I thought it would be worth pointing out that 3G femtocells are not perceived as a substitute for fixed broadband - in fact they need a fixed broadband connection in the home for backhaul, so a high broadband penetration is good for femtocell prospects.

You might ask why anyone would need 3G in the home when they already have fast access to the Internet on a PC. A few thoughts on this:

(1) Does it make sense to download podcasts & music to your PC and then sync to the phone, or is it more sensible to download direct to the phone, where you're going to listen to it? Operators could make this highly cost-effective on a femtocell at home. And it wouldn't even run down your phone battery like it does on the macro network.

(2) Does it make sense to sync photos & videos to the PC before uploading them to Flickr / YouTube, or is it more convenient to send them directly from the phone? Again, a femtozone tariff could make this very cheap at home.

(3) Why is 35% of mobile TV watched at home? It seems that there's room for entertainment and information services to be accessed on a phone at home, as well as on the more traditional devices (PC & TV). If you wanted to quickly check your Facebook page for news of tonight's party, would you prefer to get up off the sofa and find the PC (assuming nobody else got there first), or would you rather just pop your phone out of your top pocket and do it there?

Andy Tiller, ip.access