New-Tech Europe Magazine | March 2018

Qualcomm FSM. Among many others, this showcase included the Sprint Magic Box (developed by Airspan) that was selected as the winner of “Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough” at GLOMO 2018 Awards, as well as the new Samsung Small Cell portfolio announced at MWC Americas a few months prior. MWC serves as a good barometer to track how the industry is evolving and I use it as a talking point to answer questions I often get concerning the state of the Small Cell market. Following is a summary of my impressions, taking this year’s show into account: MWC 2016 – OEM product introductions on the rise and deployment barriers begin to decline MWC 2017 – Small Cell product innovation (e.g., LAA and Carrier Aggregation) and MNO deployments on the rise with increasing product

availability and diminishing barriers MWC 2018 – MNO deployments well established with global traction and technology innovation expanding to include LTE-IoT, 3.5GHz CBRS, 256QAM, while excitement builds in preparation for 5G networks This begs the question of what will be the state of the market for MWC 2019. In my opinion, I believe there is evidence to suggest we may be talking about 1) real deployment traction around shared (e.g., 3.5 GHz CBRS) and unlicensed (e.g., LAA) Small Cells, 2) IoT enablement (via

LTE-IoT), and 3) new deployment models designed to simplify Small Cell procurement and installation for enterprises, health care facilities, small businesses and consumers. I also believe the trend of attaching Wi-Fi to Small Cells may continue and expand to include next-generation Wi-Fi that is also on the rise and will continue to play an important role in modern networks. All these factors are designed to support an enhanced user experience and lay a solid foundation for the 5G-era.

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