WNA

It’s tempting to think that Sprint or Dish could use rooftops as a basestation platform for urban small cells. But will that be practical anytime soon? I have no clue. Wireless backhaul is currently running $10K a link while a small cell basestation unit can run another $10K or more. That’s a lot of money to serve a small, low density area.

Traffic growth and spectrum exhaustion will necessitate the further rollout of small cell networks. In this video, DragonWave discusses the key elements for successful small cell deployments.

RF Transmission Engineer Chris Crosby, who engineered & built some of the first licensed Exalt installs for nTelos, which has a partnership with Sprint, says they used Exalt ExploreAir radios for backhaul, which come in a variety of frequencies and bandwidths.

ExploreAir all-outdoor radios, are currently available in the ANSI/FCC 6, 11, 18 and 23 GHz bands, the 28, 29 and 31 GHz LMDS bands and the ITU/ETSI 11, 13, 15, 18, 23 38 and 42 GHz bands. They run about $10K a link.

nTelos uses both Ericsson basestations and those from Alcatel-Lucent. He says that nTelos will add 800 & 2500MHz to their current 1900MHz LTE platform, so Sprint customer may roam with “The Full Monty” of connectivity in nTelos territory.

China Mobile wants to put the basestation in a datacenter. They communicate with small cell using fiber. Will Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft get on that train?

Only if the price is right.

Dish and Sprint have the spectrum. Otherwise, a greenfield wireless operator will need a cool $12 Billion for 10 x 10 MHz at 600 MHz. Google, Facebook (and Amazon) make money though advertising, so Voice over LTE and rooftop small cells could be just the ticket for disruptive pricing. But the technology may need more time.

Related Dailywireless articles include; Ruckus Announces Carrier-Grade WiFi Management, Dish to Launch Commercial Fixed Wireless in July?, What’s inside Google’s Fiber Huts?, Google Fiber Going Wireless?, Intel: Basestation in the Cloud, Google Fiber Expands to More Cities, Google Fiber Launches in Kansas City , FCC Authorizes High Power at 5.15 – 5.25 GHz, Ad-Sponsored WiFi Initiatives from Gowex & Facebook, Comcast Creates Hotspot 2.0 National Network, FCC Moves to Add 195 MHz to Unlicensed 5 GHz band