Adoption of carrier Wi-Fi and small cells grows strong

DUBLIN, IRELAND: The recent Research and Markets report has revealed that the global heterogeneous network market to grow at a CAGR of 27.9 percent over the period 2014-2018. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the inexorable demand for mobile broadband.

The global heterogeneous network market has also been witnessing the emergence of Wi-Fi-enabled small cells. However, the interference issues could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

The key vendors dominating this market space are Alcatel-Lucent SA, Airvana LLC, Cisco Systems Inc., Ericsson AB, Ruckus Wireless Inc., and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

An analyst from the team said: The adoption of carrier Wi-Fi and small cells is rising impressively in the global telecom industry. The small cell base stations supporting Wi-Fi capabilities are expected to emerge in the small cell configuration. With the increasing need of offloading the cellular traffic onto an alternative network, the Wi-Fi is making its way into the carrier domain.

Driven by large-scale adoption and the omnipresence of Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronic devices, the industry is expected to see the integration of Wi-Fi with the small cell base stations. Such devices have interfaces for the Wi-Fi and typical public telecom technologies at both the telecom network side and the end-user device.

According to the report, the market is driven by several factors, one of which is the unrelenting demand for mobile data applications. The steady increase in data traffic caused by smart devices plays a major role in driving the demand for carrier Wi-Fi equipment.