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Ericsson is reported to be acquiring BelAir Networks, which has tapped highly effectively into the trends for carrier Wi-Fi. The smaller firm would give its Swedish suitor valuable Wi-Fi deals with AT&T and several US cable operators, as well as a platform with a headstart along the road to HetNet.

The report comes from sources who spoke exclusively to the GigaOM.com blog, and it certainly has logic behind it. BelAir, from its roots in the once-fashionable metrozone sector, evolved to provide offload networks for carriers and their partners, especially in the US. It has built on these deals to make its platform increasingly strategic. Its cableco partnerships make it an obvious partner in the expected project to create a national US Wi-Fi network for cable users. And it has recently added some LTE elements to its offering, looking ahead to the future HetNets, which will integrate cellular and Wi-Fi connections in a single seamless system (to the extent that some jurisdictions are considering licensing the spectrum in which licence-exempt Wi-Fi runs).

Ericsson has announced a string of developments geared to HetNet, but has been less radical in its rethinking of the RAN than Alcatel-Lucent or Nokia Siemens. It has also been very cautious about the move to shrink 3G and 4G cells, clinging to its traditional macrostation economics and arguing that carriers must exploit other techniques, such as new antennas, before moving to small cell architectures.

But even the most reluctant OEM will need to adapt to a carrier mindset which wants to harness every air interface and spectrum band available, and turn to increasingly standardized and commoditized equipment - closer to Wi-Fi access points than traditional cellular base stations. And as GigaOM points out, in the short term, Ericsson could also use BelAir to expand its US base (in which it complained of a slowdown in spending in its last quarter) via metrozones and cable/wireless deployments, without cannibalizing its main range.

Both companies, of course, are keeping silent about the report. If the story proves true - and GigaOM is not a site to purvey flimsy rumors - it will put other Wi-Fi, small cell and HetNet innovators in the M&A spotlight. BelAir's competitors include Ruckus Wireless, which has moved into outdoor Wi-Fi from roots in the home and video over WLan, and is deploying a monstrous 100,000-hotspot network for KDDI in Japan; and Wavion, recently bought by WiMAX player Wavion.

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