As any supply/demand case suggests, the more products and services consumers utilize, the more operators and service providers are required to supply. Although this reoccurring, age old trend may seem like a simple give and take, it is much easier said than done when it comes to the ever-changing industry of technology.

With mobile and fixed device services on the rise, the demand for backhaul services that enable always on mobile connectivity are at an all time high, particularly for underserved or unserved residential areas. 

The Broadband Forum, DECT Forum, HGI, Open IPTV (News - Alert) Forum, Open Mobile Alliance and Small Cell Forum recently came together to perform a workshop to investigate and address the realization of the demand for home environment services.

The workshop set out to particularly address the expanding range of computing and connected devices being used in the home and how to ensure these devices are provided quality of service whether being accessed by 3G or 4G networks, UMTS, LTE (News - Alert), DSL, fiber, cable, Wi-Fi, etc.

The advancing introduction of M2M technology enables exciting opportunities to create new services in the home that require remote management and distinctive functionalities such as small cell base sites.

"The availability of service applications and APIs in the handset and home access points is quickly enabling the introducing of exciting services which build on recognizing the user's presence in the home," according to Andy Germano (News - Alert), Small Cell Forum, Vice Chairman who shared the importance of small cell technology at the event.

Small cells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum, are operator-managed and feature edge-based intelligence. Small cells provide improved cellular coverage, capacity and applications for homes and enterprises as well as metropolitan and rural public spaces, according to the Small Cell Forum. They include technologies variously described as femtocells, picocells, microcells and metrocells. 

Small cell and mobile backhaul provider Taqua (News - Alert), offers small cell solutions that enable mobile operators’ femtocell strategies to deliver a higher level of coverage extension in either pre-IMS or IMS environments, which allows mobile operators to deploy IP/SIP based femtocell devices in exiting and mobile networks. With Taqua’s small cell network, operators can also provide triple and quadruple bundling while at the same time reducing network costs using IP networks and reducing load on the mobile core network.

Taqua’s femtocells support standard supplementary services in any environment and support handover between femotocell and macro cell networks.