Doing more with less

Indeed, most industry experts do not anticipate that lightRadio will supplant the traditional tower-base station model in the near future, if for no other reason than the fact that many network operators have long-term leases that must be honored. But the architecture appears to be positioned to make an impact on the wireless market — particularly if it were to be combined with coverage/capacity-enhancement technologies such as picocells, femtocells and distributed antenna systems.

For public safety, leveraging lightRadio deployment techniques could make some of the massive funding hurdles somewhat easier to clear, while enabling new options to help address cell-sector-capacity issues that have been debated vigorously in the industry for the past year. For commercial carriers, the solution could make addressing the voracious consumer appetite for mobile data more manageable than would be possible using traditional network architecture.

In both sectors, the new approach promises to give network operators unprecedented flexibility and efficiency options, which could mean more mobile broadband access to myriad user groups in disparate locations.

“We can reduce the cost per bit in half and double capacity,” Gruba said. “When you do that, it’s going to allow [operators] to potentially … get this down to a price point that works for the masses.”