Could 2011 be the breakout year for the femtocell market? Informa Telecoms & Media's new quarterly status report on this market is predicting renewed growth for femtocells next year now that major semiconductor Broadcom has entered the market and six new operators in the last quarter alone have committed to deploying the small base stations.
Within the last three months, Broadcom purchased Israeli semiconductor start-up Percello, representing the first major acquisition in the femtocell industry, said Informa. In addition, Vodafone Australia, three Taiwanese operators (Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone), Turkish operator Avea and UAE operator Du have all committed to femtocell deployments in 2011. And Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and MoldTelecom, the Moldovan incumbent, both began actively offering 3G femtocell services in the past quarter.
"All the signs indicate femtocells are set to have a strong 2011 as both the operator and vendor communities continue to get behind the technology," said Dimitris Mavrakis, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.
Informa forecasts the number of femtocell access points globally to reach 49 million by 2014, with 114 million mobile subscribers accessing mobile networks via femtocells that year.
For more:
- see this telecoms.com article
Related articles:
Broadcom looks for swift entry into femtocell market with Percello buy
Operators to offer free femtocells; US$100 price breached
Femto Forum, WiMAX Forum publish WiMAX femtocell standard