Alcatel-Lucent has just come up with what they claim to be a major break trough in the form of LightRadio cube, shown in the picture below. According to Alcatel-Lucent, these LightRadio devices are capable of replacing those huge cell phone towers along with antennas as well as the entire base station and thus cutting down the maintenance cost by 50%.
The Alcatel-Lucent LightRadio cube measures only 2.5 square inches and somewhat reminds us of the Xi3 Modular Computer but it serves an entirely different purpose. The LightRadio includes the antennas too and can support 2G, 3G and LTE either one at a time or simultaneously by just a click of a button. These cubes are firmware upgradable which means that they eliminate huge future costs associated with hardware upgrades. These LightRadio boxes can increase broadband capacity by 30% and will also consume less amount of power.
According to Alcatel-Lucent, the LightRadio will become fully functional by 2012 so stay tuned for more updates.