Sue Monahan, CEO Small Cell Forum
On the 20th to the 21st of April, Small Cells Asia will be taking place in Singapore. As one of the leading partners of Small Cells Asia, the Small Cell Forum recognises the importance of the event as demand for small cells in the Asia Pacific region is set to increase dramatically in the next four years.
Asia is currently home to more small cell deployments than any other region, with over half a million small cell shipments in 2014 alone – ranging from solutions to provide high capacity data services to mass deployments, to simple solutions for areas without coverage. As mobile data traffic rapidly increases around the world, a recent report by Cisco has suggested that the Asia Pacific region will generate 47% of all mobile data traffic by 2017.
Forecasts predict that global mobile data traffic could be as high as 11.2EB by 2017 meaning the Asia Pacific region will account for roughly 5.2EB. With such a fast moving and varied market, this is a region full of opportunity.
One of the biggest areas of opportunity lies in the enterprise market segment, as enterprise customers begin to be made aware of the substantial business benefits that mobile technology can offer. The opportunity network coverage in and near commercial spaces offers, coupled with the demand from workers for improved coverage makes the enterprise space an interesting place to be.
The huge increase in traffic caused by an increase in demand for data and video content from smartphones and other wireless devices means network coverage solutions like small cells are set to play a vital role in expanding the coverage capacity for wireless networks over the next few years.
The densification of networks through small cells is also a key element of smart city initiatives in Asia like Singapore’s Smart Nation Platform (SNP), which aims to give a strong boost to the country’s existing infrastructure. On top of enhancing existing connectivity with HetNet technologies, the SNP is aimed at bringing together a nationwide sensor network and data analytics abilities, providing better situational awareness through data collection, and efficient sharing of collected sensor data.
Small Cells Asia offers the opportunity for leading industry players to define the small cell agenda for the Asia Pacific Market. The event hosted over two days provides the opportunity for mobile network decision makers from around the world to create partnerships and discuss the best practices for dealing with the growing demand for mobile network coverage.
Small Cell Forum’s Chairman, Alan Law; Vice President, Andy Germano and I will be speaking at the event and involved in the panel discussions, so stop by and have a conversation with us if you get the chance!
Following on from Small Cells Asia, we’ll be holding our plenary meetings from 22nd – 23rd April in Singapore. These crucial meetings will shape the focus for the Forum, both in the Asian market and the rest of the world and will also include discussions on smarter small cell/WiFi integration, evolving SON and the role of small cells in the development of M2M.