The momentum continues to grow for SCF's work in enabling the digitised enterprise, densification and lighting the path to 5G and in strengthening its efforts in laying the groundwork for robust and interoperable 5G networks.
The new members - Ciena, Druid, Fastback Networks, InCoax, NextNav, Plasma Antennas, Raycap, Shenzen Gongjin Electronics Co and Technicolor - further expand the Forum’s breadth of expertise.
“Small cells are now widely accepted as the key way in which large scale capacity will be delivered across mobile networks. Therefore, it remains critical that the whole telecoms and services ecosystem is ready to support the growing wave of small cell deployments both on today’s LTE networks as well as future evolutions,” said David Orloff, chair of Small Cell Forum.
“I am delighted to welcome our new members, each of whom will bring their own knowledge and insight, helping the Forum as we accelerate towards a 5G future.”
As networks continue to densify and evolve, Small Cell Forum is becoming an increasingly vital hub for industry activity around densification and 5G. It is gathering many inputs from a wide range of members and partner organisations, and is starting to coordinate these to create a unified output which will underpin future platforms
Tormod Larsen, chief technology officer of ExteNet, said: “Data capacity continues to grow more critical to address the needs of today’s data-intensive users, and small cells offer highly scalable, flexible and high-capacity solutions for both indoor and outdoor use. The Small Cell Forum (SCF) is an important organisation to drive understanding and awareness of the value of this technology. As long-time SCF members, we chose to join the board to bring our expertise of more than decade of experience in building, designing, deploying and managing multi-carrier and multi-use solutions to help advance the organisation’s mission.”
Small Cell Forum also announced its newly elected board, which will continue to be chaired by AT&T’s David Orloff. The new board comprises:
• Piyush Raj, American Tower
• Prabhakar Chitrapu, AT&T
• Luigi Tarlazzi, CommScope
• Mark Reudink, Crown Castle
• Martin Ljungberg, Ericsson
• Tormod Larsen, ExteNet Systems
• Nansen Ding, Huawei
• Mike Cronin, Node-H
• Randy Cox, Nokia
• Caleb Banke, Qualcomm Technologies Inc.
• Tareq Amin, Reliance Jio
• Aya Mukaikubo, SoftBank Corp
• Art King, SpiderCloud Wireless
“Small Cell Forum is an influential body and pragmatic decision-making authority that has continually advanced the case for ubiquitous connectivity over the last 10 years,” added Piyush Raj, director of technology innovation for American Tower. “We are looking forward to participating on the board to help deliver innovative solutions and expert guidance to help ensure the best and most efficient possible outcomes for future networks.”
“We are excited to join other industry leaders on SCF’s Board to help continue its rapid and successful progress, both in accelerating deployments today and also plotting a roadmap to future platforms and 5G,” said Bo Piekarski, VP of product development at Crown Castle.
“Crown Castle is committed to active participation in key standards and leadership bodies, helping to shape and grow the mobile wireless industry.”Existing members include: BT, Cable & Wireless, China Telecom, Ericsson, Huawei, iBwave, Intel, KT Corporation, Nokia, Orange and Telefónica. Collectively, SCF operator members serve more than 2 billion subscribers and operate more than 15 million hotspots globally.
