3GPP Adds 3G Support to UMA Standard
3GPP completed a specification update effort last week that added 3G (Iu-interface) support to the UMA/GAN standard. 3G dual mode handsets with UMA support are expected in Q3 this year.
As well as supporting dual mode services that compete with femtocells, the announcement can also be seen as a first step towards standardising UMA as a means of integrating 3G femtocells into the mobile core network. In this application, the UMA client is part of the femtocell access point, so the service works with any 3G handset and doesn’t rely on WiFi for the air interface. NEC and Kineto recently made a proposal to 3GPP that UMA should become the standard for femtocell / core network integration.
In reality, the momentum appears to be with the alternative “extended Iu over IP” approach. Although the press release says NEC, Motorola, Ubiquisys and Netgear have all announced UMA-based femtocell solutions, in reality this is only two systems (one from NEC + Netgear and one from Motorola). Both solutions rely on the Ubiquisys femtocell AP technology, but Ubiquisys has recently announced its intention to support Iu over IP, joining several other vendors including ip.access, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Airvana and RadioFrame.
Concerns have also been raised recently about the security of UMA.
With perfect timing to undermine the UMA announcement, Nokia’s Director of Technology Alignment said this week that the company might not develop any more dual-band UMA handsets, like the 6301 shown here.
UK operators oppose 900 MHz refarming
If UMA dual mode services aren’t going to beat femtocells, will refarming 900 MHz spectrum for 3G do so? 900 MHz signals penetrate buildings better than the higher frequencies used for 3G today, and some believe that femtocells will be unnecessary if the spectrum is refarmed. However, refarming proposals ran into trouble in the UK this week. Vodafone and O2 (which own the 900 MHz licences) cried foul to Ofcom’s proposals, whereas 3 (the operator which stands to gain the most) says the proposals don’t go far enough. Meanwhile Heavy Reading analyst Patrick Donegan points out that “there are issues of having enough 3G terminals supporting a 900 MHz radio, and then making the business case for sacrificing an entire 5 MHz worth of GSM capacity to 3G when only a handful of 3G users with 900 MHz terminals will be able to use it.”
Fixed Mobile Substitution in the US
According to a Yankee Group survey, 15% of US adults used only a cell phone last year, up from 10 percent of adults in 2006. But many say poor cell-phone reception in their homes makes cutting the cord unfeasible. Nearly 14% of US adults said they were waiting for cell phone technology to improve before cutting the cord. “I think the biggest impediment … is coverage,” said Charles Golvin, who is principal analyst for Forrester Research, a technology consulting company based in Cambridge, Mass. “The call quality at home is not great.” This supports a very simple proposition for femtocells in the US (i.e. your cellphone actually works at home).
ABI says services will be key to femtocell success
ABI analyst Stuart Carlaw says “Creating services beyond the go-to-market, cheap voice strategy will be crucial… A service bundle that encompasses a comprehensive set of wrap-around services – and links devices into a connected home concept – will be a clear differentiator going forward”. These new services will enable marketers to “push the femtocell beyond the early adopters”.
Stacey Higginbotham says cheap voice the killer app, after all. “For the majority of the people out there paying a telco or cable provider, cheap, quality voice for less is what they want”. (I wonder if she’ll still think that in a couple of years time.)
Will the Taliban deploy femtocells?
This article speculates that the Taliban are looking to operate their own mobile networks using picocell and femtocell technology. (Personally I doubt it.)
I haven’t seen an official announcement, but this article says Sprint’s Airave femtocell will be launched nationwide across the US in April.
Strata8 signs national roaming agreement with Sprint
Strata8 recently started operations supplying businesses in the US with mobile services based on CDMA picocells. This is fine for the office, but what about making calls outdoors? The solution is a national roaming agreement with Sprint, announced this week.
Todd Mersch from Continuous Computing discusses the impact of a mass femtocell deployment on the RF environment.
Filed under: Market updates | Tagged: 900 MHz, ABI, Airave, Femtocell, femtocells, FMS, Gigaom, ip.access, Nokia, Strata8, UMA
