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The small cell hype is finally beginning to waiver as reality sets in about the costs associated with deploying thousands of these diminutive base stations. The benefits of small cell technology are clear, but issues such as power and backhaul are challenging and not easily resolved.

Swedish vendor Ericsson appears to have bigger aspirations for small cells beyond just increasing capacity and coverage for the macro wireless network.

Tier 2 and Tier 3 operators such as U.S. Cellular (NYSE:USM), Shenandoah Telecommunications and Alaska Communications revealed the latest expansions to their LTE footprints during first quarter earnings calls. These small operators are in a rush to expand LTE coverage to keep up with their Tier 1 counterparts.

Tier 3 operators are moving ahead with LTE deployments, despite the fact that they face uncertainties about handset availability, roaming partnerships, device interoperability and backhaul capacity.

FierceBroadbandWireless Editor-in-Chief Sue Marek talked with Johan Wibergh, Ericsson's executive vice president and head of business unit networks about the company's traffic predictions and how wireless operators will be able to handle all that additional network congestion.

BARCELONA, Spain--AT&T Mobility revealed a few more details on its small cell tests. In a presentation here, Gordon Mansfield, AVP of AT&T Small Cell Solutions and chairman of the Small Cell Forum, said the company has successfully tested and deployed small cells in three different environments and all customers experienced dramatic coverage improvements.

Globally, the small cell footprint is growing at a rapid-fire pace. According to new research from the Small Cell Forum in conjunction with Informa, about 56 percent of all cells today are femtocells, and that number will grow to 86 percent by 2016. Also by 2016, 90 percent of all cells will be small cells.

BARCELONA, Spain—Infrastructure vendor Ericsson kicked off the 2013 Mobile World Congress trade show with some bold predictions, including the forecast that 90 percent of network traffic will be video. 

The market for outdoor small cell backhaul equipment will reach a cumulative of $5 billion worldwide between 2012 and 2016, according to a new report from Infonetics Research. This is in addition to the $44 billion that the research firm expects will be spent on macrocell backhaul equipment during the same time period.

Long-time telecom industry veteran Vish Nandlall joined Ericsson in 2009 and was recently named the company's CTO of North America and head of strategy and marketing where he not only determines Ericsson's long-term technology vision but also plays an integral role in customer strategy. Nandlall met with FierceBroadbandWireless Editor-in-Chief Sue Marek at the 4G World conference last month in Chicago to talk about some of the key issues facing operators as they transition to LTE networks