Following a successful Small Cells World Summit, Small Cell Forum hosted an open-workshop on Friday morning on the Release Program and the future path of the forum.

Attended by key industry analysts alongside forum members and non-members, the workshop looked at the success of the Release Program to date. Julius Robson of CBL and Nick Johnson of ip.access reviewed the reach, impact and implications of Releases Three and Four. In less than a week there were over 2000 downloads of the Release Four documents and we’re grateful to all those who have contributed so far.

Julius was then joined by Richard Deasington of iDirect who outlined the scope of Release Five which will look at the opportunities and challenges in rural and remote deployments – not just delivering coverage to fields, but also customizing small cell applications in a range of vertical sectors from military to oil and gas, shipping and even disaster recovery scenarios. Release Five: Rural & Remote will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2015. To find out how you can contribute, get in touch via [email protected] .

The final part of the workshop saw Mark Grayson of Cisco and SCF Chair Gordon Mansfield of AT&T outline the next big challenge on the horizon – virtualization. It is an area that has been growing in prominence and one in which the voice of the small cell industry needs to be heard. The workshop saw plenty of discussion between those involved in the Release Program, new members and analysts with one clear conclusion: That the Small Cell Forum has a clear opportunity to not only lead the discussion but to help define the role and opportunity for the industry.

All the presentations from the workshop can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/SmallCellForum1