Femtocell

Femtocells to fall below US$100 next year, claim insiders

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:54:03 -0500

Despite the lack of operator enthusiasm for commercial femtocell deployments, industry chatter in Taiwan claims that the price of the consumer devices will fall below US$100 per unit in the second half of 2010 compared to US$250 currently.

While consumer indifference dogs the uptake of femtocells, operators have been struggling to justify the business model based upon today's high-priced units. However, manufacturers in Taiwan, including Gemtek, Asusteck, Foxconn and Zyxel--which have each ventured into femtocell territory--are apparently much keener to push the technology now production costs have plummeted.

Also of note is the information that Huawei, which has won contracts to build cellular networks for Vodafone in countries like Ghana and the Czech Republic, has confirmed that it will start femtocell and 800MHz LTE research with the UK-based operator.

Vodafone, and more recently SFR, have been the first large European operators to commercially offer consumer femtocell products. However, the cost to the customer of around €200 is seen as a significant barrier to uptake.

While a halving of this price would ease this barrier, NEC, which is the end-to-end integrator for the SFR femtocell project, said that the technology must provide more than simply improving 3G voice coverage. "We will see femtocells changing the role of mobile phones in our lives further," said Richard Hanscott, VP network solutions, NEC Europe. "We're looking at new applications such as automatic synchronisation with the home PC network. This will enable photos taken on your handset to be automatically uploaded or music/video you've downloaded on your home PC to be sent to your handset when returning home. The possibilities that the femtocell network can bring are endless."

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Digitimes

SFR goes commercial with femtos

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:39:13 -0500

Having earlier raised doubts over consumer enthusiasm for femtocells, SFR decided the time was right and has become the second operator after Vodafone UK to commercially launch a femtocell product in Europe.

Dubbed ‘SFR Home 3G', the company has positioned the device firmly at consumers looking to improve indoor 3G coverage, and willing to pay €199 for the privilege - a price similar to Vodafone UK's home femtocell which seemingly remains firmly off consumer's wish list.

According to SFR (which is 44 per cent owned by Vodafone), the femtocell is being sourced from UK-based Ubiquisys (Vodafone UK's comes from Alcatel-Lucent of France) and uses silicon developed by picoChip. The device, which SFR claims will offer services such as FMC in the future, also supports Kineto Wireless' femtocell network gateway.

However, the French operator was keen to clarify that this femtocell initiative was not part of a larger strategy to become a quad play operator - as seen with Bouygues Telecom. "We don't need this today, we still do four times as many sales than Bouygues, said CEO Frank Esser. "We will continue to watch this offer but we're in no rush."

Esser said the group is very happy with the commercial dynamic in its mobile operations, having sold more than 500,000 iPhones since it started selling them in April 2009. Esser said the company aims to sell over 600,000 by the end of the year.

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Rethink-Wireless and Total Telecom

Femtocell developer combines with WiFi community to go 'open'

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:35:13 -0400

In a radical departure from the conventional cellular business model, the femtocell vendor, Ubiquisys, has joined with the WiFi community, FON, to offer like-minded users spare 3G capacity within a secure and shared environment.

The concept is based on the existing community WiFi pioneer FON, which offers free access to users who agree to share spare capacity with others within range of a WiFi node. This latest move by Ubiquisys would allow mobile operators to create mobile communities, in which spare 3G capacity would be again be shared securely.

Presently, FON community members, known as Foneros, share some of their home internet connection and in return gain access to free Community FON Spots around the world. While this would appear to directly attack the revenue streams of fixed-line operators, FON has managed to persuade major operators like BT to partner with it to extend the reach of its services.

Ubiquisys claims it is in discussion with a number of mobile operators to evaluate the concept whereby the 3G service provider retains full control of access . This would enable the operator to use the femtocell's presence to trigger authentication to support different services for the primary user and the community users.

Chris Gilbert, CEO Ubiquisys, said that femtocells introduced new elements to the community concept, "making the experience for users even simpler, providing a lightweight architecture for presence-based community applications, and adding the reassurance of the existing trust relationship with mobile operators."

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Rethink Wireless

3 prepares to launch Wi-Fi femtocell

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:43:00 -0400

Never afraid to pursue the unusual, 3UK will launch its mobile Wi-Fi device next week, that it claims will make mobile Internet surfing affordable. The device, labelled MiFi, replicates some of the features of a femtocell by enabling Wi-Fi devices, such as laptops, to connect to 3G networks without the need of a dongle.

The pocket-sized MiFi device, which firstly requires a 3UK SIM card to connect to the 3G network, emits a Wi-Fi signal and can connect a handful of Wi-Fi devices to the cellular backhaul network. Unlike dongles, no software is required for Wi-Fi devices to make the connection to the 3G network

The company claims the pricing of the MiFi device and data tariff has been positioned to attract users wanting to create their own Wi-Fi hotspot to enable a variety of Wi-Fi devices to be connected. The first plan is the 'Broadband 5Gb 1 month', a one month contract which includes 5Gb of data at a cost of £15 a month, while the wireless modem will cost an additional £69.99.

For those willing to pay an upfront charge of £99.99, then the 'Ready to Go' kit includes the MiFi wireless modem and 3Gb worth of data that can be used over a three month period. Once this data has been used up, the modem can still be used on a Pay As You Go basis.

Marc Allera, sales & marketing director at 3UK, said that the MiFi concept was the future of Internet access on the move. "We're bringing it to customers at price points that make it accessible and affordable."

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Telecoms.com and 3G and this Release

Femtocells: Vendor adopts 'direct to consumer' sales strategy

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:07:37 -0400

In an unusual switch, the Edinburgh-based femtocell developer, HSL, has adopted a sales strategy that involves cutting out the mobile operator and selling the micro base station direct to the consumer.

This move, seen by some as high-risk, comes after Vodafone's launch of its own femtocell product was received by subscribers with huge disinterest. Also, given the marketing power of Vodafone, HSL is strangely not attempting to undercut on price--its product, with a rather consumer-friendly branding of HSL 2.75G, is priced very similar to Vodafone's Home Gateway device at around €180.

However, the company claims that its femtocell can work with any network operator, or even multiple network operators, over a user's own broadband connection. But, to do this, HSL needs radio spectrum in which to operate, and integration into the network-operator's back end infrastructure--neither of which is trivial.

HSL believes it can overcome these hurdles by persuading possible consumers to register their interest on the company's web site. Using this, HSL plans to convince mobile operators to route calls through their network--why they should provide this service is not detailed by HSL.

However, MD and technical director of HSL, Mark Hay, said that the installation and use of the network would not cost operators very much and would allow them to manage their service better so that customers receive the best coverage that is possible given their locations.

The company has confirmed that it is pursuing agreements with operators in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Oceania with regard to its femtocell product.

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The Register and The Telecom

VIDEO: Setting up Vodafone's Access Gateway

Jim O'Neill — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:52:20 -0400

Check out this video on how to set up a Vodafone Access Gateway.

Source: YouTube

Femtocells: Slow uptake of Vodafone's Access Gateway triggers discounts

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:14:52 -0400

Having been the first major European operator to commercially launch a femtocell service, or Access Gateway in Vodafone marketing speak, the device remain largely absent from any promotion and uptake remains very low. The device has been available for over a month across all of Vodafone's UK sales divisions, but one London store is reported to have sold only 20 units in the last three weeks.

In an effort to boost sales Vodafone have been offering potential users a discount on the launch price of £160, or a £30 down payment with £10 per month subscription on a 10 month contract. Consumers contacting a Vodafone call centre have been offered a Vodafone femtocell for a £100 one-off payment or £5 per month over two years.

Despite this lacklustre early sales performance, the Vodafone femtocell has received high marks from industry and consumer gadget review writers. Setting up the Access Gateway was considered ‘incredibly simple', call quality was excellent, handover to the macro network worked well and internet browsing throughput was measured at just over 3Mbits.

However, while a breakdown study conducted by EJL Wireless Research praised the Vodafone femtocell for its simple design and high level of integration, the firm expressed concern over the disparate pricing that Vodafone has established between retail consumers and enterprise customers for this product in the UK. "The difference is roughly twice the price in local currency for enterprise customers," said founder and president, Earl Lum.

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Mobile Today, Expert Reviews and Fox Business

366,000 Picocells to be deployed by 2013

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:06:36 -0400

Picocells have not enjoyed rapid or massive adoption so far. However ABI Research estimates that in 2013, there will have been cumulative deployments of about 366,000 picocell devices worldwide. While not a huge number in itself, that represents a 38 per cent CAGR over the years from 2008.

"The key to greater market acceptance for picocells lies in their increasing similarity to femtocells in terms of their setup and cost" said analyst Aditya Kaul. "However, unlike femtocells which are largely consumer-focused, next-generation picocells will continue to be targeted at the enterprise market, offering rugged, carrier-grade feature sets. There is also an understanding that many of these new picocells will still require a truck roll for deployment, although offering a lower cost device than the traditional picocell." Article

Femtocells: SIG formed to push for open apps

Paul Rasmussen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:23:13 -0400

Having seen Vodafone announce that it will launch a femtocell service with no applications, the Femtocell Forum has rushed out an announcement detailing the formation of a Special Interest Group (SIG) to promote and develop a wide range of apps.

The objective of this new SIG is to develop a framework to speed the development and deployment of femto applications that provide services other than simply improving indoor coverage. In an attempt to highlight the opportunity, the Forum used a conference in London to demonstrate potential apps, such as alerting the user's phone when they return home and triggering automatic services such as a change to the handset's UI, or instant homescreen access to home media files.

However, the main effort of the SIG would seem to be the development of a common application environment to support multiple vendor and operator platforms. This will include a standards-based open API to allow developers to run their software across all supporting devices.

While the formation of a SIG focused on innovative apps could provide a fast-track route to help promote femtocells outside of improving coverage, these industry groups also have a track record of becoming political battlegrounds as rival vendors promote their solutions over those from other members.

Airvana, ip.access and Ubiquisys are three femtocell vendors that are early members of the SIG.

Separately, Airvana and VeriSign have announced that the two firms are co-operating to deploy device certificates for Airvana's HubBub UMTS femtocell. The certificates will be embedded into the HubBub femtocell allowing operators to authenticate these devices before allowing access to the core network and services.

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Rethink Wireless and Mobile Europe

Femtocells: Vodafone sets the pace with European launch

Paul Rasmussen — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:35:08 -0400

European operators have been left in Vodafone's wake following the surprise announcement that the company will launch a commercial femtocell service in Europe as early as 1 July.

This move, which follows numerous femtocell trials by Vodafone, is a significant boost for the technology which was in danger of stagnation as operators repeatedly delayed commercial deployments. However, the company has stolen the initiative from other operators, such as O2 and T-Mobile, that had seemed to be making the most progress with femtocell trials and commercial pilots.

Interestingly, Vodafone plans to offer no femto-specific applications, with the intent being simply to improve indoor coverage at this stage. Also of note is the selection of Alcatel-Lucent as the femtocell supplier, one of the more prominent Tier 1 wireless vendors to offer its own devices rather than badging those of a specialist supplier, which will boost the hopes of the silicon developer picoChip, which also supplies the chipset for ip.access and others femtocell vendors. Vodafone has used equipment from several femtocell vendors for trials

Labelled the Vodafone Access Gateway, the femtocell will be available in stores and online from 1 July. The router-sized box plugs into the broadband line to create a homezone, and can can be used by up to four standard handsets or other 3G devices at one time. The Gateway is available for free, depending on the subscribers data plan, with options from £15 ($24) a month. It can also be purchased upfront, with no commitment, for £160, or on a monthly charge from £5.

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Rethink Wireless and Total Telecom