Our last blog focused on one of two major Milan themes: virtualisation. But an equally demanding — and exciting — theme will be high on the agenda at that event: rural and remote small cell rollout. But Release Five will go a lot further than just tackling deployment in villages and other isolated population centres. Remote industry — mining, logging or oil and gas exploration and production — will be covered. So too will maritime, aviation and rail transport. Disaster recovery where temporary small cell-based solutions may be needed is also relevant to this Release.

Nor is the focus of this Release solely on consumers: M2M and the Internet of Things will be driving communication needs on installations where nobody lives or works regularly but where machines need to be able to communicate with each other or distant offices. That too is taken into account. It’s an expansive brief and one that certainly requires contributions from many of our members working across numerous business cases and areas of expertise. We’re keen to hear more from you on how you think small cells can enhance tomorrow’s communications far beyond the office and high street and all the way to the oil rig, automated factory and high speed train.

 

There’s no doubt that Release Five and virtualization will be major — and occasionally overlapping — themes of the Milan meeting, themes that we hope you will play a part in enhancing and evolving.

 

The fact that such challenging themes are now at the forefront of SCF planning says a lot about this business. The ambition for the small cell future that this plenary and its program together underscore is a tribute to some extraordinary achievements in recent years and a reminder that many more are on the way. It promises to be an exciting few days in Milan. We’re looking forward to meeting you there.

 

Find out more https://www.smallcellforum.org/plenary/program/