Meadowcells (a.k.a. Rural Small Cells)

Picture Source: Wilson Street

I last remember mentioning a Meadowcell in September when we had our Cambridge Wireless event.

We have the term #MeadowCell being thrown about today at #CWSmallCell - thanks to @simon_saunders :-)
— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) September 19, 2013

and then I forgot all about it till I saw this:

What the hell is a meadowcell? We're talking about it here: http://t.co/evsEwxgz8c via @Light_Reading
— Dan Jones (@Dan_LRMobile) February 12, 2014

So, based on the discussion on Light Reading, Simon Saunders says the following:

However I've found one additional category helpful: "Meadowcell" to contrast rural public access small cells against their "metrocell" urban counterparts. And we've found certain regulators to be enthusiastic about the opportunities they bring. The electronics for 'meadowcells'  may not be so very different from their metro counterparts though issues like backhaul may be. Its a trickier more diverse market, but given government incentives I think there is scope for the market to be comparable in size to the metro market - vendors should leap on it!

In another discussion in Forum Oxford last year, Simon stated the following:

The terms aren’t interchangeable, but likewise they don’t have hard boundaries. Femtocells = typically home and small office/SoHo. Picocells = Enterprise, retal etc (mainly indoors), Metrocells = busy cities, outdoors, “Meadowcells” = rural outdoor application of metrocells.

From what we see above, the big challenge with Meadowcell is probably the backhaul. See my earlier post on Satellite backhaul for Rural Small Cells here.

US Market for LTE Metrocells to Grow at a 240% CAGR Over Next 5 Years

Under iGR's classification, there are three types of metrocells: those that operate on 3G only, 4G only and those that can operate on both. iGR believes that ultimately the bigger potential market will be for 4G metrocells, albeit by a small margin. 

What is a Metrocell? - by Think Small Cell

Metrocells are compact and discrete mobile phone basestations, unobstrusively located in urban areas. They can be mounted on lampposts, positioned on the sides of buildings or found indoors in stadiums, transport hubs and other public areas. They provide excellent mobile phone service, delivering very high data speeds and capacity, solving the problem of growing data traffic demand cost effectively.

3G and 4G Wireless Blog: Small Cells 'Terminology' and 'Comparison'

3G and 4G Wireless Blog: Small Cells 'Terminology' and 'Comparison': Here is AT&T's attempt in comparing the small cells.

'Metrocells'' or 'Neighborhood Small Cells'

Is 'Neighborhood Small Cells' just another name for 'Metrocells'?

Looks like the Metrocells would be used for the same purpose and does the same functionality.