Small cell deployment is on multiple telecoms’ radars for 2017, and Sprint Corp.’s CFO Tarek Robbiati has gone on record saying his company is planning ahead as well.
The Kansas City Business Journal reported the company plans on more capital expenditures next year along with small cell gains. Sprint has said that small cells are a “key part” of the company’s plan to “densify its existing network by deploying them in areas with heavy traffic.”
Robbiati told the Business Journal that while it’s too early to tell what the new president will do, the change along with new FCC’s appointees “are very interesting to us as we deploy a very dense network.” Sprint has deployed 10 small cells in Kansas City and is looking at where to go next.
While small cells, according to a report by Senza Fili Consulting, cost about six times less than traditional cell towers, analysts have questioned Sprint’s lower capital expenditures as of late. The Business Journal noted Sprint spent $376 million in the second quarter of 2016, down from $1.6 billion spent during the same time in 2015.
In a conference this week hosted by Bank of America, Robbiati said when companies have spectrum available, “you don’t need to spend that much on equipment.” Since the carrier acquired 2.5GHz spectrum from Clearwire in 2013, it did not participate in the 600MHz spectrum auction this year, Robbiati told the Business Journal.
“It’s simply because it’s a spectrum of the past,” he said. “The world is moving toward high-capacity wireless data networks.”
December 2, 2016
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