Small Cell Forum holds its European Plenary in Rome next week (September 13-15), and it will be the most important in its history.
Attendees will receive unique insights into the Forum’s two new work streams – Deploying Hyperdense Networks, and Enabling Digitized Enterprise – which together will address critical concerns for mobile operators and enterprises, and plot a workable path to 5G.
These two work programs are the culmination of years of work by Forum members, which have helped create a vibrant small ecosystem which is powering the emerging HetNet and laying the foundations for 5G. Attendees in Rome will learn full details of the Forum’s roadmap and will have the chance to input to the process and influence essential elements of the next generation wireless platform.
The three-day meeting will give attendees the chance to discuss key HetNet and 5G issues with a wide range of participants, including operators, vendors and enterprises.
There will be an intensified focus on enterprise issues. As so many commercial and vertical organizations are seeking to be mobile-first and to support new services for customers and employees, in-building small cells are becoming indispensable, highlighted by the sharp increase in adoption over the past year. But a survey of over 500 companies, conducted for the Forum late last year, found that many enterprises still need more information before they take the plunge – so creating a wide range of practical guidelines, in the language of business not technology, will be a priority within the Enabling Digitized Enterprise stream.
Of course, 5G will be another focus. At Mobile World Congress and other events this year, the Forum has laid out its HetNet architecture, which provides fully deployable building blocks to enable new networks and business models now, and uses open interfaces to ensure a seamless path to 5G, whatever its precise definitions. Hyperdensity will be an important aspect of 5G, and the Rome event will be a chance to discuss and influence how that can be achieved in a deployable and cost-effective way in real world scenarios.
A major workshop will take place in Rome, bringing together a large number of vendors and operators which are active in 5G, to discuss the priorities for development of a dense, interoperable and flexible 5G framework with real commercial relevance. Participants will include AT&T, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, Microsemi, Nokia, Parallel Wireless, SpiderCloud and Vodafone.
We’re excited about the work ahead, which will tie together so many of the efforts and achievements of recent years and will provide a workable vision of 5G. Come and join us in Rome to have your say in a program which will be essential in defining the next generation of mobile platforms and services.