Rising demand for improved 3G coverage, particularly for home voice and broadband usage, will be a significant driver for the femtocell market over the next two to three years with subscriber numbers reaching 15 million globally during 2012.
More and more customers are using their mobile phones in the residential environment for voice and broadband but generally poor indoor signal strength and slow Web access means demand for femtocells is rising. Research carried out by Juniper evaluated three adoption scenarios for femtocells and in all cases found that the 15 million estimate of subscriber numbers could easily be exceeded, particularly in developed markets. The Juniper report also predicted that shipments of standalone femtocells will take off over the 2011/2012 period but the integrated units sector will be larger in value by 2014.
The top markets for femtocell subscribers will be Western Europe, North America and the Far East/China. Revenues from new, advanced femtocell services will gain traction as soon as 2011.
For more on this story go to Mobile Europe and 3g.co.uk
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