Maxis, Malaysia’s leading mobile operator, plans to trial femtocells by year end. Head of Radio Technologies, Denis Seek Kwai Yin, told the Femtocells Asia 2008 conference in Kuala Lumpur that Maxis is interested in using femtocells to implement home zone tariffs and location tracking services such as intruder alert.
Ericsson & Tatara collaborate on CDMA-1X femtocell
Ericsson has so far steered clear of the mainstream (WCDMA) femtocell market. Following its foray into GSM femtocells, Ericsson is now collaborating with Tatara on a CDMA-1x system. The press release says that the solution “combines Ericsson’s IMS Core Network infrastructure with a SIP-based femtocell and the Tatara Convergence Server”. It’s not clear exactly who supplies the femtocell AP, but it’s quite possibly neither Ericsson nor Tatara.
Femtocells at WiMAX World 2008
Unstrung says it expect US cable operator Comcast to launch WiMAX femtocells during the second half of 2009, following upbeat comments on femtocells by senior VP, Dave Williams back in June. This time nobody from Comcast is officially saying anything.
Motorola sees WiMAX picocells, but says the jury’s out on femto. Talking to GigaOM at WiMAX World, Motorola’s director of global strategy, Richard Keith, said he expects carrier-owned microcells and picocells to be part of WiMAX networks. He was less sure about femtocells.
But some vendors are already pursuing WiMAX femtocells. Fujitsu has released a white paper entitled “Achieving Cost-Effective Broadband Coverage with WiMAX Micro, Pico and Femto Base Stations,” and at the same time has launched a mobile WiMAX SoC for small base stations. The Fujitsu femto solution supports up to 10 users.
Juni were also displaying a WiMAX femtocell at WiMAX World.
In this article, repeater manufacturer Wilson Electronics spreads some misinformation about femtocells, and encourages consumers to look into repeaters instead. The Wilson homepage has a wide selection from $330 upwards (so much for repeaters being cheaper than femtocells) but you do need to lay cables all over your house (and ideally up on the roof).
Strategy Analytics sees drive towards smaller basestations
Strategy Analytics believes the migration to 3G+ and 4G networks will see a move toward smaller basestations. The penetration of micro base stations will increase to 29% through 2013, but the largest growth in shipments will come from picocells and femtocells. Femtocells will account for 84% of total base station shipments in 2013.
Mobile broadband – a femtocell opportunity
Strategy Analytics says that 50% of new laptops will come with embedded mobile broadband by 2010, prompting David Chambers to comment on the need for femtocells to provide an indoor signal. But will people will use mobile broadband at home instead of WiFi? In fact, there’s growing evidence that this is happening. Strand Consult reported this week that 84% of mobile broadband subscribers in Austria use their mobile broadband connection at home (while only 14% are using it on public transport). This follows a recent Ofcom report which found that 75% of UK mobile broadband subscribers use the service at home.
Picocells & femtocells for enterprises
RadioFrame Networks’ Mark Keenan believes that picocells and femtocells may help operators improve their ability to target SME customers. Think Femtocell agrees.
Although described here as a “femtocell(?)”, in fact the T-Mobile Share Dock isn’t one. It’s a WiFi Access Point that uses a HSPA dongle (rather than a fixed broadband link) to provide an internet connection. So it’s sort of the opposite of a femtocell.
Should femtocell operators mandate their own broadband?
Think Femtocell thinks not.
According to a European Commission study, 39% of households in Eastern Europe have only mobile phone subscriptions, with no fixed line phone. The figure for Western Europe is 20%. Cell phones first outnumbered humans in Europe in 2006.
Seasoned travellers say ‘No’ to mobile phones on planes
Accordingly to a poll by Wanderlust Magazine, 75% of its readership of “seasoned travellers” are strongly opposed to the use of mobile phones on planes.
Apparently they see it as “an interruption of ‘me time’”. So that probably tells you something about Wanderlust readers.
Carriers are increasingly concerned about network capacity for data
In the past six months, carriers have begun capping monthly unlimited data plans at 5 GB. Currently, only about 2% to 5% of wireless users exceed that limit, but the number may double in the next year according to Craig Mathias, founder of consultancy firm Farpoint Group. Carriers are also starting to encourage developers to create applications that use less bandwidth, and T-Mobile USA will even prohibit developers from offering free applications that use more than 15 MB per user per month. This suggests that “truly unlimited data at home” might be a compelling femtocell marketing proposition.
In other news…
- Motorola’s Malcolm Latham muses on the market drivers for femtocells
- Aricent says femtocells need to succeed within 2-3 years
- Catapult Communications announces femtocell test capability
- Mobile Industry Review looks at PMN’s “Rapid Deployment Unit” (powered by ip.access’ nanoGSM picocells).
And finally…ip.access has been named the UK’s number 1 technology company!
Sadly, this is an erroneous report on our entry in the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 list.
Filed under: Market updates | Tagged: Aricent, Catapult Communications, Comcast, Ericsson, Femtocell, femtocells, Fujitsu, in-flight GSM, ip.access, Juni, Maxis, Motorola, nanoGSM, PMN, RadioFrame Networks, Ryanair, Strand Consult, Strategy Analytics, T-Mobile, Tatara, Think Femtocell, Wilson Electronics, WiMAX World 2008
