UK: Freshwave deploys four 4G/5G small cells for O2

en.Wedoany.com Reported - UK communications infrastructure provider Freshwave has announced that it has deployed four outdoor 4G/5G small cells on behalf of O2 in Canterbury city centre, focusing on high-footfall areas such as Clocktower Square and the Whitefriars commercial district. The project was implemented in partnership with Kent County Council. The small cells are installed on existing street furniture such as lamp posts to supplement macro cell capacity.

This deployment adopts an open access agreement model. Kent County Council allows communications operators to use eligible municipal street assets to deploy digital communications infrastructure while retaining management rights over the relevant assets. The agreement is a non-exclusive arrangement that can support multiple mobile network operators in subsequently using the relevant municipal infrastructure.

Freshwave has signed similar open access agreements with more than 40 local authorities across the UK and has deployed over 800 small cells on behalf of mobile operators. The Canterbury project continues its model of using existing street furniture to build outdoor small cells, primarily targeting areas such as city centres where macro network capacity pressure is relatively high.

O2 recently also launched 5G+ standalone services in Kent, covering cities and towns such as Canterbury, Dover, and Maidstone, reaching up to approximately 1.6 million local residents. The deployment of these four small cells and the large-scale 5G+ network upgrade belong to different network layers: the former is used for local capacity supplementation in hotspot areas, while the latter is a regional 5G standalone coverage expansion.