KPN and Ericsson have installed fully coordinated small cells at a bus stop with JCDecaux advertising collateral in Amsterdam in a bid to improve network quality.
The vendor’s C-RAN small cell solution is integrated into the macro network by deploying common baseband, which Ericsson said offers low cost, high levels of performance and optimal use of spectrum.
Ericsson also enabled inter-site carrier aggregation between the macro cells, which are operating at 800MHz, and the small cells, which run on the 1800MHz band.
Jacob Groote, Director of Mobile Networks at KPN, said: “Small cells are not new, but with this new generation we can enhance quality and increase capacity while consuming less energy.
“Large crowds gather at the Rembrandtplein and especially during weekends a great amount of data is consumed. Thanks to this new generation Ericsson small cell, which also fits nicely into the urban landscape, KPN’s 4G quality at the Rembrandtplein will be better than ever.”
Advertising company JCDecaux has been running a series of small cell trials in its hoardings during the past few years.
In late 2014, for example, it signed a global agreement with Vodafone.
The company has also partnered with Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent on separate projects.
Last month, Ericsson’s rival Nokia unveiled new tools and features in a bid to make the deployment of small cells easier.