The explosion in popularity of Mobile Broadband is causing congestion on the mobile networks resulting in a less than optimal customer experience.
Bringing the mobile network capacity as close as possible to the user (using small-cell technology) while also off-loading from the overloaded macro layer, will be key to sustaining the demand for mobile broadband. Today, 3G femto cells provided in the Residential, Enterprise and Outdoor spaces provide the solution to this problem. They can improve coverage while simultaneously offloading traffic, thus reducing congestion. They are a platform on which new and innovative services can be built thereby accelerating the demand for these small cells (in turn again helping to reduce congestion). The Small Cell SIG covered the underlying technology supporting small cell deployments.
The Small Cell SIG is now part of the Mobile Networks SIG.