The number of small cells deployed around the world is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 14 percent in the ten years to 2025, reaching a total of 70.2 million at the end of forecast period, according to a report from the industry group Small Cell Forum. Excluding residential deployments, the market is forecast to grow at more than double that rate, with a CAGR of 36 percent driven by urban and enterprise roll-outs.
The report by Rethink Research for the SCF predicts annual small cell deployments will reach 11.4 million in 2025, of which 8.5 million will be non-residential. The highest growth rate will be in the urban market (61% CAGR), and the largest segment in 2025 will be public-facing enterprise small cells (3.8 mln).
The deployment of LTE small cells is expected to peak in 2020, and around the turn of the decade, there will be some slowdown in deployment growth as operators and enterprises await 5G upgrades. This is mainly seen in the private enterprise network space. From 2024, 5G cells are forecast to overtake 4G.
Deployments of 5G or multimode small cells are forecast to cross the 1 million mark in 2020 and rise steeply after that to reach 5.2 million in 2025, or 62 percent of the total deployments that year. The total installed base of 5G or multimode small cells in 2025 is predicted to be 13.1 million, over one-third of the total in use.
