Huawei has become the latest company to work with advertising giant JCDecaux to bring small cell connectivity to advertising hoardings.
The companies have signed a technical cooperation and will work together to develop the best methods to deploy small cells onto billboards and other outdoor advertising methods.
Huawei has introduced a Crowd-Sourcing Small Cell deployment method, working with site owners to speed up the deployment of the technology and lower installation costs.
The vendor said its small cell portfolio could help connect users within dense urban areas. It said the products worked better than traditional macrocell or digital antenna solutions because the latter suffer from poor penetration, low signal to noise ratio, as well as the higher and more complex installation and running costs in built up locations.
Huawei will work with JCDecaux globally, using the advertising company’s range of assets across cities, airports, roadsides and shopping centres. The advertising company said it was keen on developing “smart and aesthetic” solutions to bolster connectivity. Huawei said advertising hoardings helped solved the difficulty in finding good locations for base stations.
The Huawei partnership is the latest deal the French company has signed to help improve mobile performance in areas of high density. In September, it signed a similar deal with Alcatel-Lucent to try to develop “aesthetically pleasing” solutions to aid the shift towards smart cities. The companies had been trialling technology in tests across France.
In April, JCDecaux said it was working with Telefónica to develop M2M solutions, connecting information devices, digital screens and bicycle stations across Europe and South America.
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