The current fulfillment and assurance processes in mobile operators were designed for macrocells. Those processes limit the deployment of cells to around 10/15 cells per day. To meet a goal of 25,000 or even 100,000 in the spam time needed, operators need to scale to at least 100 cell deployment per day. Adding additional staff (or contractors) is not an option.
The deployment entails complexities such as provision IP backhauls from different access technologies (DOCSIS, GPON, DSL, etc.), support different network equipment vendors (interoperability), and off-net providers with various technologies.
At a higher level, the small cell deployment and turn-up can be summarized in:
Deployment preparation
Service installation
SLA monitoring and maintenance