While accepting that femtocells are interesting technology and could provide significant benefit to subscribers, Luigi Licciardi, the executive VP of Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM), wants to see the cost of the units become comparable to WiFi routers.
Speaking at the recent IEF2008 conference, Licciardi called for the semiconductor to work its cost reduction magic: "We appeal to the semiconductor industry to reduce the cost of the access gate if we are to use this technology. One way in which the chip industry might approach the problem is to think about putting the femtocell and the ADSL modem in a single box."
Apart from cost, Licciardi was very upbeat on femtocells. "We think femtocells are a very interesting technology", he said. "One of the most attractive solutions for our customers is to have a flat rate, a cheap rate, to use the mobile handset at home and femtocells can solve some problems like inside coverage."
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