Vodafone’s corporate customers in New Zealand will be the first to benefit from its trial of “Small Cells”, which deliver significantly enhanced mobile coverage and capacity via a plug-in 10kg cell site in a box.
Small Cells take less than a day to set-up and install, plug into mains power, and can be installed on the side of a wall, in a cupboard, on a utility post, or outdoors – with low visual impact. The boxed cell sites deliver high speed mobile data – 42 Mbps download speeds – and can carry 180 simultaneous phone calls.
Tony Baird, head, Networks, Vodafone said, “Small Cells are the stepping stone to fifth generation (5G) deployment, and hold the key to future mobile coverage in built-up urban areas. With urban networks now quite well established, and space becoming a premium on streets, Small Cells can provide a smart solution for businesses in areas with poor coverage.”
“The technology is low-cost and low-fuss, while providing impressive capacity and coverage for its size – which cannot be affected by external demands on capacity or issues. We see the technology being particularly useful for serving businesses, supermarkets, localised hot spots, and places with high foot traffic like malls and food courts,” added Baird.
An additional benefit of Small Cells is the ability for customers to add other useful business services from Vodafone – like SIP trunking – using the fibre backhaul with the box.
Stephen McFeeley, managing director, Nokia Australia and New Zealand said, “Our Small Cells product is an example of innovation in the industry. It offers smart and compact solutions that Vodafone is now using to provide coverage and capacity to key customers across New Zealand.”
Vodafone’s trial of Small Cells is another enhancement to its comprehensive portfolio of coverage solutions and testing of 4G Small Cells will begin next month. Small Cells will eventually support both Wi-Fi and 4G.
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