NEW PROVIDENCE — They tower over the landscape, sometimes disguised in a way that does not fool anyone.

Big trees that look so fake, they are derided as "Frankenpines." Flagpoles that soar higher than any flag would warrant. Or unadorned towers that offer absolutely no pretense as to their purpose.

But a day could soon come when those sky-high, unsightly cell phone towers that litter the countryside may be replaced with something no bigger than a Rubik’s cube.

Called the lightRadio cube, the new device developed by Bell Labs in Murray Hill is generating major buzz by cell phone carriers around the world.

"The lightRadio could radically transform the model for wireless networks and could actually change the way the wireless industry operates," predicted Dan Hays, a telecommunications consultant with PRTM in Washington, D.C.

Cell phone antennas now must be large and high because they rely on sending signals down and outward like an umbrella. But officials at Alcatel-Lucent, where Bell Labs is located, said the lightCube directs cell phone signals more directly using far less power, while handling as much as 30 percent more capacity than current cell phone towers.

The device was created in Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless research division. As consumers clamor for stronger data and voice capabilities on their smartphones, telecommunications companies struggle to keep up with demand, said division head Tod Sizer.

Sizer challenged his team to come up with a solution. To push them further, he calculated the device could be as small as 2.3 inches. A hobbyist woodworker, Sizer went into his shop at his home in Little Silver, built a wooden model, and showed it to the group, which is scattered globally.

In March, they told him it would be impossible.

But in May, an inventor in Stuttgart showed his boss what he’d come up with: three 2-inch, stacked circuit boards for the antenna, radio, and network connection, replacing the conventional antenna system that connects every cell phone call.

"I said, ‘Do you realize what you did?,’" Sizer recalled, his voice rising with excitement.

The team has since tested the prototype and proved the concept worked.

To work effectively, the technology would force carriers to switch how they build wireless networks, but the lightRadio means rural areas and developing countries could get internet access. The device only requires a network connection and a power source.

"The flexibility this brings is really going to be quite fun," Sizer said.

The device shrinks the antenna and radio devices at the top of a cell phone tower, relocating the network communications power systems — which sit at its base — to central data centers. As a result, the antenna casing can be smaller — about 2.3 inches, down from conventional antennas that are typically the size of an ironing board.

Hays said the device could be a game changer. "Historically, the wireless industry has really revolved around towers with large areas of coverage," he said. "There’s now an opportunity to rethink how wireless networks are structured."

The device will include wirings for all carriers and cell phone technologies, including 2G, 3G and the emerging 4G or LTE system. Officials said it should also be able to handle as much as 30 percent more capacity than a typical antenna, but that figure varies based on where it is deployed, the number of users and the other types of devices, traffic, and speeds that are on the network, said Alcatel-Lucent spokeswoman Wendy Zajack.

LightRadio garnered the biggest buzz at last month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where it was launched, where cell phone companies were in Alcatel-Lucent’s booth, examining the lightRadio cube, taking pictures and asking questions.

"Beyond a couple of new smartphones and tablets that were announced, lightRadio was actually one of the most exciting new ideas that came forward," Hays said.

Already, dozens of mobile carriers across the world have approached Alcatel-Lucent asking for demonstrations and trials, according to Ken Wirth, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s 4G/LTE wireless networks business. Five carriers in the United States, Europe and China are enrolled for trials by the end of this year and the company hope to roll the devices out commercially within 18 months.

Tom Sawanobori, vice president of technology planning at Verizon Wireless, said his company was looking at the technology.

The cubes can be positioned nearly anywhere, from the sides of buildings to light poles, or arranged in grids for more strength. If a certain area has more use during a particular time of the day — say, weekday rush hour on the Garden State Parkway compared to the surrounding suburbs on weekends — the signals can change direction at the touch of a button.

The towers do have one benefit, though. Municipalities and state authorities gain revenue when the carriers install towers on their property. But it’s a Catch-22: nearby residents push back as more towers go up, while still demanding better connectivity, technology analyst Jeff Kagan said.

"We as a people have got a problem: we want more connectivity, but that means more towers, and we don’t want more towers," he said. "If (lightRadio) works as well as it sounds like it’s going to work, it sounds like the solution that we need."

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