Small cell shipments to hit 5 MIllion units annually by 2017
Market research firm ARCchart forecasts that there will be 5 million shipments per annum of small cells by 2017. In contrast 1.4 million macrocells will ship in 2017. This represents remarkable growth in the small cell market as it forecasts just 261,00 annual shipments for 2012.
Carriers need to expand the capacity in their mobile networks without relying on traditional base station deployments and small cells play a key role, particularly in dense urban areas.