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O2 picks femtocells for FMC
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As ABI Research recently noted, femtocells (you may call them picocells) could disrupt the already weak dual-mode handset market because the mini-basestations provide greater 3G coverage in the home, eliminating the need for WiFi-based fixed-mobile convergence solutions. Well, perhaps ABI knew about O2's announcement today to launch a femtocell fixed-mobile convergence solution in the U.K. Pundits say the rival WiFi-based solutions require "expensive handsets" that currently have low battery life, call handover issues and potential WiFi interference problems. Femtocells, of course, are compatible with your everyday handset, which may be why ABI's Stuart Carlaw predicted that four years from now there will be 102 million users of femtocell products on 32 million APs worldwide.
For more on O2's femtocell decision:
- see this article from IT Week
- for more on femtocells check out this article
Comments
Posted by Anonymous | November 20, 2006 - 4:16pm
Device issues are important, but has anyone looked at the different spectrum issues between these two strategies for customer premise infrastructure? WiFi: unlicensed spectrum management and crowding; femtocell: management of carrier's licensed spectrum, consequences in dense deployments (e.g. multi-tenant dwellings).
Posted by Steve Kennedy | January 2, 2007 - 2:40pm
O2 announcement was for GSM femtocells as they acquired a GSM Guard band license last year which means they have no interference problems with their existing network plan.
Introducing pico/femtocells utilising existing 2G or 3G spectrum is a major headache for operators as it involves replanning existing systems and frequency planning is one of the more complicated aspects of building a cellular network.
Steve
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