Femtocell market update for week of 16 November 2009

SFR to launch ‘Home 3G’ femtocell
Adverts for SFR’s Home 3G femtocell have appeared on the Internet.  It’s a standalone femtocell that will work with any ISP.  The price is ­­free with a 24-month contract, €5 per month for 12-month commitment or €199 to buy the box outright.  Like the Vodafone Access Gateway, Home 3G is [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 12 October 2009

Mobilkom Austria gives mixed messages on femtocells
Mobilkom has announced that it wants to deploy femtocells commercially in Austria next year (and possibly in other European mobile subsidiaries of parent company Telekom Austria).  However, the company’s top management provides little encouragement for vendors to respond enthusiastically to its RFP.  Mobilkom CTO Johann Pichler told Unstrung he [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 1 June 2009

AIRAVE economics
Here’s how one Sprint subscriber calculates the value of his AIRAVE femtocell:
“It was costing us $32 per month for our unlimited long distance land line and it would cost us an additional $25 per month to have the AIRAVE.  So we are saving $7 per month with the AIRAVE, with the added bonus of [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 18 May 2009

Case for LTE femtocells
Femto Forum chairman Simon Saunders laid out the case for LTE femtocells at the LTE World Summit in Berlin.  In a nutshell, maximising spectrum re-use they will ensure more users receive peak data rates more of the time, especially inside buildings.  “By adopting femtocells operators can roll out a much better performing [...]

Femtocell Industry Awards 2009: finalists announced

The Femto Forum has announced the finalists for the inaugural Femtocell Industry Awards, which recognise outstanding achievement within, and contributions to, the femtocell industry.  The winners will be announced at a gala awards dinner on 24th June 2009 at Femtocells World Summit in London.
The 8 award categories recognise successes in areas ranging from technology innovation [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 13 Apr 2009

Femto Forum & SRG publish comprehensive femtocell business case paper
The full business case white paper from Signals Research Group is now available on the Femto Forum website.  It’s hard to sum up all 80 pages in a simple soundbite, but here’s how some of the telecoms press did it…

Telecoms.com says it “appears to be the [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 2 Mar 2009

Femtocells won’t feature in Verizon’s initial LTE launch
There has been lots of talk about rolling out LTE networks “from the indoors out”.  Verizon CTO Dick Lynch said last December that Verizon would introduce LTE femtocells shortly after rolling out its LTE network, but this week Verizon confirmed that femtocells are not part of the LTE [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 9 Feb 2009

Femto Forum study finds positive femto business cases – lots of them!
We’ve seen a lot of negative opinion bandied about on the subject of the femtocell business case, and a number of partial reposts.  But a new study from Signals Research Group, commissioned by the Femto Forum, aims to put the issue to bed once [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 2 Feb 2009

TDC to deploy femtocells in Denmark
TDC Mobile says it is working with NEC towards the potential roll-out of femtocells in Denmark in late 2009. The company is currently conducting a trial with “several femtocell access points”. Flemming Hynkemejer, CTO of TDC Mobile says, “Femtocell technology promises to provide our customers with a number of [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 19 Jan 2009

Verizon launches “Wireless Network Extender” femtocell
(Website ¦ FAQ ¦ User manual)
As predicted by Engadget, Verizon has begun selling its femtocell in stores and online.  It uses the same system as Sprint’s AIRAVE, based on the Samsung UbiCell.  Here are the highlights:

Voice and CDMA 1X data only (no EV-DO)
Up to [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 22 December 2008

I’m assuming there won’t be much more news this week so I’m posting this early.
Plunging down the hype cycle (for no apparent reason)
A few weeks ago, a Gartner analyst said we had reached the peak of the femtocell hype cycle.  Since then we’ve seen a lot of negative reporting about femtocells.
For example, this week Fierce [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 15 December 2008

Vodafone Spain femto trial is for business customers
The drive to deploy femtocells in the enterprise gained momentum this week, with Vodafone announcing plans to pilot an “Access Gateway” (Huawei femtocell) for its business customers in Spain.
Femtocell standards progress
Airvana’s Doug Kniseley gives a good round-up of the year’s developments in femtocell standardisation, including the “herculean last [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 1 December 2008

Good news on femtocell interference
The Femto Forum has published the results of an extensive radio study, concluding that interference is not a barrier to wide scale femtocell deployment even when the femtocells occupy the same radio channel as the macro network.  Many Femto Forum member companies contributed to the study, [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 23 June 2008

News from the Femtocells Europe 2008 conference in London and the subsequent Femto Forum meeting

The femtocell industry is remarkably friendly. Here’s picoChip’s Rupert Baines (my partner in crime in Working Group 1 at the Femto Forum) with Yoav Volloch and Shlomo Gadot from chip competitor Percello.
Comcast to deploy WiMAX femtocells
Comcast SVP Dave Williams said during [...]

Femtocell market update for week of 16 June 2008

RadioFrame Slams Kineto Claims
RFN clearly couldn’t stand back and watch Kineto spinning up a victory story in the femtocell standards battle.  Some strong language in this Unstrung interview with RFN’s GM EMEA Mark Keenan (who is also a Femto Forum board member).  This will make the upcoming Femto Forum gathering even more lively than usual.
Dean [...]