by webredactie
30. March 2010 18:59
Ubiquisys, maker of femtocell technology that allows you as a user to plug a tiny box into your broadband modem to get increase the mobile phone reception in your home, has created the first sub $100 femtocell product. This is a big deal, they claim, because there’s a psychological barrier many people run into when they’re asked to spend triple digits for something that their operator shouldn’t have to sell them in the first place had their networks been built properly.
This new model that Chris is talking about is called the “G3-Mini” and is built by SerComm. It can handle up to 8 simultaneous calls (double what AT&T’s “Microcell” can do) and 14.4 megabit per second data down, 5.7 megabit per second up, all while using less than 5 watts. Google and T-Mobile have invested in Ubiquisys.
by webredactie
17. February 2010 10:14
According an article in telecoms.com
Femtocell technology is experiencing the first signs of maturity, with several tier one operators deploying the technology using a variety of business models.
At present there are nine commercial launches of femto technology worldwide and several ongoing trials, while completed trials are now progressing into deployment plans for several mobile operators.
In the past few months, French operator SFR, Portuguese operator Optimus and Chinese operator China Unicom have commercially launched femtocell services, while Japan’s KDDI and France’s Free have also committed to the technology. Vodafone also relaunched its femto offering under the ‘Sure Signal’ brand, claiming considerable success in the UK which could spearhead the entrance of femtocell services into the European market.
Read the complete article.
by webredactie
10. January 2010 17:42
Despite a lack of a carrier marketing, more than 50% of US consumers are interested in having a femtocell in their home, according to ABI Research. The Femto Forum cited these statistics today at CES as the organization switches gears from encouraging carriers to adopt femtocells to inciting consumers to do the same.
Femto Forum chairman Simon Saunders said that most carriers haven’t yet begun to market femtocells, wireless access points that connect the mobile phone to a mobile network over broadband connection. As a result, the often expensive service hasn’t seen much success, although the US is leading the way with the three largest carriers, Verizon, AT&T and Sprint all offering solutions. There are now commercial deployments underway in the US, Europe and Asia as well. Saunders said that given the explosion of data in recent months and the resulting criticism that carriers have gotten from it, femtocells are an increasingly viable option for both carriers and consumers.
by webredactie
26. August 2009 00:17
According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, femtocell shipments will grow from 0.2 million units in 2009 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 127 percent to 12 million units worldwide in 2014. Femtocells are small cellular base stations using broadband connections for backhaul, intended to extend coverage and offload the mobile macro network in home and small office environments. The European, North American and advanced markets in Asia Pacific will account for the vast majority of femtocell shipments in the foreseeable future. In many other countries worldwide, the penetration of fixed broadband connections is much lower and 3G services less developed. By 2014, there will be almost six femtocells per macro base station and the number of users that connect to a femtocell on a regular basis is estimated to surpass 70 million.
Berg Insight predicts that femtocells will mainly serve as an extension of mobile macro networks to improve indoor coverage. The scope for femtocells to expand network capacity is, however, initially rather limited because better alternatives already exist. Data traffic has surged lately, pushing many mobile networks to their capacity limit. Nevertheless, an overwhelming majority of the traffic is generated by PC and to some extent also by smartphone users who are on-the-move, or in most cases have substituted their fixed broadband connection with mobile broadband. Consequently, these users are unable to offload their data to the fixed network. “Virtually all PCs and most smartphones are already Wi-Fi enabled and are thus able to leverage the large installed base of Wi-Fi access points available in homes, offices and public buildings”, says Marcus Persson, telecom analyst, Berg Insight. For the moment, many people are not willing to install yet another box in their homes unless it can add significant value beyond what Wi-Fi already brings today.
The femtocell concept is still at an early stage with few commercial deployments. It will take several years before shipments of femtocells become substantial. To begin with, the industry needs to prove that femtocells can be deployed without causing adverse interference. Femtocells also need to become sufficiently standardised to ensure efficient integration and low cost per unit. More importantly, “operators need to find and adjust business models that make femtocells attractive for their customers, who will ultimately buy or receive femtocells for placement at their premises”, Persson concludes.
by phermans
24. June 2009 18:17
AT&T is on track for a national femtocell launch by the end of this year, according to Gordon Mansfield, executive director with the company, speaking at the Femtocell World Summit in London yesterday. As a first step, AT&T is expanding its trials, which involve some 200 users, to coverage of key cities, after which, "We're on track for a full national launch by the end of 2009," he was quoted saying by Unstrung. This will be the first UMTS femto launch in the US.
Mansfield told Unstrung that AT&T will launch with a standalone 3G femtocell, (as opposed to a femtocell that's integrated into a residential gateway), but in the longer term, AT&T has its eye on integrated femtocells. Mansfield said, "Certainly we're looking at integrated femtocells. Some people think that integration is putting a femto into a residential gateway, and that's one aspect. We're looking at other things in the home [and asking]: 'How can I leverage all the elements in the home?' There's a lot of research and investigation in these areas and nothing definitive on what we're going to do."
As with Vodafone in the UK, Femto will be used as a standalone 3G cell, and not integrated in the home network.
by phermans
24. June 2009 15:43
The Vodafone Access Gateway is purely targeted at improving coverage and no attempt has been made to dress it up - there are no femtocell-specific tariffs, no bonus minutes, texts or data allowances.
This is further evidence that in early launches the femtocell business case will focus on coverage and not the ‘mobile home hubs’ that some in the industry believe. However, selling coverage that customers believe that they are already paying for comes with its own risks of a backlash if it is pushed too hard.
Vodafone puts together a better business model
Vodafone offers several options to customers wanting a Vodafone Access Gateway. This variety is the best strategy for selling femtocells to date, although we still see some major barriers limiting uptake.
For customers on tariffs of £60 per month or more the device is free, something we believe that a majority of femtocells will need to be (once costs come down) for consumers to embrace them. Currently, Vodafone UK offers just two tariffs over £60 per month, so we think that this offer will have a limited addressable market. We also assume that the seemingly arbitrary £60 figure relates to a cost-modelling exercise that indicates high hardware costs rather than strategic intent.
Vodafone has also achieved something that both Sprint and Verizon Wireless failed to do: to give customers options. For the majority of users below the threshold, there is the option to pay a monthly fee of £5, £7 or £10 on top of their post-paid plan over 24, 18 or 12 months respectively. This creates a far lower price barrier, while ensuring that subsidies don’t kill off the business model too soon. We expect the majority of uptake to come from this approach.
Finally, Vodafone has followed Verizon Wireless’ route of offering the device for a one-off £160 fee. Alongside the other options, this completes a far more rounded proposition than Verizon managed, although the high price point will be a barrier for Vodafone as much as it is for Verizon.
Impact likely to be muted in the short term
On one level this is a churn-reduction tool. Those customers with poor coverage have a means of staying with Vodafone, although the high cost plans needed for a free femtocell will be a severe test of Vodafone’s resolve not to give the devices away for free. Customers with poor coverage will demand a femtocell for free regardless of their plan and, like Sprint before it, Vodafone will be under immense pressure to give in.
The Vodafone Access Gateway is also a tool to encourage customers to churn from rivals. However, in multi-operator households, there will invariably be a lag as rival contracts are run down. Furthermore, the key determining factor is whether improved coverage is sufficiently attractive to stimulate churn from rivals, particularly when the rivals could offer more texts, minutes or data to stay. Indeed, if coverage were that great an issue the entire household would most likely already be on the operator with the best coverage. Therefore, with no femtocell-specific tariffs, there would be little incentive to switch to Vodafone.
Finally, there is the opportunity for Vodafone to increase mobile usage while at the same time offloading traffic. We have said in the past that this looks the most likely model to succeed in the long term as, with sufficient penetration, the opex savings are considerable. However, femtocells are clearly not there yet. In early deployments the priority is to prove that they work from technical and customer perspectives. Therefore, to gain sufficient penetration, and make the business case work, Vodafone will have to up the ante in the future and differentiate by more than just coverage. Until then, yesterday’s announcement is a femtocell offer that is an improvement on what has gone before, but still a relatively niche offering.
by phermans
6. May 2009 22:46
An interesting application, not applicable for CAT-iq, but is shows possibilites related to a specific location. Just for your information. Read the article and let your mind boggle!
Intrinsyc Software International and Ubiquisys announced UX-Zone, an application that changes the appearance of the Android phone interface automatically as you enter your home or office. UX-Zonetm from Intrinsyc incorporates femtocell presence triggers from the
Ubiquisys FemtoApps initiative.
Femtocells are tiny 3G mobile access points that plug in to a standard broadband connection in homes and businesses. They combine excellent mobile coverage indoors with very fast low cost data connections. As you arrive at a building with a femtocell, your phone automatically switches over from the outside network to the femtocell. Mobile operators are looking at ways of harnessing this combination of fast low-cost data and automatic presence to develop new services for their customers.
UX-Zone enhances the standard Android user interface by switching themes to reflect the phone’s location. For instance, when arriving home, the phone switches to the femtocell and a “Home” theme instantly appears. The home theme does not just look different; it has new icons for high bandwidth entertainment services like video streaming, social networking and home network integration, taking advantage of the fast low-cost data provided by the femtocell.
On leaving home, the interface returns to normal, and the icons for high bandwidth applications that may not be suitable for the outside network, disappear. On arrival at the office, an entire new range of enterprise application icons appear on a new “Office” interface designed specifically for business productivity. Accordingly, one flexible Android device can be simultaneously tuned for home, mobile and work.
The potential goes beyond home and office. For example when entering a museum the phone interface could change automatically to provide an optimised experience. Equally when a consumer enters their favorite store the phone could adjust to provide the latest news and offers.
Intrinsyc’s UX-Zone makes use of the highly flexible Android operating system and allows the mobile operator to brand each experience. The Ubiquisys presence triggers allow the application to operate automatically, without any buttons to press or passwords to enter.
by phermans
14. April 2009 16:30
At least that is what In-Stat predicts. There are many different views. One of them is that the operators face many problems in the deployment of Femto Cells.
anyway give it your thought and have a look at what In-Stat claims.
While femtocells were virtually non-existent in 2006, and deployed by one operator in 2007, they will make up 61% of small cellular base station revenue by 2013, reports In-Stat. Microcells, picocells, and femtocells provide indoor cell phone coverage in a cost-effective manner.
"As mobile operators migrate from larger base stations to smaller access points, the number of units deployed will explode dramatically," says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. "In-Stat expects the smaller and cheaper cells to be more immune to the recession, compared with more expensive macro and micro base station shipments."
Here, you can find some basics about the report (pretty expensive!!)
by phermans
5. December 2008 09:33
DECT handset maker predicts 3G gateways will lose the 'fight for the living room'; says 25% of mobile infrastructure market will be WiMAX in five years.
Gigaset said Thursday that femtocell technology lacks any kind of viable business model, and will fail to gain any meaningful traction in the consumer market.
The DECT handset maker, which was spun off from Siemens at the beginning of October, said the only realistic application for femtocells is in an office environment.
"Femtocells will die after a short while because there isn't a business case," said José Costa e Silva, CEO of Gigaset. Speaking to Total Telecom, he said that only "hardcore" mobile phone users will be prepared to pay for femtocells. "They make more sense in offices and high rise buildings where coverage is poor and people are using mobile phones for work, but not in the home," he said. Costa e Silva said he expects consumers will be sceptical of having what is essentially a mini base station in their houses.
read the rest of the article in Total Telecom
by phermans
3. December 2008 09:21
Femtocells can deliver a significant increase in mobile network capacity and play a key role in increasing mobile data speeds
The Femto Forum announced the results of its femtocell radio study. The study found that femtocells have the potential to deliver an order of magnitude more capacity than the macro network alone when used in dense deployments, even when occupying the same radio channel as the macrocells. It also identified numerous technological solutions that mitigate potential interference with the macro network to remove barriers to wide-scale deployment and maximize the capacity benefits.
The research assessed the impact of femtocells on a mobile network in a wide range of deployment scenarios in order to explore co-existence issues including interference.
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