Second edition of 'HetNet & Small Cells Congress' concludes on a successful note

Second edition of India's biggest ever 'HetNet & Small Cells Congress', an international Conference cum exhibition concludes on a highly successful note. The congress was organized by Nexgen Conferences, one of India's leading conferences and B2B event organizers. The day-long congress was held at ITC Maratha in Mumbai.

The congress and exhibition brought together key industry players, stakeholders, thought leaders, analysts and professionals from well-known organizations across the ICT industry. The congress also provided an opportunity for delegates to discuss, and explore cutting edge technology solutions to deploy heterogeneous networks and small cells in the country to ensure seamless and secure end-to-end network connectivity for customers.

Speaking on the occasion, Radhey Shyam Sarda, Senior Solution Director, Huawei India said, "Small Cell is a key to thriving indoor digital economy. For operators, next decade of revenue growth will come from Mobile data and digital services."

The Congress laid more emphasis on the importance of confluence of small cells and heterogeneous networks in driving the Network evolution towards HetNet.

Addressing the gathering, Marko Babovic, Head of Product Line Indoors, Ericsson Networks Infrastructure Division, Ericsson said, "To meet the high requirements of network subscribers and to tackle the challenges of urbanizing environments, we need to take a new approach to network performance. Small Cells alone improve the network performance in certain areas, but integrated Small Cells (macro and small cells combined) deliver high per-user capacity and rate coverage everywhere, with the potential to improve performance in the macro network by offloading traffic generated in hotspots."

Radhey from Huawei further added, "More Than 80 percent of data traffic is consumed from indoor locations. Indoor small cell can absorb this traffic with much better user experience and also enable a number of digital services creating new revenue stream and stickiness."

Denish NG, Director, Marketing and Infrastructure Solutions, Rosenberger said, "The Indian telecom industry has witnessed increasing investments in HetNet infrastructure with the deployment of C-RAN (Cloud Radio Access Networks) architectures, traditional macrocell base stations, small cells and DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems) networks, over past few years. HetNet involves a combination of radio technologies and cell types that hold enormous potential to lower CAPEX and OPEX for mobile operators."

As per a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India report of May 2017, there are 1,180.82 million wireless subscribers. According to TRAI data, the total number of broadband subscribers in the country at the end of May 2017 was 291.61 million. Of this, access through mobile devices accounted for nearly 273.38 million. With the growing number of smartphone users, the demand for high-speed internet connectivity and seamless network is going to increase exponentially over the next few years.

"Digitization is the unique road of Indoor MBB to 5G," Radhey Shyam from Huawei added.

Aman Roy Chowdhury, MD, Radwin India said, "We need to take the latest in the world of technology and leverage it in order to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving global ICT landscape. Deployment of heterogeneous networks by incorporating WiFi hotspots and mobile small cells into traditional cellular network will enhance network coverage and capacity, improve Quality of Experience, and subsequently deliver advanced wireless solutions."

Anjani Kumar Singh, CEO, Nexgen Conferences said, "The Second edition of HetNet and Small Cells Congress provided a platform for telecom industry professionals to analyze and discuss the prowess of small cells and heterogeneous networks in building the next-generation network. There were highly interactive panel discussions, keynote sessions and exhibitions which eventually served as a great networking opportunity for all the participants. We are overwhelmed by the response to this congress and we have been successful in our endeavor in bringing the ICT industry together at a common platform to showcase the latest technology innovations and deliberate on the way forward."

The congress was supported by well-known organizations such as Huawei, Ericsson, Rosenberger, Aricent, RADWIN, Delta, COAI, Broadband India Forum, ITU - APT Foundation of India and TAIPA.