SpiderCloud Wireless has said that its indoor enterprise wireless system will be LTE-ready from mid-2013.
The small cell vendor sells its E-RAN (Enterprise RAN) solution, a combination of Power-over-Ethernet capable radio nodes with an on site controller node, termed the Small Cells Services Node (SCSN). Until now the radio nodes have offered 3G and WiFi radio capability. From the middle of 2013 SpiderCloud will have an LTE+WiFi radio node available, according to CMO Ronny Haraldsvik. The company will also make the SCSN software-upgradeable to support LTE.
The introduction of LTE will mean that SpiderCloud will offer the following Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) capable enterprise small cells with transmit power options of 100-to-250 mW:
- SCRN-200: 16/32 channels 3G Small Cell
- SCRN-300: 16/32 3G channels and dual-radio Wi-Fi Small Cell
- SCRN-210: 64 4G/LTE channels with 2×2 MIMO Small Cell
Ronny Haraldsvik, CMO, said that the company was making its LTE announcement now, months ahead of availability, to make it clear to the market that LTE is and will be part of the portfolio, offering operators a software upgrade on the SCSN to enable LTE.
Haraldsvik said that the important thing about the company’s E-RAN is that it can enable operators not only to offer coverage and capacity to enterprises, but because the SCSN includes an application host platform, to take advantage of the Services Node API to offer services such as WiFI as a service, BYOD, MDM, security and PBX integration.
Writing on his company blog Haraldsvik wrote: “We think this platform approach will be adopted and become the de-facto approach to deliver services beyond basic access to enterprises and venues of any size and location.”
Indeed, after the LTE announcement, Haraldsvik said, SpiderCloud’s focus will move to enabling that service environment.
“After this, all you will hear about moving forward is our services relationships we have and how we integrate with enterprise or operator services. SpiderCloud Wireless is all about services, services, services — the services that we enable an operator to deliver,” Haraldsvik told Mobile Europe.
SpiderCloud, which has recently signed a distribution deal with NEC, has seen an “enormous amount of incoming partnership opportunities” in recent months, Haraldsvik claimed, as a result of a “turnaround” in the market place that has placed a focus on the indoor enterprise market and the need for scaleable radio solutions.
SpiderCloud’s E-RAN is better placed to meet demand than other solutions such as DAS or femtocells, Haraldsvik said, as it offers shorter installation and deployment times, a scaleable solution (one SCSN can support 100 radio nodes and 10,000 devices) and the ability to integrate enterprise and operator services.