Verizon Wireless Deploys Alcatel-Lucent’s Small Cells

February 26, 2014

Due to their small size and deployments in enterprises, small cells remain a quiet revolution. You just don’t hear that much about them, unless you read the Wintergreen Research study that forecasts small cell and femtocell market shipment growth of up to $5.98 billion by 2019.

For example, Verizon Wireless, since announcing in May of last year that it would deploy small cells, has been mum on the subject. That is, until now. Last week, Verizon and Alcatel-Lucent announced the deployment of the vendor’s small cell solutions in indoor and outdoor locations, such as popular outdoor venues and dense metropolitan areas.

“For Verizon, small cells are part of a balanced approach to deliver network coverage and capacity so that our customers receive the rich user experience they have come to expect from us,” Mike Haberman, vice president, network technology for Verizon Wireless, said. “Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells enable us to strategically add coverage and capacity to high-traffic and hard-to-reach areas, both indoors and outdoors.”

Alcatel-Lucent is supplying Verizon Wireless with the lightRadio 9764 Metro Cell Outdoor and the 9768 Metro Radio Outdoor products as well as its 5620 Service Aware Manager, which provides end-to-end network and service management across all domains.

Verizon Wireless’ deployment of Alcatel-Lucent’s small cell solution is a primary example of an industry transformation in network architecture that will include large-scale integration of small cells as part of a heterogeneous network according to Steve Marino, vice president of Alcatel-Lucent’s Verizon Customer Team.

“This deployment represents not only a vote of confidence in the technology of small cells to deliver improved capacity and coverage, but also the ability of operators to overcome deployment challenges such as site selection, backhaul and installation,” he said