ADC introduces mini-cell wireless transceiver station

(Telephony) Anticipating a move by broadband fixed wireless providers to build smaller mini-cell network architectures, ADC introduced a transceiver station that can be used as either an “underlay” to existing supercell architectures or a way to compartmentalize wireless signal delivery over shorter distances of one to 10 miles.

The compact base transceiver can be deployed in locations such as rooftops or building sides and allows operators to maintain high bandwidth service to existing customers while adding new customers in a mini-cell environment.

“There’s only so much you can do with a supercell” that delivers a wireless signal over a 35-mile radius, said Peter Jew, vice president of marketing and business development for ADC’s broadband wireless access unit, speaking at this week’s Broadband Wireless World Forum in San Francisco.

Jew predicted that the transceiver base stations, which will be available for commercial deployment in three months, will become widespread as broadband fixed wireless providers start offering services in the top 20 U.S. cities.

ADC also introduced a fiber-fed tower top amplifier that allows customers to place amplifiers wherever space is available on existing towers and run low-weight fiber from the electronics to the ground rather than existing copper conduits which, from that height, are too heavy for most towers.

The reduced weight is “a big deal for a lot of deployments,” Jew said. “People don’t want to build a brand new tower” so the fiber-fed amplifier gives them “an option to put the amplifier on top and run fiber down.”