ip.access Wins Best Business Case at Small Cell Forum Awards
London, UK – 31st May 2017 – ip.access, a Mavenir company since September 2020 and the world’s leading independent small cell solution provider, today announces that it has won the Outstanding Innovation in Small Cell Business Case award for its Neutral Host Multi-Operator Small Cell solution – SUMO™ – at the Small Cell Forum Awards 2017. The honour was granted in recognition of ip.access’ innovation in enhancing the business case for small cells.
SUMO is capable of managing shared radio resources, including spectrum, on behalf of the mobile carrier, making Multi-Operator Small Cells immediately addressable by a range of stakeholders. In particular, SUMO enables the deployment of small cells by trusted 3rd parties (neutral hosts). Such 3rd parties include “towerco” companies, who already operate passive infrastructure in a shared model for mobile operators. This stands to significantly redefine the economics of indoor coverage for enterprises. Recent analysis by Wireless 20/20 shows how ip.access’ multi-carrier SUMO capabilities can deliver CapEx and OpEx savings of up to 80%.
Presenting the award, Adrian Scrase from ETSI said: “This entry sets the benchmark for bringing neutral host small cells to in-building networks, dramatically reducing CapEx, while vastly improving user experience.” Nick Johnson, CTO at ip.access commented: “Providing adequate in-building coverage is one of the biggest issues facing operators and the wider wireless industry today, especially in so-called ‘middleprise’ venues. The neutral host is vital to solving these challenges and SUMO has been developed specifically to enhance their value proposition.”
“With SUMO, everyone involved in indoor small cell deployments benefits. Building owners get better tenancy rates, mobile carriers get access to a market they couldn’t tap into before and businesses and users get the mission-critical coverage they need.”
As demand for indoor mobile coverage and capacity continues to grow rapidly, ip.access has developed a bespoke planning suite to help guide businesses as they embrace the neutral host opportunity. ip.access’ Neutral Host Business Planner qualifies the opportunities and benefits for all stakeholders, including the venue owner, Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and the Neutral Host provider. The Neutral Host Business Planner is a set of capabilities that work together to provide a technically sound, financially rigorous model for effective business planning and financial projections, including venue by venue design, short- and long-term return on investment.
