Cell geometry has been a big deal ever since mobile operators started using frequencies around 2 GHz, instead of 800 MHz. The basic physics is that as you shrink cell radius by 50 percent, you quadruple the number of cell sites required.
As mobile frequencies climbed into the higher ranges, so did coverage gaps. Where 3G networks might have required one cell site for every 10 kilometers, 4G has tended to require one cell site for every 2 kilometers, said Dr. Arvind Mishra, FTTH Council Asia-Pacific VP.
When 5G comes, it likely will shrink cell coverage to perhaps half a kilometer.
That will simply intensify the trend of proliferating numbers of cell sites. In a 3G environment, mobile operators might have required one cell site to cover 10 square kilometers. For 4G, some 25 cells might be required. In the 5G era, using millimeter wave frequencies, it is possible 400 cells will be required to cover the same area, said Mishra.
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