The Federal Communications Commission recently made the decision to hasten the deployment of broadband services, which means the infrastructure market may be looking at a significant boost in the near future. This is all part of the government's Broadband Acceleration Initiative, according to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski (News - Alert), which aims to remove barriers to mobile broadband infrastructure deployment.

Infrastructure specifically named includes towers, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and small cells.

This action also includes the need to define and clarify a technical provision in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 which has to do with "local review of requests to modify and existing wireless tower or base station." According to the FCC (News - Alert), this will help to "accelerate deployment and delivery of high-speed mobile broadband to communities across the nation."

Small cells and DAS in particular are expected to benefit from further streamlining of regulatory processes. Indeed, as Genachowski pointed out in a statement, "To keep pace with technological advances, such as the advent of small cells and to lay the groundwork for new developments, our policies must continue to adapt."

He went on to add that, "Providing more certainty to industry and municipalities, and more flexibility to carriers to meet extraordinary, short-term service needs will accelerate private and public investment to strengthen our nation’s communications networks. Just as is the case for our nation’s roads and bridges, we must continue to invest in improvements to cell towers and transmission equipment, in order to ensure ubiquitous, high-speed Internet for all Americans."

Earlier this month, market research firm Mobile Experts released a small cell market forecast report which predicts carrier-grade small cell deployments to result in an overall increase for small cell deployments throughout 2013.

This week at ITEXPO Miami 2013, there will be a session focused on small cells entitled "The Big Challenge with Small Cells," which will take place from 1:30-2:15 p.m. on January 31 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.