feature sets driven by the network itself. And that’s where small cells have an advantage, particularly with their high capacity.

Yes, smart phones, iPads and other data-gobbling devices are having an effect. AT&T (News - Alert) said recent data demands on their network have increased by 8,000 percent. So that’s why your iPhone can never complete a call in Manhattan without getting the call dropped.

Small cells in local areas can help ameliorate this congestion. AirWalk is coming out with products for the enterprise market, for hotels, such as in busy lobbies. “These units need to be small and simple to maintain,” Pequeux said, with networks making smooth handoffs to clear up such annoyances as pretty much being able to count on calls being dropped when moving from outside to indoors.

Pequeux discussed some uses for such cells in homes -- imagine putting a screen on your refrigerator and being able to send messages to it. And he sees possible uses for cars as well. “We see a bright future” with the orders coming in, he said, “the enterprise unit has been a very successful product for us.”