Telecom network vendor Alcatel-Lucent has started the commercial deployment of residential multi-standard small cell devices.

Alcatel-Lucent did not reveal additional details on the deployment of the small cells and locations or telecom operator clients.

According to a report published by Markets and Markets, the global Small Cell networks market will grow from $1.06 billion in 2015 to $3.92 billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 29.80 percent during the forecast period.

Some of the major vendors in the Small Cell networks market are Alcatel-Lucent, Airvana, Huawei, Nokia Networks, ZTE, and ip.access. North America is expected to be the largest market in terms of market size and technological advancements.

Alcatel-Lucent said its small cell technology — developed in association with chip major Qualcomm — will allow telecom operators to extend 3G and 4G LTE connectivity and voice and data coverage into homes.

The Alcatel-Lucent 9961 Multi-Standard Home Cell (MSHC) can support both 3G and LTE connectivity on a single chipset. The FSM9900 series Qualcomm chipset provides the ability to migrate the radio access technologies from 3G to 4G.

The FSM9900 chipset from Qualcomm enables low-power, plug-and-play with UltraSONTM, small form factor small cells that are software configurable to simultaneously support WCDMA and LTE terminals.

“We believe that Wi-Fi is an extremely important part of the wireless user experience, and believe the commercial availability of the 9961 MSHC is an important step towards building unified wireless networks that combine the best of cellular and unlicensed technologies,” said Mike Schabel, vice president of the Small Cells Business, of Alcatel-Lucent.

Baburajan K
[email protected]