Femtocell market update for week of 19 Jul 2010

Vodafone launches femtocell service in Greece

This week’s big news is that Vodafone has launched a consumer femtocell in Greece.  The device is called the ‘Vodafone Access Gateway’ – the same name originally used for the UK service, which has since been re-branded Sure Signal.  However, the device itself is different – this one is manufactured by Huawei rather than Alcatel-Lucent / Sagem.

This review in Greek gives further details.  The service works with any provider’s ADSL connection, and supports up to four simultaneous users (not 16, as some reports suggest – the confusion presumably being that up to 16 numbers can be added to the access control list).  The device supports HSPA data speeds up to 7.2 Mbps (down) / 1.4 Mbps (up), and can be purchased for a one-off fee of €150 (although some customers will receive discounts, or even a free access point).

MajicJack ‘femtocell’ still on its way?

MajicJack should have started selling its ‘femtocell’ by now, but (unsurprisingly) it hasn’t yet appeared.  Having put my trousers on the line, I have a particular interest in the fate of the femtoJack.  Apart from the fact that the device is pretty well useless (turning your smartphone into a basic cordless telephone at home), it doesn’t qualify as a femtocell because it is not managed by a licensed wireless carrier, and uses licensed spectrum illegally.  Now MagicJack claims to have teamed up with a wireless carrier to bring the service to market later this year.  So, perhaps it might actually become a femtocell, after all – even if it is a pretty useless one?  I remain relatively unconcerned for my trousers.

Picocells needed to cope with data demand

According to the 4Ggear Quarterly Report on 4G infrastructure trends, traditional cell sites are insufficient to meet 10,000% growth in demand for mobile data services over the next five years.  The report concludes that picocell base stations and innovative backhaul solutions are needed.

In related news, The Register reports a survey finding that the availability of picocells, femtocells (along with other ways to work around coverage problems) is a significant influence for over 30% of businesses when choosing a mobile service provider.

Verizon to introduce usage-based data pricing

According to unnamed sources, Verizon may be planning to institute new usage-based pricing plans for mobile data as early as the end of this month.  It will be interesting to see whether Verizon follows AT&T in charging for data over its new 3G femtocell.

In other news…

• Number portability temporarily confuses 3G MicroCell.
• Blame the Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union, not AT&T, for poor San Francisco coverage.  (Then go and get a MicroCell.)
• 3G MicroCell review on YouTube.
• Another 3G MicroCell review.
• Vodafone Sure Signal review.
• Zboost signal booster works! (if you’re ok with not seeing out of your windows).
• Broadband Genie provides a femtocell beginner’s guide.
• CNET explains the difference between femtocells and Mi-Fi style 3G routers.
• David Chambers says homezone data tariffs are daft without a femtocell.
• Q. Where should femto application logic reside?  (A. anywhere you like!).
• CCPU claims 21 femtocell customer wins.
• InterDigital joins the Femto Forum (is the femto industry now officially large enough to sue?)
• Femtocells to feature at the Connections Europe Summit in November.
• Sales of Wi-Fi equipment slowing.

Femtocell market update for weeks of 5 & 12 Jul 2010

Telefonica O2 launches residential femtocell in Spain

Following Vodafone’s lead, Telefonica O2 has announced its own femtocell launch, making Spain the first competitive femtocell market in Europe.  Unlike Vodafone’s service, which is focused on business customers, the Telefonica O2 femtocell is targeted at residential customers.  The service, called Mi Cobertura Movil (My Mobile Coverage), costs €9 per month and requires customers to have a 3 Mbps ADSL broadband line from Telefonica.  A Spanish website giving further details shows pictures of a Huawei Access Point, but it is rumoured that Alcatel Lucent is also supplying Telefonica O2 with femtocells (based on picoChip silicon).

AT&T experiments with free femtocells

AT&T is testing the market for a free femtocell offer in parts of the United States.  Engadget reports that letters have been sent to selected customers offering a free 3G MicroCell, and CNET provids further details with clearer pictures of the letter.  In response to Electronista’s speculation that free femtocells are a hook to retain iPhone customers who are coming to the end of their contracts, AT&T told the gadget site that it is running trials in two markets as a way of determining the “most effective way to intro the product”.

TechCrunch says it hopes the trial will “lead [AT&T] to realize the publicity (and happy customers) they’d get is worth more than the costs they’d have to eat,” and numerous Twitter posts provide early evidence that the free offer does, indeed, improve AT&T’s standing with its customers:

• Just set up my free AT&T 3G MicroCell…Today you’re not so bad, AT&T!
• picked up a free 3g microcell and so far its working great. very nice move on the part of at&t.
• AT&T…offered us a free 3G MicroCell. Here’s a first from me… Thanks

One side-effect of the offer is a negative reaction from some customers who previously bought a 3G MicroCell for the full asking price of $150 (“Bought 3G Microcell for ATT and now I am finding out a out all of these people that got them for free… I am returning mine today!”).  But others have found that they can get their money back by showing their offer letter.

Verizon gets closer to 3G femto launch

Engadget reports that the FCC has approved the new 3G version of Verizon’s Network Extender femtocell.  The EV-DO device, originally shown at CES in January, is manufactured by Samsung, and supports 8 simultaneous users (double the previous 1X version).

In-Stat says femtocells have a major role in 4G

A new report from In-Stat concludes that “small cells (femto, pico and micro) will play a very large part in 4G”.  The company forecasts that annual femtocell shipments will hit 31.8 million in 2014, by which time several million metropolitan picocells will have been shipped to operators worldwide.

Ubiquisys announces progress

Ubiquisys says it has shipped 60,000 femtocells and is ramping up production in China to supply orders for 400,000 more.  Speaking at the Silicon South-West Wireless 2.0 conference, the company’s CTO Pete Keevil also highlighted SoftBank’s deployment of femtocells for rural coverage in Japan.  Separately, Ubiquisys announced a $9 million funding round with two new investors.  5 Continents Consulting Group (which invested $5 million) and Japanese venture firm Yasuda Enterprise Development Co. joined the round, along with existing investors Advent Venture Partners, Accel Partners and Atlas Venture.  (Previous high profile investors Google and T-Mobile Ventures are not mentioned.)

Roke develops wide area femtocell

Roke Manor Research has designed a femtocell with a whopping 40 km range.  The picoChip-based device supports 12 users travelling at speeds of up to 120 km/h.  Niche applications include (very) remote areas and temporary networks for disaster response.

Ericsson remains in denial about femtocells

Ericsson’s head of strategic marketing, Kursten Leins has told Computerworld Australia that femtocells will “ultimately prove a headache for telco operators,” maintaining that there is a “big challenge around…spectrum planning and use”.  Will Franks provides a robust response to this ill-informed nonsense.

In other news…

• KDDI CEO promotes femtocells at Wireless Japan.
• Light Reading reports (exaggerates) voice quality problems on 3G MicroCell.
• iSuppli teardown analysis of 3G MicroCell.
• Another MicroCell review (8.5/10).
• “Now that I have an ATT 3G Microcell, my iPhone 4 battery life at home has more than doubled. Must be it doesn’t work so hard to stay online”
• Some tips on MicroCell setup.
• picoChip CEO Nigel Toon expects commercial LTE femtocells in 2011 (and in writing).
• Roger Cheng tells MSN about femtocells (not 100% accurate).
• …and writes an article in the Wall Street Journal.
• Mobile Europe interviews from FWS.
• The Inquirer sees femtocells as a “whispering revolution”.
• David Chambers explains self-CHOP (config, healing, optimisation, provisioning)…
• …and rounds up recent femtocell news.
• Pictures of KDDI’s femtocell (from Airvana).
• Wi-Fi offload subverts operator policy management.
• UK mobile subscribers not told about coverage cancellation policies.
• Thoughts from New Zealand on in-flight GSM.
• 3 UK moves away from unlimited data plans.
• Tyco to acquire ADC.
• Magicjack merges with VocalTec (still no sign of the femtoJack).

Femtocell market update for week of 28 Jun 2010

Just a brief review of femto happenings this week in the wake of FWS (here’s Avren’s official round-up, and unofficial ones from Michelle Donegan and Caroline Gabriel).

Videos and write-ups of some of the technology on display at the show have started to appear, including ip.access’ femto-enabled smart home energy management solution, Airvana’s family tablet demo, and Huawei’s Home Media Centre.

ZDNet took Vodafone’s Sure Signal femtocell apart and analysed the insides.  They conclude that femtocell technology is now “well understood and well implemented”, and cite commercial issues as the remaining obstacle to femtocell adoption.  Elsewhere Chris Kranky comments that Vodafone has “done a good job in both the pricing and packaging of Sure Signal.”

Ubiquisys announced that SoftBank will be giving away free femtocells.  Of course, we knew this already, but apparently it was worth repeating given the murmurs of approval from frequently sceptical observers at Telecom TV and The Register, who apparently didn’t register this first time round.

AT&T had activation issues with the 3G MicroCell this, week which caused some embarrassment.  It seems to have affected Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s MicroCell is working well.  Even Adolf Hitler has one.

In other news…

• Detailed review of the femto market from Ars Technica.
• Vodafone’s Lee McDougall talks to Fierce Wireless about the Sure Signal femtocell.
• ZDNet wonders whether the iPhone4 will result in more femtocell sales…
• …and speculates whether “business and home owners could theoretically charge carriers for use of their femtocells”…
• David Chambers has some similar ideas.
• MicroCell review – perfect 3G coverage.
• TechZilla video review of the 3G MicroCell.
• And another video of the MicroCell in action.
• Summary of Asian femtocell pricing offers.
• Air China, China Southern and China Eastern sign agreements to offer in-flight calls.
• And in-flight Wi-Fi will be available in 2000 planes by the end of the year.
• Yahoo! Finance says “femtocell is quickly emerging as a fundamental technology enabler in the deployment of next-generation (3G/4G) wireless network infrastructure”.
• Upcoming webinar on the business case for femtocells, sponsored by Cisco.

Femtocell market update for week of 21 Jun 2010

Over 300 people attended the Femtocells World Summit in London this week, and as one observer tweeted, “Holy Cow! Is there ever a lot of buzz / ink around Femtocells right now!”  Here are some of the highlights from the show, and from the Femto Forum’s press briefings on Monday…

Operator news

There was one new carrier femtocell deployment announcement at the Summit.  Mosaic Telecom (a US regional carrier in Wisconsin) will deploy a UMTS femtocell solution from Nokia Siemens Networks and Airvana.  The vendors claim it will be the world’s first commercial deployment to use 3GPP’s Iuh standard.

AT&T announced that the 3G MicroCell is now available nationwide across the US.  This should remove the number 1 customer support issue about the product which is, according to   Executive Director of RAN Delivery Gordon Mansfield, “when can I get one in my area?”  Gordon’s talk at the Summit highlighted that AT&T is planning enterprise femtocell deployments, but that these are unlikely to be plug-and-play (despite some vendors’ protestations to the contrary, larger femtocells for enterprises do require some cell planning.)

Vodafone revealed that it has deployed femtocells for metro coverage in Qatar, and gave further details about its femtocell experiences in the UK and Spain.  Lee McDougall, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Vodafone UK, said that the Sure Signal femtocell has provided a wide range of benefits, including subscribers moving up the tariff ladder, new customers joining Vodafone from places where they get no coverage at home, uplift in usage of voice, text and data, as well as some people trying data services for the first time with their femtocell.  The business case relies on all these factors – there is “no single thing that makes it pay”.  According to Sure Signal Product Manager Nicola Buckley, the company is now selling in a week the same number of femtocells it used to sell in a month, following Vodafone’s decision to “go large” on promotion earlier in the year (rebranding the femtocell as Sure Signal, reducing the price and introducing some innovative marketing).  6 teams of people have been pounding the streets to educate potential customers, and Vodafone has done 8 million ‘door drops’ for Sure Signal.  Femtocell trials are also underway in Egypt and Greece.

Meanwhile, SoftBank Mobile in Japan said it has received 20,000 applications for its free femtocell in the last month, and that it expects to deploy up to 200,000 in the next year.  The brakes may come off in October when the Japanese law changes, allowing SoftBank to handle the licensing paperwork after the customer has already activated the femtocell, rather than before activation.  Yoshihito Shimazaki said that SoftBank’s addressable femtocell market with a basic coverage proposition is the 2% of its subscribers’ homes which the operator cannot reach with 3G (that’s over 400,000 subscribers, but presumably fewer homes / femtocells because some SoftBank subscribers will live together).  However, SoftBank hopes to deploy over a million femtocells once they add femto applications, trials for which are planned later this year.  Shimazaki-san also clarified that SoftBank requires customers to sign a new 2 year contract in exchange for obtaining a free femtocell.  Free ADSL is provided as well, but exclusively for use by the femtocell.

Several other operators gave talks at the Summit.  NTT DoCoMo wants to roll out LTE femtocells from 2011, Optimus said it uses open access for its business femtocells in Portugal because closed access is too complex, and Cellcom said operators who launch femtocells early will be the winners.

Surprising findings on consumer attitudes to femtocells

The Femto Forum has commissioned Parks Associates to do independent research into consumer attitudes to femtocells in the US.  Some of the results are similar to previous findings from ABI Research (e.g. 56% of consumers find femtocells appealing), but there are many new results which strongly support the femtocell business case, and some that are quite counter-intuitive:

• 35% of consumers in multi-operator households would likely consolidate their services around a single provider who offered a femtocell.
• 72% of those consumers who found femtocells appealing (i.e. 40% of the total population) were very interested in at least one advanced femtocell service, and half of these (i.e. 20% of the population) are willing to pay $5 per month for one.
• Only 43% of people are happy with the Wi-Fi feature on their phones.  84% of people who frequently use Wi-Fi on their 3G devices find femtocells appealing.

Offload, data caps, femtocells and Wi-Fi

Unsurprisingly, the media latched onto the ‘operators are charging for femtocell data’ story this week following the recent criticism over AT&T’s pricing policy.  The Guardian rehashed the story with a UK twist, blaming Vodafone for having the same policy.  Light Reading discovered that AT&T carries femtocell data traffic through its core network to cover regulatory requirements for lawful intercept, which adds some cost compared to Wi-Fi.  But Dean Bubley points out that by offloading the Radio Access Network femtocells still save the majority of operators’ costs, unless AT&T’s core network is “weirdly expensive”.  An excellent new briefing paper outlining the case for using femtocells for data offload was published by the Femto Forum on Tuesday.

Some observers have suggested that operators prefer Wi-Fi for offload, but the reality is more subtle.  Firstly, its important not to confuse two issues: (1) femtocells provide a great data experience and (2) femtocells are a natural choice for data offload.  There is lots of evidence that 3G data is a key feature of femtocells for operators and consumers.  Vodafone report increased data usage by femtocell owners, with some people trying data services for the first time on their femtocells.  AT&T also say that they chose to deploy 3G femtocells because data was an important factor.  And if you count subscribers rather than megabytes, there are far more people who cannot use Wi-Fi on their 3G phones than people who can.  A femtocell is the only option for improving these people’s data experience at home.

Regarding offload, Wi-Fi and femtocells are both important.  Wi-Fi is very useful to operators right now because there is a large installed base of APs in homes, which provides a potential way to offload large amounts of data traffic.  However, there is customer resistance to using Wi-Fi.  The Parks Associates survey results show that only 43% of people are happy with their phone’s Wi-Fi capability, and suggest that battery life is an issue.  SoftBank also said at the Femocells World Summit that they prefer femtocells for offload because many people don’t activate Wi-Fi on their phones.  And Vodafone said at the Femto Forum press briefings that femtocells will become more important for offload as the installed base grows.  Right now, many operators are focused on Wi-Fi offload, trying to make Wi-Fi as easy as to use as possible on smartphones, but in the long run there will always be consumers who don’t comply.  Femtocells are ultimately a more natural offload solution because they capture all the traffic and consumers don’t need to be coerced.

What the analysts said

Informa published its latest femtocell market status report, reporting that the number of operators who have announced femtocell deployments has doubled in the last 9 months.  Telecoms.com sees an industry ‘in the grip of femto fever’, but Fierce Wireless is more cautious, pointing out that only 10% of US consumers currently know what a femtocell is, and speculating that enterprise femtocells might not take off without plug and play capabilities.  Ian Scales at Telecom TV predictably applies a glass-half-empty filter to the Parks Associates survey results, and finds contradictions in operators’ femtocell marketing propositions.  Meanwhile other traditional femto sceptics appear to be coming round to the idea; The Register reports “all smiles” at the Femtocells World Summit, and GigaOM says femtocells are “on the rise”.

Here are some more highlights…

• David Chambers gives detailed reports on day 1, day 2 and day 3 of FWS.
• Caroline Gabriel also provides three reports.
• Total Telecom thinks femtocells should be used to provide coverage in bars showing the World Cup.
• George Ou thinks it’s reasonable for AT&T to charge for femto data…
• Dean Bubley disagrees, but suggests AT&T’s billing systems might be to blame…
• …and points out that Wi-Fi doesn’t allow operators to capture valuable customer data.
• Dean also responds to Andy Abramson on “the pointlessness of femtocells”.

Vendor announcements

• Alcatel-Lucent claims to have signed 6 femto deals in as many weeks, and hints at a (proprietary) femto application API.
• Qualcomm has started sampling its FSM chipsets.
• TI, Azcom and Nash demo 32-user femtocell.
• ip.access and AlertMe demonstrate femtocell-enabled home energy management.
• ip.access & Kineto Wireless complete Iuh femtocell interoperability testing.
• Percello claims to have sold 300k chips.
• Ubiquisys claims is “already profitable”.
• IntelliNet announces low cost femto gateway for trials.
• NEC calls for femtocell rebranding.
• Tatara raises $7m.
• Freescale promises LTE femto chips.

In related news…

• Femto Forum announces more plugfests.
• Femtocell Industry Awards winners announced.
• WMExperts review “if you need better reception at home or the office, AT&T’s Microcell is the answer you’re looking for”
• David Chambers unveils the 2nd edition of his Femtocell Primer.
• CCPU criticises ‘spin’ in femto advertising.
• SkillSlate co-founder gets free 3G MicroCell by writing to Steve Jobs.
• SlashGear gets hands-on with Airvana’s family tablet.
• Great comedy video on home coverage solutions (it’s old, but I just spotted it).
• BT removes Wi-Fi hotspot data caps.
• Verizon to end unlimited data plans?

Tweets

• Superb social media save by @vodafone. 900mins, 3k txts, 1GB data, free landline calls & Sure Signal + micro SIM for iPhone 4. £25pm. Result
• “While I can’t explain it, it seems as if the Microcell may have slightly improved the wi-fi network’s range”
• Just got the ATT 3G Microcell for my home. Best $150 I’ve ever spent…5 bars (vs little or none without it) all the time!!

Femtocell market update for week of 14 Jun 2010

This week saw lots of femto controversy ahead of next week’s Femtocells World Summit in London.

Vodafone Sure Signal advert censured

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints from T-Mobile, O2 and others about Vodafone’s adverts for its Sure Signal femtocell.  The adverts show a man hanging out of a window trying to make a phone call, with the slogan “Only Vodafone can guarantee mobile signal in your home.”

The ASA ruled that Vodafone did not make it clear enough that subscribers need a 1 Mbps broadband connection to operate the service, and that it could not substantiate claims that the service would work for 99% of the population.  Vodafone’s response that only 64 kbps is needed for a voice call, and that these speeds are available to 99% of the population, fell on deaf ears.

So a new Vodafone ad has appeared showing a woman hanging out of a window trying to make a phone call, with the slogan “Boost your signal…Vodafone Sure Signal helps you get a great signal at home.”  This perhaps doesn’t quite have the impact of the previous ad (and it seems to have confused at least one subscriber).

However, the complaints appear to suggest that Vodafone’s competitors, who don’t have their own femtocell offerings, are worried about the Sure Signal femtocell.

AT&T confirms charges for 3G MicroCell data

AT&T this week confirmed what we already knew – that data traffic through its 3G MicroCell will count towards subscribers’ data usage allowances.  This has become a hot issue since AT&T abandoned unlimited data plans for new smartphone subscribers a couple of weeks ago, and AT&T’s comments have unleashed a storm of protest from observers who point out that the MicroCell saves AT&T money by offloading most of the cost of delivering data services to mobile devices in the home.

AT&T argues that the 3G MicroCell is “primarily intended to enhance the voice call quality experience in your home,” and encourages smartphone subscribers to use Wi-Fi for data (which is free, of course, because AT&T has no involvement in delivering the service).  While some observers feel this makes sense, and that AT&T has been wrongly criticised, others are not convinced.  GigaOM says there is “no justification for the double-dip charge”, while Boy Genius says AT&T’s policies are “seemingly designed to turn a customer into an enemy and not an ally.”  And there’s plenty more like this across the blogosphere.  (Vodafone, which has the same policy, also comes in for some criticism.)

There is evidence that subscribers do want to use their femtocells for mobile data.  For example, back in March, AT&T’s Executive Director of RAN Delivery Gordon Mansfield noted that AT&T has seen “a sizable shift in mobile data traffic from the macro to the femto network among its MicroCell customers,” because the indoor signal produces “a much more powerful and consistent data connection, increasing browsing and download speeds”.  Furthermore, the results from a recent consumer survey by Parks Associates suggest that consumers don’t necessarily want to use Wi-Fi as an alternative – more on this next week when the results are announced.

Femtocells “irrelevant” (to a very small percentage of buildings)

Reporting from IIR’s recent In-Building Summit conference, Ovum’s Jeremy Green says that “femtocells are irrelevant to almost all in-building coverage problems (outside of family homes and the smallest business premises)”.  Interestingly, family homes and small business premises actually constitute the vast majority if in-building coverage problems.  Even ignoring homes (which dwarf the number of office premises), small offices of less that 50,000 sq ft make up over 95% of all business premises (see ABI Research’s report, In-Building Wireless Systems, 2008).  These buildings are easily served by femtocells or picocells with a range of up to 100m.  At the conference, Ovum’s Steve Hartley reported a survey finding that almost 40% of business owners are considering providing in-building voice service using femtocells within 2 years, and elsewhere he commented that the femtocell market is making “steady progress”.

In other news…

• High traffic networks need a congestion solution, not a congestion charge (couldn’t have put it better myself).
• picoChip announces more than 1 million chips sold, and gets another $20 million in funding.
• David Chambers says Wi-Fi does not match femtocells for seamless and secure service.
• WiMAX Forum publishes femtocell standard…
• …ABI’s Aditya Kaul wonders if this will kick-start the WiMax femto market.
• Airvana and KDDI announce voice call routing optimization and local data breakout using femtocells…
• …Peter Jarich isn’t sure whether this works for WCDMA, and ponders 2010 as the make or break year for femtocells.  (If you can’t see these links, I recommend subscribing to Current Analysis’ excellent service.)
• Andy Abramson says femtocells are unnecessary because of – wait for it – Truphone!
• Cablevision says its Wi-Fi network is twice as fast as 3G in New York City.
• Katie Floyd reviews the 3G MicroCell.
• TechCrunch annoyed that the 3G MicroCell is not available to business customers.
• MicroCell enables owners to ditch their landlines.
• MicroCells going cheap or free.
• TR-069 for femtocells explained.
• DAS vs. femto.
• Verizon smartphone customers consume 600-800 MB per month.
• Virgin Atlantic to offer AeroMobile in-flight GSM service.
• Mobile Europe seeks femto sceptics.  Hellooooo…. J
• Femto puppy and femto squirrel!

Femtocell market update for week of 7 Jun 2010

Just a brief update this week, ahead of the Femto Forum plenary in Reading next week and the Femtocells World Summit in London the week after…

O2 UK has followed AT&T’s lead and abandoned its unlimited data plans.  From June 24, the company will introduce three data bundles for new and upgrading smartphone customers.  O2 says that the 500 MB bundle (which costs £25 per month, including 100 minutes and unlimited texts) provides at least 2.5 times its average customer’s current data usage.

With no femtocell offering to help offload data traffic, O2 is planning for a major network upgrade in London in preparation for the launch of the iPhone 4.  NSN has been selected to carry out the upgrade, in part because its network technology includes Cell_PCH to reduce data signalling traffic from smartphone applications.  This is the same technology picoChip announced for its PC3x3 femto chips last week (which got GigaOM’s Stacey Higginbotham so excited).  David Chambers gives a good explanation here.

The iPhone 4 (based on iOS 4) includes support for multitasking, which is expected to increase signaling usage by 3-5 times.  According to Steve Cheney at Business Insider, “No amount of additional spectrum or backhaul can solve signaling issues…Adding femtocells is [a] solution, which is exactly why AT&T is the first carrier in the US to aggressively push their use.”  Wi-Fi is a complementary solution, but it’s interesting to note that Wi-Fi congestion caused demo problems for Steve Jobs at the iPhone 4 launch event this week (see Dan Moren’s comments at 11:04 and 11:33 – thanks to Mark Reed for spotting this).  And for the operator, a “dump & forget” approach to Wi-Fi has the undesirable consequence of offloading the customer as well as the traffic.

In other news…

• Andy Tarnoff is “blown away” by the 3G MicroCell – but it’s the gadget he “hates to love”.
• Infonetics says 1Q10 was a brutal quarter for the mobile infrastructure market.
• David Chambers provides an update in CDMA femto standards.
• Agilent and picoChip announce manufacturing test solution for 3G femtocells.
• Kineto and Bravo demo TD-SCDMA femtocell in Shanghai.
• TCS introduces E911 femtocell solution.
• Node H demos 24 calls on Percello chip (press release).
• GWT selects Lime Microsystems’ RF transceiver IC.
• Mobile Dev & Design says femtocells are set for rapid growth…
• …backed up with a comprehensive review of the femto chip market.
• ABI sees $13 billion market for femtocell-like basestations by 2015.

A few MicroCell tweets…

• “Since I got the 3g MicroCell, 99% of my bitches about AT&T have gone away.”
• “AT&T 3G MicroCell call test is a success! Call quality was perfect, couldn’t even tell my Dad was on it! +1 for AT&T!!”
• “I’m now sporting a AT&T 3G Microcell at home. Works pretty well! Calls are far clearer now here than anywhere via AT&T’s 3G network...“

Femtocell market update for week of 31 May 2010

Vodafone launches femtocell service in Spain

Following the success of its Sure Signal femtocell in the UK, Vodafone has quietly launched a second commercial femtocell service in Spain (English translation).  The Spanish version, branded ‘Voz y Datos Premium Oficina Vodafone’ (VyDPOV?), differs from its UK cousin in several ways.  Firstly, it is aimed at offices, not homes, with 25,000 of Vodafone’s business customers forming the target market.  Secondly, it is offered only to customers with a Vodafone ADSL service (the UK’s Sure Signal works with any broadband provider).  Thirdly, it looks like there is no option to purchase the femtocell outright as there is in the UK – the Spanish service is tied to a monthly subscription of €15.

Both the UK and Spanish versions support 4 simultaneous calls and a whitelist of 32 numbers.  The VyDPOV is supplied by Huawei, but interestingly includes some of Vodafone’s own technology based on 3 patents held by the operator’s Radio Competence Centre in Spain.  (The Sure Signal is built by Sagem based on Alcatel-Lucent femtocell technology.)

AT&T introduces tiered mobile data pricing

AT&T announced this week that it will abandon all-you-can-eat data plans for new smartphone customers, replacing them with 200 MB and 2 GB capped plans with strict overage charges.  The move has been expected ever since AT&T’s head of consumer services Ralph de la Vega provoked a media backlash last December by talking about giving mobile data subscribers “incentives to reduce or modify their usage.”  Many analysts agree that tiered data pricing is a necessary response to the exploding demand for mobile data services.  Jeff Kagan tells Fierce Wireless, “This plan…seems to address the problems and decrease costs for the vast majority of AT&T customers.  [It] seems a fair way to solve the problem.”  Dan Frommer at Business Insider agrees: “AT&T has done a surprisingly good job with this effort so far.”

However, Dean Bubley points out an anomaly in the pricing – data traffic over AT&T’s 3G MicroCell counts towards the subscriber’s quota, despite effectively offloading AT&T’s Radio Access Network.  “Given that the RAN generally costs much more than the core network for most operators, there should clearly be differential (or zero-rated) pricing for traffic using femtocell offload,” says Bubley.  It would certainly be great to see other operators follow China Unicom’s lead and announce that femtocell data traffic will not count against the subscriber’s monthly data usage.

More Japanese femto market insights

Apparently, SoftBank Mobile’s free femtocell was subject to a cut-off date.  However, the operator has offered an extension after receiving complaints from subscribers who missed the deadline.  According to Dave Nowicki from Airvana, KDDI also plans to provide free femtocells to its subscribers.  (In passing, it’s worth noting that AT&T, Sprint, Vodafone and other operators also give away femtocells to certain categories of subscriber, suggesting that the magic $100 price point is not necessarily the catalyst which makes the free femtocell business case work.)

In other news…

• Dan Jones rounds up recent progress with AT&T’s national 3G MicroCell rollout.
• With much fanfare, picoChip introduces support for CELL_FACH…
• …somewhat incredibly, femto sceptic Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOM thinks this might be “just what the femtocell market needs to finally take off”(!)
• …while ABI’s Aditya Kaul believes this feature gives femtocells an advantage over Wi-Fi.
• ThinkFemtocell looks at four different ways to make a femtocell (WARNING, don’t try this at home).
• Cisco’s Jim Tavares provides some informed femtocell comments to Mobile Europe.
• NEC’s Anil Kohli follows suit.
• ABC News issues a comprehensive guide to ‘cutting the cord’ (femtocells recommended).
• Zahid Ghadialy considers using femtocells illegally abroad…
• …and examines 3GPP Release 9 enhancements for LTE femtocells.
• Will multi-tasking on the iPhone cause network meltdown?  Will femtocells save the day?
• Four star review for Vodafone Sure Signal.
• David Chambers looks forward to Release 8 femto-aware handsets.
• Cisco’s annual VNI forecast says mobile data will reach 3.5 Exabytes per month in 2014 (that’s 5.5% of total IP traffic)…
• …but Dean Bubley wonders whether femtocell traffic will be double counted.

Femtocell market update for weeks of 17 & 24 May 2010

KDDI to launch “au Femtocell” service on 1 July

KDDI will launch its “au Femtocell” service to customers using the company’s own FTTH broadband in the Tokyo area starting in July.  Technical staff will visit the homes of people reporting coverage issues, and will install a free femtocell if a “bad radio environment” is confirmed.  KDDI’s CDMA femtocell is supplied by Airvana and Hitachi.

T-Mobile continues to downplay femtocells

T-Mobile’s director of technology services and international network economics Kim Kyllesbech Larsen gives mixed messages on femtocells in an interview with Telecoms.com.  “Femtocells works very well with an existing fixed connection and take away a lot of the backhaul cost that an operator would have,” says Larsen.  However, he goes on to question the business case, given that “most people who have a fixed line already have Wi-Fi to cover indoors, so, it’s hard to see a great future for femtocells”.  Ultimately, Larsen believes that femtocells are “just something that you add on to provide a better service, at least temporarily for your customers.”  Deutsche Telekom’s CTO Olivier Baujard made similar comments earlier in the year.

Vodafone UK promotes its Sure Signal femtocell

Jonathan Kay recently received a flyer for the Sure Signal femtocell: “The cover was personalised to include my house name and an image of my house and neighbourhood,” he says.  “There was only one thing stopping me from going to www.vodafone.co.uk and buying one, and that was because I’d bought a Sure Signal approximately 6 months earlier!”  (Incidentally, Jonathan recommends the Sure Signal “without hesitation provided you have stable broadband.”)  Vodafone has also bundled the Sure Signal for free with the Nexus One phone on a £35 per month contract.  The only requirement is that subscribers must follow Vodafone on Twitter.  Elsewhere, Daniel Kennett explains his top secret method for getting a free Sure Signal (basically he just asked nicely).

More thoughts on data offload

AT&T says it is exploring the use of Wi-Fi “hotzones” to relieve pressure on its mobile phone network with a “pilot deployment” in Times Square, New York.  Actually there isn’t anything particularly new here – AT&T already has over 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the US, and in the first quarter of 2010 69% of connections at these hotspots were made from smartphones (many of which will auto-authenticate).

Dean Bubley posts some notes from his own experience of using Wi-Fi on an iPhone in Central London, where the density of Wi-Fi hotspots is high:  “As I walk down the street, my iPhone keeps attempting to register.  But by the time I’ve got online, I’ve walked past it and onto the next one along the street with stronger signal.  If I walk 5 minutes from home to my local tube station, I need to switch off WiFi temporarily, if I actually want to use mobile data – otherwise I have a constant stream of pop-ups from the connection manager on-screen, and no reliable connection.”

Bubley suggests that a high density of femtocells might have similar issues, but Will Franks points out that femto-to-femto handoff is already a solved problem.  Gary Kim suggests some additional advantages of femtocells for offload; “using femtocells, carriers arguably  retain control over the subscriber and [are] able to access more and better analytics.  Wi-Fi doesn’t provide the degree of end-to-end service management service providers would prefer to retain as well.”

LTE femtocells in the spotlight

Femtocells were a hot topic at Informa’s LTE World Summit on 18 & 19 May.  To mark the event, the Femto Forum released a detailed white paper explaining the benefits of using femtocells as part of a LTE network rollout.  NEC announced that it is building its own LTE femtocell (instead of relying on its existing 3G femto partners), and Dr Sharam Niri, Director of Global LTE/SAE Strategy & Solutions at NEC Europe says that operators are now “starting to believe” that LTE will not map onto the macro 3G network and will require much smaller cell sites.

In-flight GSM takes off around the world

Russian operator Megafon has announced an agreement with OnAir for providing GSM services on board of Aeroflot flights.  The project will install picocells on board 50 Airbus 320 and 330 aircraft.  Meanwhile, Air New Zealand will introduce in-flight texting using technology from OnAir’s competitor, AeroMobile.

Cisco talks up femtocells

Richard Medcalf of Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group discusses femto business models in a new video, concluding that a push model (i.e. free femtocells) potentially offers carriers the most return on investment.  Cisco has also published further details of its own femtocell solution, including a new 10-page brochure.

In other news…

• Shortlist announced for Femtocell Industry Awards (AT&T, Sprint & Vodafone are in the frame for the ‘Commercial Launch’ prize, so it’s rather odd that Cisco, Samsung and Alcatel-Lucent are not featured in the equivalent vendor category).
• Meanwhile, picoChip wins an LTE award while AirHop and SpiderCloud win Fierce 15 honours.
• Lots more reviews of AT&T’s 3G MicroCell, which continues its rollout in Chicago, Seattle and New York.  You can also kill GSM buzz with the 3G MicroCell.
• Are 70% of US phones on 3G? (I make it 46%, not counting CDMA 1X).
• Femtocells suitable for selective deployment in India, despite low residential broadband penetration…
• …Ravi Raj Bhat sees an opportunity for 2G femtocells.
• Qualcomm tells Think Femtocell about its Femto Station Modem chipset…
• …and promotes personal repeaters for in-home use.
• ThinkFemtocell comments on SoftBank’s free femtocells.
• Pace gains femto assets via Bewan acquisition.
• Airvana’s Woojune Kim says femtocells will get their moment.
• 3G infrastructure spend increases in 1Q10, but eclipsed by 2G declines.
• Shannon Lucas explains the difference between RIM’s MVS 5.0 with Wi-Fi Calling (based on SIP) and T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi Calling (based on UMA/GAN).
• UMA Today seeks out companies that use Wi-Fi Calling, and finds…Kineto!
• Is T-Mobile about to offer UMA on Android phones?

Femtocell market update for week of 10 May 2010

Fixed Mobile Substitution in the USA

Moody’s reported this week that the rate at which US consumers are disconnecting their fixed-line phones and going mobile-only is stabilising.  However, the newly published National Health Interview Survey for July to December 2009 finds that a quarter of American households have already ditched their landline, and an additional 15% has a land line but receives all or almost all calls on cellphones.  Nearly half of US adults aged 25 to 29 live in households with only cellphones.

Feature phones still dominate US market

There’s a widespread perception that all phones will soon be smartphones, and that all phones will soon have Wi-Fi.  Well, it hasn’t happened yet, according to the recent comScore listing of the top mobile phone makers in the US market.  Samsung is top of the list with a 22% share mainly consisting of feature phones.  Most of these phones have 3G, but very few have Wi-Fi – for example, I looked at the AT&T website and found lots of Samsung 3G feature phones on offer (e.g. the a777, Propel a767, Flight, Impression a877, Solstice a887, Mythic, Strive, Rugby a837), but only one (the Jack) has Wi-Fi.

But it’s clear that the line between smartphones and feature phones is blurring.  For example, Verizon is insisting on a $30 smartphone data plan for the Microsoft KIN phone (rather than a $10 feature phone plan), despite the fact that the KIN doesn’t support downloadable applications – part of Verizon’s own smartphone definition.

The comScore survey found that over 30% of US cellphone subscribers browse the Internet on their phones, while almost 20% (the fastest growing category) access social networking sites or blogs.  With exploding data usage on smartphones, feature phones and 3G enabled laptops, it’s not surprising that operators are moving away from unlimited data plans and fair usage policies, and introducing overage charges instead.  Vodafone UK is the latest operator to announce such a move.

More reaction to AT&T’s 3G MicroCell

There are plenty more reviews and blog postings on the 3G MicroCell this week.  John Martellaro explains how to overcome potential home network setup problems in part 2 of his “Amazing New AT&T 3G” review.  Eric Robichaud tells us about his friend who raves about the MicroCell, which also gets a “B+” in the Trav Test (would have been an A+ if it were provided free of charge) etc. etc.

Searching for less positive responses, Phillip Dampier says “It takes a special kind of nerve to charge customers for making and receiving calls that don’t even use the company’s mobile network” (except of course the calls do use AT&T’s network).  Mel Martin is “happy with everything but the price”.  Erika Napolitana is not too happy with AT&T’s network, and describes the MicroCell as “frosting on a crap cake”.  Dale Larson has had some problems in an area with strong macro network coverage.  And this chap didn’t get very good customer service.

Here are some more people who love it…

• The new AT&T 3G Microcell (a wireless router that generates a 3G cell signal) is the Best. Invention. Ever!! And nobody paid me to say that.
• Oh and to follow up from yesterday: AT&T’s 3G MicroCell is indeed as awesome as it sounds. Just wish my 2G BlackBerry was compatible…
• My house is new a bastion of cell service if you have ATT. Just installed their 3G MicroCell and it works like a charm
• The AT&T 3G Microcell is incredible. first thing they’ve done right in a long long time
• A miracle happened when I was away from the office for 2 weeks. I have 5 bars on my @ATT BB, Up from 2. Full signal wow! …Solved the mystery of the amazing 5 bars on my ATT BB at work. They installed the AT&T 3G MicroCell; a femtocell.
• The ATT 3G Microcell will be released in Michigan this Sunday. Sounds like a good excuse to skip church

And some who are less complementary…

• AT&T store happily sold me a 3G Microcell… which apparently is impossible to add to a business account. Great.
• ATT’s flash ad for the 3G MicroCell makes me cringe. Click “3G Data Speed” from the little menu to see what I mean: http://is.gd/c69Ko
• Think they R trying 2 force Microcell purchase RT @Jadedlilmonkey ATT 3G uber slow today. It’s zapping my iPhone bat. Not a happy camper.

In other news…

• Femtocells World Summit programme announced.
• Percello launches PRC6600 femto chip with HSPA+ and 24-64 channels.
• ThinkFemtocell interviews Alcatel-Lucent’s David Swift.
• For some reason there are lots of blog postings about the femtoJack this week – mostly written in the same, slightly bizarre style (possibly all by the same person)?
• Bill Mayberry & PJ Louis tell Wireless Week that femtocells are the future of wireless.
• Rupert Baines tells ECN: “someday all basestations will be like this”.
• Kyocera’s WiMax indoor solution passes interoperability testing with Cisco’s ASN gateway on the ASR 5000.
• AeroMobile in-flight GSM launched on Emirates flights to and from New Zealand.

Femtocell market update for weeks of 26 Apr & 3 May 2010

America warms to femocells

When AT&T first announced its 3G MicroCell, the New York Times complained it was “bringing you a signal you’re already paying for”.  But after trying out the device, NYT technology correspondent Paul Boutin expresses a much more positive view.  “Call quality over the MicroCell was almost shockingly clear,” he reports, and points out that with the MicroCell you get “your own personal cellphone tower without needing the approval of your neighborhood’s opposition watchdog group.”

Jim Rossman of Dallas Morning News also tested the MicroCell, calling it “flawless”, and Associated Press tech writer Rachel Metz reaches the same conclusion (although she does make a couple of complaints in her video report).  John Martellaro’s in-depth Mac Observer review is highly complementary: “The product is beautifully packaged, well thought out and nicely documented.  The AT&T management pages are awesomely coherent, beautiful, and easy to navigate.”

There’s also no shortage of bloggers recounting their own experiences of unboxing, setting up and using the 3G MicroCell.  One AT&T subscriber sold her 3G MicroCell on E-Bay for $182.50 (well above AT&T’s $150 asking price, suggesting that demand is out-stripping supply in some markets).  At the other extreme, I’ve seen a few reports recently of AT&T providing subscribers with a free MicroCell.

As the rollout continues in more US cities (recent additions being Washington DC, Denver and Los Angeles), Engadget advised that the MicroCell (which, “by the way…works just wonderfully”) is sometimes available in unlaunched markets, and reported (then retracted) a rumour of a full national launch on 16 May.

Meanwhile, despite expectations that Apple’s iPad would primarily be a Wi-Fi-driven device, the more expensive 3G version has been proving hugely popular.  This has potential consequences for AT&T’s 3G network, especially with many owners reporting problems using the iPad with Wi-Fi.  Some are turning to the 3G MicroCell as an alternative for home Internet access on the device (this does, apparently, work, but you need to use a clever trick to find the iPad’s phone number and add it to the MicroCell’s whitelist).

Although the MicroCell is not quite perfect (e.g. complaints include the lack of support for corporate accounts and for 2G phones, and the need to dial area codes when making local calls), people do seem to love it.  Here’s a selection of this week’s tweets…

• AT&T 3G Microcell provides full cell coverage in your house – just got it – I’m truly amazed. Crystal clear, fast, wow. Bravo.
• Bought the AT&T 3G MicroCell for our house and must say, highly recommended. We have 5 bars everywhere.
• Testing the new AT&T microcell 3G wireless router that came out yest’dy. Full bars and calls sound like landline. $149 device = wow!
• After AT&T 3g MicroCell! I love it
• Finally got a 3G Microcell today and I love it. 5 bars of coverage all the time!
• AT&T 3G MicroCell = a very worthwhile purchase for a house seemingly lodged in a deadzone. I am speed.
• So far the ATT 3g Microcell is working great – good coverage all over – even out in the street in front of the house.
• Just got the AT&T 3G Microcell at home and have 5 bars and perfect sound quality.
• Full 3G signal in my home for the first time ever. 3G microcell is legit.
• 9700 rocks especially when connected to the ATT wireless 3G Microcell. Finally 5 bars.
• I think the 3g microcell has changed my life.

Light Reading reports that AT&T is preparing to move beyond the consumer market and introduce enterprise femtocells, with major network vendors (even arch femto-sceptics Ericsson) vying for the business.

Elsewhere in the USA, Verizon Wireless has cut the price of its Network Extender 2G femtocell – perhaps the 3G version is finally about to appear?

SoftBank forecasts explosion in home wireless devices

SoftBank president and CEO Masayoshi Son predicted that in future 10 or more mobile Internet devices will be used in every home. Speaking at the company’s recent results briefing, he said this would contribute to a 40 times increase in wireless Internet data traffic in the next five years, and a 1,600 times increase over ten years.  Son went on to say that femtocells are a key part of Softbank’s strategy for dealing with this data explosion.

Offload controversy

The data offload debate continued this week as T-Mobile US abandoned overage charges on its 5 GB mobile data plan in exchange for bandwidth throttling users’ speeds if they exceed the limit.

Ian Scales has been digging deeper into his idea of offloading all mobile traffic to the Internet “right behind the basestation”, but not everyone is so keen.  Graeme Oxby, managing director of mobile and home phone at Virgin Media has spoken out against  the idea that mobile operators can offload their data traffic onto fixed networks for free.  “Mobile operators spent years eating the lunch of the fixed-line operators… now they have a need to offload some of that traffic it has become necessary for mobile and fixed players to work together,” he told Total Telecom.

Belair continues advocating Wi-Fi offload, but Tony Dennis at TechEye is sceptical about the technical complexity of a seamless multi-network experience, as is David Chambers, who points out the advantages of femtocells.  Meanwhile T-Mobile US reports 1.6 million Wi-Fi calls per month, which might sound a lot, but by my calculations it’s a tiny fraction of a percent of its monthly post-paid calls.

ip.access wins World Vendor Award

ip.access has picked up a World Vendor Award in the “Best Specialist Vendor” category.  The judging panel described ip.access as “an excellent example of a company that has specialised in a core market area and gained some significant traction.”  One judge hailed ip.access as “a great technological story with a real product range and great customer stories.”

In other news…

• Peter Jarich says Huawei has sold 30,000 femtocells and picocells.
• Aditya Kaul says China Unicom is “reviewing its femto strategy with 1st wave push in 2010. Expect bigger second wave around 2012“
• Further details of Infonetics femto market forecast…including growth at 86% CAGR from 2009 to 2014.
• Ubiquisys CEO Chris Gilbert comments on the Infonetics forecast and the $100 femtocell.
• David Chambers reviews femto shipment forecasts and concludes that 1.8 million femtocells will be sold before the end of 2010.
• Dean Bubley sees evidence from femtocells that people might pay extra for “better than normal” coverage.
• Freescale WiMAX femto demo.
• Femto Router und Femto zellen sind im Kommen!
• Josh Adelson suggests a radical approach to femto pricing – let the market decide!
• Mark Hay wonders what 3G femto vendors are smoking.
• IntelliNet and picoChip claim interoperability.
• Plurality announces multi-core processor for femto (and anything else you can think of).
• “Green” building construction is bad for mobile phone signals.
• Do 4G femtocells threaten cell tower companies?
• Analysys Mason advocates 900 MHz spectrum refarming in Ireland.
• David Chambers reports from Avren’s basestation conference.

Femtocell market update for week of 19 Apr 2010

Free femtocells in exchange for tiered data pricing?

During an analyst call this week, ATT’s CFO Rick Lindner talked about the possibility of tiered pricing for mobile data.  He didn’t say AT&T was planning to introduce it, but he did say it may become necessary for the industry to move away from flat-rate data plans as data traffic volumes continue to increase.  Despite the flak operators get for even mentioning tiered data pricing, I found one post this week from a blogger who considers flat-rate data plans are “insane”.  John Gordon thinks the answer is pay-per-use data bundles combined with free femtocells.  AT&T’s 3G MicroCell received 4 stars in PC World’s review this week.

What the commentators said…

Some of the femtocell commentary this week deserves a response.  For instance, Lynnette Luna on Fierce Wireless says, “while Wi-Fi and femtocells certainly make economic sense when it comes to handling data traffic, their roles as data offloaders will be evolutionary”.  She believes operators have not yet figured out the “economic, marketing, network planning and technical basis” for deciding where to use Wi-Fi and where to use femtocells.  On the other hand, one might argue, many operators have already figured out that they need both – AT&T for example is going full steam ahead with femtocells and Wi-Fi offload.

Meanwhile, Ian Scales at Telecom TV takes the concept of core network offload to its logical conclusion, asking whether voice as well as data should be offloaded to the Internet, thereby avoiding the need to maintain a core network at all.  Scales argues that femtocells already send voice traffic via the Internet.  However, he doesn’t explain how mobility with the macro network would be supported.  After all, femtocells do need the core network as well.

“UMA is dead”, says Infonetics

Research firm Infonetics has released its biannual FMC and Femtocell Equipment, Phones, and Subscribers report.  Its FMC subscriber forecasts have been significantly downgraded compared to earlier predictions (which did seem to be somewhat overcooked), mainly because, according to Principal Analyst Stéphane Téral, “Universal Mobile Access and Voice Call Continuity are essentially dead”.  The firm expects femtocell shipments to exceed 2.5 million in 2011 (somewhat lower than other recent forecasts).

Femtocells and 3G-enabled laptops

Two articles investigating the use of 3G-connected laptops with femtocells gave contrasting results. Nick Sayer found AT&T’s 3G MicroCell was a bit slower than Wi-Fi when using AT&T’s Quicksilver 3G USB dongle, but points out that with 3G (unlike with Wi-Fi) you get a publicly routable address. Mark Pack reports that the Vodafone Sure Signal femtocell is “not suitable for mobile broadband” (that means 3G-enabled laptops here in the UK), although he seems to have received conflicting advice on this from Vodafone.

In other news…

• Cellcom talks about its femto apps vision.
• Broadcom spotted at Femto Forum.
• Qualcomm’s Femto Station Modem chip could be used in ‘personal repeaters’.
• HSL femto certified.
• Engadget reports two-day Vodafone Sure Signal outage (can’t say I noticed it, myself).
• Interview with Public Wireless CEO.
• Ubiquisys technology map explained.
• When femtocells become picocells (make sure to read the comments).
• Josh & Dave explain how femtocells have managed to hold our interest.
• Orange UK reports 300% growth in mobile data use by SME customers.

Tweets

• Loving my ATT 3G Microcell. It appears to be a successful saving throw versus account closure for ATT. 5 bars and excellent call quality
• My folks just got AT&T 3G MicroCell, and I must say. It works really well.
• Just installed AT&T 3G Microcell. 5 bars everywhere at home. Goodbye Fairpoint & your crappy copper, Hello 21st Century…
• AT&T 3G microcell installed and now i’ve got service where there was none! Worth every penny.
• Turned WiFi off on my N900 – drains the battery too much which is terrible to begin with. Use VF Femto at home…

Femtocell market update for weeks of 5 & 12 Apr 2010

AT&T launches 3G MicroCell in San Francisco

Mobile Crunch was the first to report the availability of AT&T’s 3G MicroCell in San Francisco as part of the operator’s phased launch across the United States.  This is big news; there is strong demand for the MicroCell in the city on account of 3G network congestion caused by the high density of geeks using apps and accessing the internet on their iPhones.

Gizmodo gave the MicroCell a test drive and described it as a “lifechanger”.  According to the review, “It’s nothing short of revelatory, to suddenly have full reception where there was none, to make calls where one couldn’t before.”

However, there is still a background clamour from folks who are outraged at the idea of consumers having to pay for a femtocell.  The New York Times claims that the 3G MicroCell is ‘bringing you a signal you’re already paying for’.  Christina Zachariades (28) of Manhattan told the paper, “It’s a fabulous idea…but to charge for it is insulting.”  A former FCC adviser is quoted as saying, “It’s so much more of an advantage for AT&T than it is for the customer.”

Kevin Fitchard’s provocatively titled article on “the femtocell con game” follows a similar theme, as does Bill Snyder’s “iPhone outrage” at InfoWorld.  One cynic even tweeted “AT&T’s 3G microcell…so were they giving us crappy reception on purpose to make us want this?”

Interestingly, AT&T responded directly to Gadgetron about its similar criticisms, emphasising that the MicroCell “is not AT&T’s solution for their congested network”.  AT&T spokesperson Sue Sperry said, “customers are looking at it like ‘Oh you’ve got a solution and I have to pay for it’…People are focused on [the congestion issue] but these are two separate issues.”

In reality, the outrage is by no means universal.  Firstly, there are all those tweets from people who have actually paid for the MicroCell and are delighted with it – here’s a recent selection…

• Just setup an AT&T 3G Microcell at my mom’s house in the middle of the woods. Now she gets signal in and around her house! Great buy!
• Get a 3G MicroCell, cancel landline. MicroCell is $150, but you’ll save that over landline in like 4 months most places.
• Got the 3G Microcell from AT&T at home and it works like a charm! 5 bars where before I had 1 bar of 3G or EDGE only.
• 3G Microcell from at&t finally in SF…just installed mine and loving having perfect cell coverage in my concrete box of a home.
• BTW, that new AT&T 3G Microcell rocks! Fixed my iPhone issues in the office. Nice!
• I recently installed AT&T’s 3G MicroCell in my home. I have to say that after initial set up, this thing works great. 5 bar reception!!!
• I’ve had mine for months and I love it
• Finally got my AT&T 3G Microcell working at home… 5 bars everywhere, great sound quality… love it!
• Love having 5 full bars of ATT service in my house. Thank you Apple iPhone 3GS and ATT 3G Microcell.
• AT&T 3G MicroCell is working like a charm! Sweeet.
• Ohhhh 3G microcell in my house. Signal again!
• I’ve been using the 3G Microcell for over 1 week in 2 locations, range better than advertised, no dropped calls, good quality. Happy iPhones!
• AT&T Microcell. It just works. 5 3G Bars in a house where we didn’t even have Edge service.
• hrm, at&t 3g microcell works good. too good. now i know no one’s calling me. always had a glimmer of hope before.

Even Ovum, traditionally reserved on femtocells, has described the MicroCell offer as ‘palatable’.  Comments posted on the Gizmodo review express mixed opinions, but Eric Stoner [I can’t believe he really has ‘no friends’] puts the issue nicely in perspective:

“Does it suck that AT&T charges for the Microcell?  Yes.  Does any cell phone provider work absolutely everywhere?  No.  Putting towers all over the U.S. so that you can have service absolutely everywhere is costly and expensive.  Should we knock down buildings, mountains, and other obstacles so all providers get service?  No.  Does AT&T have to pay for someone to make the microcells?  Yup.  Sorry, the cost is passed to the consumer to have 5 bars of coverage.  Acceptable to me.”

SoftBank’s free femtocells

As reported previously, Japan’s SoftBank is planning to avoid the ‘outrage’ by giving its femtocells away for free (at least to customers with no 3G coverage).  Two official tweets in Japanese this week (re-tweeted hundreds of times) provide further details.

The first appears to come from Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son, roughly translated as: “SBM will start accepting formal femtocell applications.  Please note that government paperwork etc. will take 2 months.  SBM will provide the service for free if the applicant’s home, office, or shop is outside 3G coverage.”

The second tweet, from CTO Junichi Miyakawa, clarifies “For shops and offices, please contact femto_shop@mb.softbank.co.jp.  Please note that formal acceptance will start from May 10th.”

Sprint prepares to upgrade Airave to 3G

Engadget reports that Sprint is about to fix the “fatal flaw” in its Airave femtocell, namely the lack of 3G data support.  An FCC filing gives details of its new EV-DO capable femtocell, made by Airvana.  As well as being a femtocell, the device includes an integrated analogue telephone adapter (previously announced by Airvana) which allows a regular fixed phone to be plugged in for VoIP-routed landline calls.

Sprint’s original CDMA 1X Airave femtocell is made by Samsung.  Verizon uses the same product for its own ‘Network Extender’ femtocell, and is due to launch an upgraded EV-DO capable version soon.  (Back in January, Engadget showed pictures of the EV-DO upgrade to the Samsung product which will be introduced by Verizon.)

Tele2 femtocell? (don’t get too excited)

There was some surprise in the femto industry this week when it was reported that Tele2 has launched a femtocell service in Sweden.  As reported by Telegeography and TMCnet, the new ‘Tele2 Hemtelefoni via mobilnatet’ service uses a “femtocell device” to provide home telephony and Internet service via the mobile network.  The “femtocell” is claimed to support 5 connected devices and to provide “three times the signal strength of average cellular reception in the home”, but it only works in existing 3G coverage areas.  Mysterious.

A thorough investigation by Current Analysis’ Emma Mohr-McClune reveals the truth – this is not a femtocell at all.  In fact, Tele2 never claimed it was – the trade media incorrectly added the term femtocell in its reports.  In reality ‘Tele2 Hemtelefoni via mobilnatet’ is a cellular modem / home router that allows customers to plug in fixed phones and PCs, and uses the mobile network rather than a fixed line for calls and Internet access – hence the requirement for 3G coverage.

The femtocell confusion may have been caused by the claim of improved signal strength in the home.  In fact, Tele2 makes this claim on the basis that the home router has a strong antenna, and that subscribers will be stationary when using it and are therefore less likely to suffer from indoor reception problems.  According to Emma Mohr-McClune, this is “a bold and risky claim for a solution that markets itself as a fixed-line alternative” – especially in Sweden where many homes are made of heavyset stone.  Perhaps Tele2 should have gone with the femtocell after all.

The network as a differentiator

Vodafone, O2 and 3 are embroiled in a public spat about who has the best 3G network in the UK.  For years, the network has been a hygiene factor for mobile operators in many countries, but all this is changing with the increased use of mobile data, especially on smartphones, and the network is now potentially a significant differentiator once more.  Vodafone claims that it would not experienced the same network congestion problems as O2 if it had been selling the iPhone.  Yet at the same time it’s becoming clear that some of the problems have actually been caused by the way smartphones access the network’s resources.  Apple has admitted that its relative inexperience in building mobile phones has caused some issues with the iPhone.  Mike Thelander from Signals Research Group gave a great analysis of the problems caused by smartphone signalling in a Fierce Wireless webinar on data offload this week, and Femto Forum Chairman Simon Saunders followed up with an explanation of how femtocells can help alleviate these problems.

In other news…

• Peter Jarich comments on the significance of the first femtocell plugfest.
• USA Today explains femtocells for the ordinary reader.
• PC World explains indoor coverage options.
• Vodafone Sure Signal – an ideal solution for businesses with home workers.
• Another MicroCell user review: “Now, we both get a full five bars of connectivity”.
• The net neutrality update, and how this affects femtocells.
• Carl Weinschenk says, “Here come the femtos!”
• Are there places even femtocells can’t reach?
• Will the UK Digital Rights Bill give femtocells an advantage over Wi-Fi?
• Data offload pace quickens with 3G femtocells and Wi-Fi (part 1 & part 2).
• AT&T includes enterprise femtocells in its investment plans for business customers.
• The iPad will come with a truly unlimited data plan on AT&T.
• Orange UK offers truly unlimited mobile data (in the evenings only).
• No need to rush LTE! Maybe Wi-Fi is an alternative?
• Ofcom considers increased transmission power of 3G networks to improve coverage.
• MWC interview with ip.access CTO Nick Johnson shows up on bnetTV.
• CTIA interview with Simon Saunders.
• Ubiquisys’ technology map – Mind The Gap!  (sorry, Keith – couldn’t resist that! – Londoner’s joke for you, there.)

Femtocell market update for weeks of 22 & 29 Mar 2010

AT&T announces plans for nationwide launch of 3G MicroCell

TMCnet’s “highlight of CTIA Wireless” was AT&T’s announcement that it will roll out its 3G MicroCell across the United States starting in April.  The pricing is similar to the current trials: either a one-time cost of $149.99, or cheaper options (including free) in association with specific calling plans.  The news was reported in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and across the blogosphere.

Galen Gruman at InfoWorld says the 3G MicroCell is “good news”, except that customers “get to foot the bill to reduce AT&T’s cellular bandwidth woes”.  This sentiment is commonly expressed in the blogosphere.  Nick Mokey at Digital Trends says that femtocell technology is “marvelous stuff”, but complains that AT&T’s offer is like a bus company that charges you $100 a month for a bus pass, but then “offers to sell you a bicycle for $150 so you can help free up room on its buses”.  Another way to look at this, of course, is that the bus company provides you with a taxi so that you can have your own first class service and don’t need to share the bus with others.

TechCrunch wants AT&T to provide MicroCells for free.  Stephen Shankland at CNET News agrees, and suggests that in return you should be prepared to allow your neighbours to use your femtocell.  Will Smith at Tested.com goes off on a complete rant, believing that femtocells are a cynical ploy for carriers to “fill gaps in wireless networks”.  But George Ou at Digital Society points out that “It is simply not practical to pierce every home with a sufficient signal with standard cellular base stations and femtocells are the only realistic option.”  He also suggests some modifications that might make Stephen Shankland’s idea workable.

A range of opinions can be found in comments on the Engadget blog.  The ‘average’ view is summed up neatly at GadgetVenue: “Although I can’t say I’d enjoy having to buy a device to boost a signal for a company I am paying to get a signal from in the first place, I could still be tempted if I was in a…location where I’d normally expect reception to be bad”.  The issue is that people have different ideas about where it’s reasonable to expect reception to be bad.

Femto Forum announces successful plugfest

The Femto Forum announced that it has completed the world’s first femtocell plugfest, organised in cooperation with ETSI.  The plugfest tested 3GPP’s Iuh femtocell standard for interoperability between femtocell access points and femto gateways.  The process was supported by over twenty femtocell vendors, including ip.access, Airvana, Genband, IntelliNet and Acme Packet, all of whom immediately announced their successful participation in the event.

Caroline Gabriel wonders whether we will see a new femtocell supply chain, but ABI Research’s Aditya Kaul notes that “while gateway-CPE interoperability is important…the plugfest should not be seen as a panacea but more of a basic requirement that vendors will need to meet before they can plug into future femtocell networks”.

‘Spectacular growth’ forecast for femtocells

US analyst iSuppli forecasts 1.9 million femtocell shipments in 2010 (up from 571,000 in 2009).  A period of expansion will follow, with 7.2 m shipments in 2011; 23.9 m in 2012; and 39.6 m units in 2013.  The firm believes that 2010 will be the year when femtocells become a key ingredient in the foundation for future radio access networks.

Meanwhile “Femtocells: A Global Strategic Business Report” (available from GIS) predicts the global femtocell subscriber base will reach 75.8 million by 2015, with 60% in North America and Europe.  The market is expected to witness robust growth given “the ongoing trend among mobile operators to shift to smaller access points from large base stations”.  Another report from M&M (which might in fact be the same report – it’s hard to tell) forecasts the global femtocell market to grow from $230 million in 2009 to $4.6 billion in 2014.

SoftBank to offer free femtocells

According to the tweets and blogs, SoftBank has decided to distribute femtocells to its subscribers for free (even throwing in a “dedicated ADSL line”, for some reason).  I haven’t seen any details of the offer so far (except in Japanese), but customers will apparently be able to register for the offer from May.  Pictures here.

What ‘pesky femtocell interference’?

Michelle Donegan at Light Reading Mobile believes there has been good progress recently on femto prices and standards, but asks “what about that pesky interference with the macro network?”  In response, Femto Forum chairman Simon Saunders quotes AT&T’s Executive Director of RAN Delivery Gordon Mansfield:

• “We have deployed femtocells co-carrier with both the hopping channels for GSM macrocells and with UMTS macrocells.  Interference isn’t a problem.”
• “We have tested femtocells extensively in real customer deployments of many thousands of femtocells, and we find that the mitigation techniques implemented successfully minimise and avoid interference”
• “The more femtocells you deploy, the more uplink interference is reduced”.

He also points to the Femto Forum’s detailed studies which conclude that interference mitigation techniques enable femtocells to deliver improved capacity and performance for both the femtocell and macrocell users.

Qualcomm announces Femto Station Modem customers

ZTE looks like it has decided to have another go at the CDMA femto market, announcing a deal with Qualcomm to use the San Diego giant’s new Femto Station Modem chipset.  AirWalk has also committed to using FSM for its CDMA femtocells.  No UMTS customers have been announced yet, but Qualcomm is hinting that this may happen soon.

3GPP2 publishes CDMA2000 femto standard

The Femto Forum and 3GPP2 have announced the publication of specifications for CDMA2000 (1X and EVDO) femtocells.  The specifications describe a SIP / IMS-based architecture, allowing the integration of femtocell access points and femtocell convergence servers from multiple vendors.  The specs support femto-aware handsets, with Enhanced System Selection features for improved battery life, faster femtocell and macrocell system acquisition, improved handoff between the femtocell and macrocell system, and femtozone awareness.

The new specifications also include building blocks for femtozone services, including Local IP Access (LIPA – sometimes called “local breakout”), which allows packet data traffic to be directly offloaded from femtocells to customers’ home networks.  Remote IP Access (RIPA – sometimes called “local break-in”) is also supported, allowing mobile devices on the macro network to access the home network via a secure remote tunnel (for example to access content on a media server).

Tatara has claimed some of the credit, saying that the 3GPP2 standard is based on Tatara’s SIP-based femto architecture.

Elsewhere at CTIA…

• AT&T Mobility CEO and CTIA Chairman Ralph de la Vega called on the mobile industry to make more effective use of technologies like Wi-Fi and femtocells.
• Light Reading went femto spotting in Las Vegas, and published a new ‘Who Does What’ report on femtocells (which includes an excellent round-up of current commercial deployments, with pricing details).
• The Femto Forum published details of its studies on femtocells in next generation networks…Rethink Wireless concludes that femtocells will be an important part of LTE deployment strategies, and 4G Trends says the business case appears compelling.
• Airvana recovered a stolen phone using a home presence trigger from its femto tablet demo.

Vodafone markets Sure Signal for business users

Despite some temporary problems with the service, Vodafone has been sending out marketing fliers for its Sure Signal femtocell to small and medium sized businesses in the UK.  According to the company’s Enterprise director Peter Kelly, “businesses are finding Vodafone Sure Signal transforms their lives, increasing productivity and enabling them to take full advantage of all Vodafone’s services…anywhere in their office or home.”

In other news…

• Comprehensive technical review of the AT&T 3G MicroCell by Brian Klug at AnandTech.
• China Unicom’s 3G Inn not yet available to the public.
• ip.access and Ubiquisys explain why deploying femtocells is hard.
• Teleena launches Dutch MVNO VastMobiel with picocell network.
• ABI Research says AT&T has “carefully thought through their femtocell strategy and could have a bigger plan up their sleeve”.
• Calvin Wang contemplates the prospects for femtocells in China.
• Fierce Wireless not impressed by femtocells at CTIA.
• Crank Up the Wi-Fi, Bring in the Femtocells.
• Wi-Fi poised to supplement 3G as consumers embrace Wi-Fi phones.
• Mobile data overtakes voice traffic worldwide (femtocells to the rescue).
• More evidence of the data explosion.
• Why operators are building small cells.
• Dave Nowicki’s report on the Femtocells Asia conference.
• Mobile internet traffic profiles increasingly matching fixed internet.
• European Commission makes it easier to use mobiles at sea.
• Mobile data fair usage caps are getting lower.
• Wireless infrastructure market to decline in 2010.
• Dean Bubley explains unseen background data traffic.
• David Chambers explains Huawei’s two-cloud model.
• Is Ericsson changing its femtocell strategy?
• Unexpected runaway femtocell coverage phenomenon!

Vendor announcements

• Ubiquisys claims to have broken the $100 femtocell price barrier.
• …but is anyone making money at those prices?
• Airvana demonstrates 5-fold data speed improvement with UMTS femtocell.
• Ubiquisys and Public Wireless announce metro femtocell.
• Ubiquisys announces G34 16-channel enterprise femtocell.
• AirWalk & Lime Micro collaborate on enterprise femto.
• Benetel and Rohde & Schwarz collaborate on femtocell test system.
• Alcatel-Lucent wins CTIA E-Tech Award for LTE small cells in-building solution.
• Tatara demos enterprise femto services.
• Kineto launches Smart Wi-Fi app for Android.

Tweets

• “Exec Roundtable at CTIA. “More cell sites is easier then more spectrum” need pico, femto, DAS, WiFi and eventually even RAN sharing. “
• “I still don’t get why everyone is freaking out about the pricing on the 3G Microcell…I’m buying one.”
• “Loving the microcell. Too bad they don’t talk to one another so I can chain a strip of 3G service down my street. That’ll be the next task.”
• “I just bought a 3G microcell and for the first time ever instead of no bars I have FIVE bars on my iPhone in my home and office!!!!!!! YES!”

With the Femto Forum at CTIA, Las Vegas

This is my hotel room – good thing I didn’t come to Las Vegas to gamble .  Instead I’m at the CTIA show, spending some of my time in meetings and the rest at the FemtoZone (which has been pretty busy despite being tucked away in a far corner of the exhibition floor).  The Femto Forum made a couple of announcements today: one outlining new research which details the benefits of femtocells for LTE & WiMAX (see it here), and the other jointly with 3GPP2 announcing the publication of specifications for CDMA2000 femtocells.

Elsewhere at the show, AT&T Mobility CEO and CTIA chairman Ralph de la Vega focused on the continuing rapid growth of mobile broadband in his keynote talk, mentioning femtocells as one of the technologies that can help take the pressure off the mobile networks.

Details Benefits of Femtocells for LTE & WiMAX

Femtocell market update for weeks of 8 and 15 Mar 2010

Qtel trials femtocells in Qatar

Qtel is trialling femtocells in Qatar, where more than 60% of mobile calls are made indoors.  Trials are being conducted in offices and a number of private residences using Qtel’s FTTH broadband network for backhaul.

Apps, not iPhones, to blame for data crunch

O2 UK CTO Derek McManus says it isn’t the iPhone per se that is causing congestion problems on its network – it’s actually the applications running on the iPhone and other smartphones.  It’s well known in the industry that the behaviour of individual apps, bringing up and tearing down data connections to send and receive regular updates, can cause signalling overload on the RNCs – see here and here and especially here for a very good explanation from Mike Thelander of SRG.  (Femtocells offload the RNCs and therefore help alleviate the signalling bottleneck.)  McManus also acknowledged that the “base station need to be smaller and closer to one another” (sounds like a femtocell).

AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega touched on similar themes in a recent interview with Fierce Wireless.  The company is aiming to extend data-centric applications beyond smartphones, recently announcing a suite of new cloud-based data services that enable a smartphone-like experience for messaging and video/photo sharing on mass market handsets.  Meanwhile, Engadget has spotted AT&T 3G MicroCells in Chicago.

Teleware installs enterprise pico network at oil company campus

The enterprise femtocell market is hotting up, with AirWalk and Alcatel Lucent two of the latest vendors to announce products.  Over the last few months the industry has spent a lot of time debating the requirements for femtocell installations on large enterprise campuses.  It’s a non-trivial problem which has caused much head scratching in the Femto Forum.

Meanwhile, Teleware has quietly been getting on and doing it – PBX integration and all!  For example, the company has deployed a Private Mobile Network using nanoGSM picocells from ip.access to cover over 85% of Hunting Energy Services’ site at Laurencekirk in Scotland.  Staff can communicate with one another and with colleagues at HQ without incurring any call charges, whilst external calls are routed via the company’s PBX and charged at normal landline rates.  (Oh, and in case you’re confused, a picocell has all the same advantages as an ‘enterprise femtocell’ but with a larger coverage area.)

Vodafone Sure Signal vs. Orange UMA

Cloud Net has examined the femto and UMA options available in the UK and concluded that “the comparison is between the Vodafone solution that has a cost but works elegantly with all mobile phones and the Orange UMA which is free but requires a particular model of phone and a rock steady WiFi.”

AirWalk announces LTE picocell

AirWalk, Mindspeed and Aricent will be showing a proof of concept LTE picocell at CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas.  AirWalk plans to make the product commercially available in 2011, followed by a femtocell version.

magicJack rants at CTIA

The FCC is considering a law to make privately deployed cellphone boosters illegal.  In its comments to the FCC, CTIA singled out magicJack’s ‘femtocell’ as a device that has “the same potential for harmful interference as wireless boosters“ and should not be permitted to operate unless approved by wireless carriers.  This has clearly upset magicJack, whose founder Dan Borislow responded, “It is completely irresponsible to describe things you have no knowledge of, and CTIA in this case is once again clueless. Our femtocell does not interfere.”  But I suspect it is actually be Mr Borislow who is clueless about wireless interference, not CTIA.

Dean Bubley sheds light on femto vs. Wi-Fi for data offload

In his Disruptive Wireless blog, Dean Bubley notes that operators’ data offload strategies are complicated by the “annoying peculiarities of consumer behaviour”.  The point is that operators can’t force customers to behave in a way that supports their offload strategies – for instance, customers may turn Wi-Fi off to preserve their phone’s battery.  Dean concludes that “laptop 3G data offload is probably best done via WiFi, but smartphones may be more femto-centric – especially as smartphones are more likely to have operator-branded services that make it advantageous to keep the traffic on-net.”

In other news…

• Network World says “the AT&T MicroCell trial will be front-and-center in Cisco’s ‘forever change the (mobile) Internet’ launch”.
• AT&T’s 3G MicroCell and Cisco’s strategy.
• AT&T details 3G investments in response to 5000% traffic growth over 3 years.  (Is it now “the network to beat”?)
• Apple and China Unicom working to Wi-Fi-enable Chinese iPhones (Wi-Fi is currently not available on smartphones in China).
• Dork review of Vodafone Sure Signal femtocell: “I’ve been using the Sure Signal for the past couple of weeks and I love it.”
• RCR Wireless interview with Femto Forum chairman Simon Saunders.
• Telecom Channel interviews Simon Saunders at MWC.
• David Chambers offers his thoughts on IMS femtocells and IPv6, and explains why giving a customer a new SIM card can create back-office integration complexity for femtocells.
• Doug Kniseley agrees about IMS.
• Zahid Ghadialy says there are no simple answers to offload.
• CCPU discusses offload, and introduces its Offload Reference Platform.
• Arun Handa from IntelliNet discusses data offload and femtocells.  And more here.
• Femtocells or Wi-Fi?
• Node H demos HSPA on Percello 6100 chip.
• IntelliNet awarded Wi-Fi data offload patent.
• 5 opportunities in mobile data (femtocells are number 4).
• Kevin Mitchell says femtocell news is boring – but in a good way.
• Fierce Wireless publishes ebook on making the most of 4G (femtocells included).
• Dell’Oro forecasts 30% growth in 3G network equipment in 2010.
• European operators unlikely to need LTE before 2013.
• Quantas tells Australian Communications and Media Authority that its proposal for in-flight GSM is too expensive; Telstra complains that traffic bypasses its network.
• “What they need to do is let people smoke again on flights and make alcoholic drinks free. I would rather have that on a flight then the ability to use my cell phone.”

Tweets

• “Just installed AT&T’s MicroCell at home. Full bars all the time, fastest 3G possible. Badass!”
• “The AT&T MicroCell is the biggidy bomb. I now have full 3g in the darkest corners of my crib”
• Just got the AT&T 3G microcell … OMG!! It works!! I have full bars now at home. So exciting!
• “Picking up an AT&T 3G MicroCell. 5 bars and unlimited calling at home. Might be time to cut the landline if this thing works.”