LONDON, UK: Eighty three per cent of mobile operators interviewed by Infonetics have already deployed small cells (predominantly microcells and picocells), and the remaining will deploy them by the end of 2012, finds Infonetics Research in its latest survey.

Richard Webb, directing analyst for mobile offload and mobile broadband devices at Infonetics Research, said: "For our femtocell coverage strategies survey, we interviewed mobile operators from around the world that have deployed small cells (microcells, picocells, and/or public space femtocells) or plan to in 2012. Five (28%) are already running commercial public space femtocells networks, and almost half will do so sometime this year. Clearly, femtocells are growing beyond their original residential target market, moving into public space coverage, and becoming a full member of the 'small cells' set."

In-building coverage and data optimization are the top-rated drivers for operators deploying femtocells/small cells, followed by the non-expandability of the macro network due to the increasing difficulty of adding new cell sites.

"Our survey reflects the fact that we are at the beginning of the mobile world's transition from macro-centric to the next generation environment of small cells augmenting the macro RAN as mobile operators attempt to deliver ubiquitous coverage and high capacity in areas of dense user population and high broadband usage," notes Richard.

Although 61 per cent of the operators see potential interferences with the macrocell network as the top technical challenge when deploying small cells, only 50 per cent rate it a strong barrier to adopting small cells.

The percentage of mobile operators deploying public space femtocells (also called "metro femtocells") is growing from 28 per cent in late 2011 to 44 per cent in 2012 to improve mobile coverage and capacity in large areas of high footfall, such as retail malls, airports, and public buildings.

The rise of carrier-WiFi (SIM-based WiFi access points that enable seamless handover between WiFi and cellular networks) could inhibit the opportunity for public space femtocells for offloading data from the macro network.