Sue Monahan, CEO, Small Cell Forum

Great news in the media this week with Verizon announcing that it is setting aside $500 million for small cells as part of a strategy to bolster network capacity amid growing interest from towns and cities. Executive Vice President of Networks at Verizon, Tony Melone confirmed, “small cell deployments will be an increasingly cost effective way to add capacity, while at the same time improving cell edge performance and thus further increasing the value of the spectrum we currently hold.”

The news reported by media outlets such as LightReading came as Verizon was outlining its recent $10.43 billion spend on AWS spectrum in the FCC’s recent auction. Even with available AWS spectrum the carrier confirmed that small cells are top of its priority list due to the changing market dynamics, which are making small cells more attractive.

These changing market dynamics Verizon was referring to seem to focus on the fact that customers are now becoming much more receptive to small cells while continuing technology enhancements mean that operators can get the capacity gains they crave at a compelling price.

With all the work we at the Forum have doing to highlight the opportunities that small cells can offer, it’s fantastic to see Verizon making such a significant investment in the future of the technology.