After a burst of enthusiasm when they were running short of urban 4G spectrum, the largest US operators pulled back their timescales for at-scale deployment of small cells, often deterred by costs and regulatory complexities related to urban sites such as lamp-posts. Sprint was the biggest deployer, but its pace slackened too when it was acquired by T-Mobile USA, and in the past three years, all the US majors have been primarily focused on macro 5G build-out, keeping small cells for their private network activities. Now Verizon says it plans to accelerate small cell build-out in its public and outdoor network again, a move that may signal similar moves by its rivals. The firm’s CTO, Ed Chan, told financial analysts…