Sprint’s densification toolbox now includes an easy-to-deploy indoor “clip on” small cell - no new cabling required

December 05, 2017

Today at SCWS Americas, Sprint (NYSE: S) announced the availability of a new small cell solution from SpiderCloud as part of its strategy to densify its network and improve service at enterprises and public venues across the country.

“This innovative LTE small cell literally clips onto existing Cisco WiFi infrastructure and can be deployed in less than 30 minutes, providing a very cost-effective way to rapidly improve indoor service,” said Robert Kingsley, Director of Small Cell and WiFi Development at Sprint. “We’re excited to keep expanding our toolbox of small cell solutions with this latest innovation for the enterprise.”

The SpiderCloud small cell makes deployment of in-building LTE as easy as Enterprise Wi-Fi. An enterprise can deploy SpiderCloud LTE Radio Nodes (RN) on its Ethernet LAN. The RNs connect to SpiderCloud’s Services Node (SN), located on the enterprise LAN. A network of 100 Radio Nodes and 1 Services Node can provide over a gigabit of capacity and seamless coverage across a public venue, enterprise or university campus as large as 1.5 million square feet.

SpiderCloud, part of Corning’s Optical Communications segment, offers two RNs to enterprises to improve their indoor Sprint service. The first is the SCRN-220, a PoE+ powered unit capable of serving as much as 15,000 square feet in a typical office environment. The second is the SCRN-250 attached to an existing Cisco Aironet 3600 or 3700 Wi-Fi access point providing 7,000 square feet of coverage in a typical office environment. Enterprises that have previously invested in these Cisco Wi-Fi access points can add Sprint LTE coverage without pulling a single cable.

Today SpiderCloud LTE Radio Nodes for enterprises and public venues support Sprint’s 1.9 GHz spectrum band. Support for Sprint’s 2.5 GHz band is slated for availability in mid-2018.