Hi Paul

Thanks for your reply. At ip.access we're still seeing plenty of demand for our 2G picocells (largely for enterprise use), but the femtocell activity (consumer market) is mainly in 3G. I know of a small number of operators that are interested in 2G femtocells, but the big femto projects seem to be in WCDMA.

I'd suggest one reason for this is because femtocells solve key challenges for 3G, including the ability to get a signal of sufficient quality for high speed data into the home, and to resolve the 'Power Problem', whereby indoor users adversely affect QoS for all phones in a macro cell.

2G (GSM) doesn't support high speed data, and doesn't give rise to the Power Problem, so there's perhaps less motivation for operators to deploy 2G femtocells.

For 2G femtocells the business case must be based on coverage (for homes that don't have a signal), and efficient homezone voice tariffs. I tend to agree with Analysys' recent observation that "a business case based on cheap voice service in the home would stimulate fixed-mobile substitution but could also lead to disaster since the revenue benefits are unproven. A business plan based on a variety of multimedia service propositions would create a better business case for femtocells as it has the potential to increase revenue" (see http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/analysys-many-femtocell-business-cases-flawed/2007-11-26)