Why Mavenir Sees Big Opportunities Ahead for Small Cells
*Blog by Karthik Ganesan, Vice President – Small Cells, Mavenir
Small cells are a key strategic enabler for next-generation connectivity capabilities – boosting mobile coverage and capacity in high-demand settings, from indoor to outdoor, urban to rural and beyond. In this blog, Karthik Ganesan, Vice President – Small Cells for Mavenir explains why Small Cell and Distributed Antenna System (DAS) solutions are central to Mavenir’s mission to redefine the Network of the Future – empowering Communication Service Providers (CSPs), enterprises and neutral host providers to efficiently evolve their infrastructure to keep pace with the new demands of today’s high-speed, low latency world. Including reference to two successful Small Cell and DAS deployments in Australia, an award-winning 43-storey building enterprise deployment in Perth, and another enterprise deployment from the underground carpark to the 25th storey in Sydney.
The global small cells market is at an inflection point for growth, with demand being driven by the ongoing rollout of 5G, surging mobile data consumption and the pressing need for network densification in both indoor and outdoor environments – across residential and enterprise to urban and rural settings.
According to a recent industry research report, the global small cell 5G network market size reached an estimated USD 2.76 billion in 2023, and is projected to grow to USD 125.54 billion by 2030, expanding at a CAGR of 70.7% from 2024 to 20301. In international markets where the macro 5G network deployment is already complete, the impressive optimizations in coverage and capacity that can be achieved by small cells will continue to be a powerful driver of adoption.
Improving network coverage and capacity to meet the ever-increasing application and user experience demands of both consumer and business subscribers means that both small cells and Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) have a pivotal role to play as discrete technologies. Working with our strategic partners, Mavenir is today actively deploying All-in-One (AIO) based Small Cell and Distributed Antenna System (DAS) solutions, delivering enhanced in-building 4G+5G coverage, ranging from small/medium scale enterprises, large-scale enterprises, stadiums, malls, campuses, big hospitals and dense urban environments – supporting enterprise building operators, CSPs and neutral host vendors.
In a stand-out DAS deployment in Sydney, Australia, Mavenir has collaborated with Telstra Networks, ISPT and ALLDAS Solutions to deliver 4G and 5G connectivity next-generation low power DAS to workers and visitors at the iconic ISPT Commercial building – enabling near gigabit connection speeds from the underground carpark to the 25th storey. This implementation is part of a wider future-focused partnership between Mavenir, ISPT and Telstra that is transforming office in-building connectivity with 4G+5G Low Power small cells and DAS technology, ensuring reliable, high-speed coverage in lifts, carparks and across the entire office facility footprint.
In Perth, Australia, just last month – July 2025 – Mavenir’s DAS extension technology was recognised at the Property Council WA Awards, with 43-storey building operator QV1 securing Best Innovation Award for its enhanced in-building 4G and 5G mobile connectivity experience – one of Australia’s first Active DAS implementations for in-building mobile coverage. This milestone DAS upgrade to Active Mobile Antennas and end-to-end optic fibre cabling significantly reduced deployment cost and complexity versus legacy coaxial-based passive solutions. The solution is now delivering seamless 4G and 5G connectivity to tenants across all 60,000sqm of the tower, and was achieved in partnership with CBRE Asia Pacific, siteXcell, Telstra, OneWiFi & Infrastructure and Mavenir as key technology solution partner.
Mavenir has also been an early pioneer in the provision of high-performance private networks for a wide range of industry use cases. Our cloud-native small cell solutions are today supporting mission-critical private network applications across enterprise, industrial and campus environments – spanning Industry 4.0 in manufacturing and factory automation, healthcare, retail, hospitality, aviation, maritime, security and first responder applications. When it comes to small cells, with the plug-n-play model, supporting in-building connectivity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is where specialized solutions really hit their stride – minimizing the complexity and cost often associated with implementing large-scale infrastructure. Compact and low-power small cells can offer the affordability and flexibility needed to achieve a rapid and cost-effective deployment Mavenir is working hard to serve this key SME market with our comprehensive portfolio of carrier-grade, multi-G small cell solutions that are specifically designed to be easy to deploy, fully automated, highly scalable and adaptable.
As an example, our GRID/Mesh Mode All-in-One Small Cell solution is currently proving to be a game-changer for enterprise in-building applications where deploying DAS is prohibitively complex or expensive. Here, small cells work together as a resilient, decentralized mesh to deliver a highly cost-efficient, seamless boost in cellular coverage and capacity across a building. With no extra infrastructure requirement and fitting in with the existing enterprise network infrastructure already deployed on site, this innovation offers plug-and-play flexibility that maximizes existing investments in connectivity.
Now, Mavenir is powering ahead with the development of a new breed of small cells, to include high-power variants for outdoor metro, rural and private network use cases. At Mobile World Congress Barcelona earlier this year, Mavenir and our partner EdgeQ (a leader in 4G,5G wireless infrastructure) were proud to unveil the next generation of indoor and outdoor small cells – the industry’s first software-defined small cells optimized for neutral host and urban densification applications.
The cloud-native programmable small cells support both 4G and 5G spectrum bands on a single chip, allowing operators to dynamically reconfigure and elastically scale from 4G to 5G without any hardware change, redesign, or reinstallation. This platform also supports advanced features like network slicing, Simultaneous NSA/SA support NSA to SA migration, TDD and FDD migration, and multi-carrier support. This introduces new capabilities aimed at enterprise and neutral host providers for indoor environments, plus CSPs needing cutting-edge outdoor equipment to support urban densification. With our latest innovations, Mavenir is effectively changing the economics of 4G and 5G deployments – reducing energy consumption, simplifying deployment and ensuring long-term return on investment.
Looking ahead, AI may deliver another major inflection point for small cell adoption. There are already exciting possibilities for the potential of AI capabilities and datasets to provide transformative assistance in small cell deployments – augmenting key tasks including initial site selection, automated network design and planning, traffic patterns and user density analysis, and optimization of Self-Organizing Networks. From minimizing the risk of interference and enhancing coordination with the macro network, to strengthening the business case and demonstrating ROI for operators, AI is undoubtedly set to have a disruptive impact that could see a dramatic acceleration in deployment timescales, improved visibility and monitoring of small cell networks, and reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for operators.
With proven end-to-end solutions across DAS and small cell technology – and spanning residential to enterprise, urban to rural applications and beyond – Mavenir continues to address all aspects of indoor and outdoor connectivity through the application of next-generation densification technologies that meet the full range of public and private network use cases.
Wherever small cells have a role to play, Mavenir will be at the forefront of the industry – committed to delivering the most advanced capabilities to our customers and leading the charge for the adoption of open standards-based solutions to catalyze the next wave of truly transformative innovation for customers everywhere. Visit Small Cell Solutions – Mavenir to find out more.
- Grand View Research report, April 2024, Small Cell 5G Network Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Component (Hardware, Services), By Network Model, By Network Architecture, By Deployment Mode, By Frequency Type, By End-use, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2024 – 2030
- Mavenir Collaboration with Three UK and Red Hat Doubles Glasgow 5G Speeds in UK-First Open RAN Small Cells Roll-Out – Mavenir
