Vodafone Boosts UK 4G Mobile Coverage via Small Cells on Billboards

Mobile operator Vodafone has expanded its promotional poster campaign with advertising firm JCDecaux by reaching a new agreement that will also allow them to install a new network of small cell 4G (LTE) base stations at the company’s various billboard sites.

A similar deployment has already been conducted by JCDecaux in Amsterdam (here) and now they’re set to apply the same approach in the United Kingdom. The small cells themselves are effectively just low-voltage relay transmitters for Vodafone’s service, with coverage of anything from a few tens to several hundred metres.

Kevin Salvadori, Vodafone’s Director of Technology and Strategy, said:

“We are delighted to partner with JCDecaux. This agreement will help us accelerate the deployment of small cell technology by giving us access to locations that in the past have not been available for network installations.”

One small caveat is that the initial deployment won’t include support for LTE-Advanced technology and Carrier Aggregation, which allows operators like EE and Vodafone to deliver even faster speeds by harnessing the ability to use more than one spectrum band at a time for carrying your data. But this will probably follow in the future.

This sort of approach is especially good for covering busy urban areas, not least since many of JCDecaux’s systems are digital and thus already have access to a power and capacity supply.