Prediction: Femtocells still have a long road in 2008

On the flip side, femtocells are just entering the over-inflated-expectations phase of the "Hype Cycle." These router-sized mobile home base stations hold a lot of promise for operators: reduced capex, increased coverage and cheaper services to name a few. Still, a plethora of technical and business problems remain, including a lack of a standard, network integration and cost assumptions. And FMC solutions that involved WiFi are finally making inroads with the number of attractive handsets that are needed to effectively entice consumers. Expect to continue to hear a lot about the potential of femtocells with few deployments that have a market impact.