Operators around the world are increasingly looking to deploy smaller cells to ease pressure on their network, but finding a place to set up their cell has remained ever more difficult, according to a report by Informa Telecoms & Media.

Landowners who have the place to rent out for carriers seek a high price. As a result, setting up a femtocell, a residential smaller cell, is proving to be more expensive for operators.

Nevertheless, the research firm says small cells will outnumber all macrocells by the end of this year, and femtocells alone will surpass macrocells before the first half of next year.

Among the operators, SK Telecom has already started rolling out the world’s first LTE small cell deployment, while the America’s AT&T, Sprint and China Mobile (News - Alert) are gearing up to roll out 3G small cell services.

Verizon Wireless has announced its intention to launch LTE public access small cells, while Sprint plans to roll out its first LTE (News - Alert) designs by the end of the year.

The interest in femtocells increased dramatically following reports that Telefónica was planning to deploy the technology across its European and South American territories.

A few days later, China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, began rolling out the technology.

In North America, Sprint has rapidly accelerated its femtocell deployment to a total of 600,000 units – up from 250,000 units in 2011 – making it one of the world’s largest rollouts.

According to the researcher, Femtocells constitute over 80 percent of the 4.6 million small cells currently deployed globally compared to 5.6 million conventional macrocells. By the end of 2012, there will be 6.4 million small cells, 86 percent of which will be femtocells, thus outnumbering the predicted six million macrocells worldwide.

“Over the past few months, numerous major operators have announced 3G and LTE public access deployment plans – SK Telecom is undoubtedly leading the charge by already rolling out LTE devices,” the research firm said.

 However, it is notable that all the operators involved in this first wave of deployments have already rolled out femtocell services, indicating that they are aware of the challenges and the way to overcome it.

“With major operator groups such as Telefónica and Telenor (News - Alert) preparing widespread femtocell launches in the near future we can expect deployment numbers to quickly rise – especially if they are as committed as Vodafone Group,” said Dimitris Mavrakis, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media (News - Alert).

A recent Small Cell Forum found that even a relatively conservative small cell deployment with four devices per macrocell would increase typical data rates by over 300 percent and offload 56 percent of the data.

The report expects LTE to be the biggest driver for small cells, predominantly deployed for capacity and coverage in high traffic public areas. The survey also found that small cells are expected to become a mass market phenomenon in 2014 and the key challenges holding them back are backhaul and deployment issues such as power and placement.

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