MONTREAL, Canada and MIAMI, USA- September 6, 2011 -  The small cell industry is rapidly maturing, motivated by a data-driven capacity crunch and increasingly widespread advances in LTE deployments, according to the latest Maravedis market report entitled "Small Cells Market Trends and Forecasts 2011-2016".

Small cells provide technology options with the potential to meet operators' urgent short and long-term capacity requirements amid CAPEX and OPEX constraints. As mobile operators expand the number of base stations in their networks to meet capacity requirements, they are likely to benefit from increased price and technology competition among small cell vendors and decreasing hardware costs. Network vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent and IPaccess that focus on scalable software features that enable operators to deploy in volume, overcome operating issues, and decrease operating costs will position themselves for long-term sustainability.

"Adding the massive number of base stations required in the future will demand sophisticated and effective auto-configuration and auto-optimization capabilities to minimize deployment and operational costs" said Fernando Donoso, Maravedis Senior Analyst and lead author of the report.

"A vendor's SON suite, Network Management System (NMS), and OSS integration capabilities are likely to become more important to the success of the solution than the actual small cell device."

 Commenting on the findings, Ann Howe, Maravedis Research Director, said "Although the 4G small cells market is in its nascent stages, our research indicates the small cell market will see significant growth in the near term. Being first to market with optimal management software and high-capacity.

SUMMARY FINDINGS

• Maravedis forecasts that the pico and carrier femto small cell market, dominated by 4G small cells, will begin to grow in earnest in mid-to-late 2012, with rapid uptake in 2013 into 2014.
• Maravedis estimates the small cell market will reach US $5billion worldwide by 2014, approaching maturation in 2016.
• Maravedis sees carrier Wi-Fi, carrier femto and pico cells co-existing as complimentary technologies not only in the short term but in the long, with anticipated future advances in silicon breaking down the distinctions between carrier femto cells and pico cells in two to three years.

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4GGear is an ongoing research and analysis service focusing on technology and business trends among the leading LTE and WiMAX equipment vendors. Maravedis' 4Ggear research consists of deep analysis of the broadband wireless industry and individual vendors, highlighted by interviews with the key infrastructure and silicon vendors in the 4G space. unique web-based service that tracks 4G Operator deployments and provides detailed information on the worldwide 4G ecosystem.

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