femtocell

AT&T, Verizon move ahead with femtocells

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:57:58 -0400

AT&T and Verizon this week announced plans to move ahead with femtocells. AT&T has indicated it will begin trialing femtocells later this year and into 2009. Verizon Wireless said it may introduce its first femtocell product next year.

"As the nation's leading provider of both wireless and broadband, it makes sense that we would examine the potential benefits of femtocells for our customers," an AT&T spokeswoman told Unstrung via email. "We're currently doing testing in our labs and a trial is planned for later this year."

A Samsung-made "Ubicell" femtocell branded by Verizon is now at the FCC awaiting approval. Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone had hinted earlier in the spring that Verizon may consider a femtocell deployment as an option.

"We are looking at femtocell technology and will soon be performing user tests," a company spokesman said. "We could well have a product on the market early next year, but we have made no public announcements about that yet."

Sprint Nextel already offers femtocells on a nationwide basis.

For more:
- read Unstrung
- check out FierceWireless

Related articles:
Sprint launches femtocell service in two markets
Femtocells face their tipping point

Femto Forum, NGMN Alliance unite for femtocells

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:27:52 -0400

The Femto Forum and the NGMN Alliance, the group made up of leading operators developing technologies for 4G, agreed to cooperate to ensure that next generation mobile networks can incorporate femtocells from the very beginning of their deployment rather than integrating the technology after.

Incorporating femtocells from the very beginning will enable mobile operators to manage the costs of rollouts, plan spectrum use and ensure optimum coverage and capacity, the groups said. The two groups will be involved in establishing clear performance targets, fundamental recommendations and deployment scenarios for next generation mobile broadband networks incorporating femtocells and to help ensure that cost/performance ratios are optimized.

"Adding femtocells to existing cellular networks provides operators with numerous benefits, but rolling out a completely new mobile technology designed to include femtocells introduces fundamental and powerful advantages," said Dr. Peter Meissner, operating officer of the NGMN Alliance. "The partnership between the Femto Forum and the NGMN Alliance will offer operators a completely different approach to network rollout than exists today."

For more:
- check out this release

Related stories:
Femto Forum agrees on one interoperability standard. Femto Forum story
Femtocell announcements bring market momentum; questions still remain. Femtocell story

3GPP agrees on femtocell architecture

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 06:59:57 -0400

The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has adopted an official architecture for 3G femtocell home base stations.

The 3GPP wants to have the new standard done by the end of this year, which appears to be an aggressive time schedule given the fact that vendors had various approaches to building a femtocell base station. The agreed upon architecture follows an access network-based approach, leveraging existing standards, called IU-cs and Iu-ps interfaces, into the core service network. The result is a new interface called Iu-h.

The architecture defines two new network elements, the femtocell and the femtocell gateway. Between these elements is the new Iu-h interface. This solution was backed by Alcatel-Lucent, Kineto Wireless, Motorola and NEC.

All of the femtocell vendors must go back and change their access point and network gateway equipment to comply with the new standard interface.

All femtocell vendors will have to make changes to their access points. Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, NEC, and those that already use Kineto's GAN approach, such as Ubiquisys, will have the least work to do.

To read more:
- check out Unstrung

Related stories:
Femtocell announcements bring market momentum; questions still remain. Femtocell editorial
Femtocells face their tipping point. Femtocell story

Femtocell announcements bring market momentum; questions still remain

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

A few big announcements in the femtocell arena this week should give this market some good momentum. First, Qualcomm made a significant yet unknown investment in ip.access' Oyster 3G system, which uses the residential broadband connection to deliver a 3G signal in the home. The move is seen as validating the femtocell concept, especially since Qualcomm is so adept at making the right technology investments.

The Femto Forum also came to an agreement on a standard way femtocells should connect with the mobile core network. The agreement is welcome news as a number of vendors have come up with their own connection standards. Since femtocells are expected to take on various forms with differing capabilities serving different market segments, no operator wants to be locked into a single type of home base station. That fear has discouraged some operators from making the leap from trial to soft commercial launches.

Moreover, picoChip unveiled its first reference designs for LTE femtocells and picocells, which will enable the company's existing femtocell customers--which include ip.access and Ubiquisys--to upgrade to LTE. That's important because it has been suggested that LTE/4G femtocells could be the starting point for 4G deployments. Operators could actually begin their 4G deployment in the customer's home and 3G as the fallback network.

Of course, at least two big unknowns remain: marketing and cost. Will operators market the service as a boon for voice or data? How does one create a clear message around the femtocell market given its own value propositions? Why would I, as a consumer, need another box in my house? How fast can vendors drive down the price of such a nascent technology? At what price will the service attract a mass number of users? The questions are still numerous at this point.

Continuing with the femtocell theme, check out a preview of the latest Industry Voices article from Maravedis below. FierceBroadbandWireless will be featuring a monthly column from Maravedis analysts Adlane Fellah and Robert Syputa. Maravedis is a research and analysis firm focusing on Broadband Wireless technologies including WiMAX, 802.20, TD-CDMA and Wireless Local Loop Systems. For more information, see www.maravedis-bwa.com. --Lynnette

P.S.--Due to the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, FierceBroadbandWireless will be delivered to your inbox on Tuesday, May 27. Enjoy the holiday weekend.

Qualcomm invests in femtocell maker ip.access

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:59:57 -0400

Femtocell and picocell maker ip.access received a financial boost from Qualcomm. The company joined existing investors Cisco, Intel Capital, ADC, Motorola Ventures, Scottish Equity Partners, Rothschild Gestion and Amadeus Capital Partners to fund ip.access' Oyster 3G femtocell system, which uses the residential broadband connection to deliver a 3G signal in the home. ip.access is rumored to have inked a femtocell deal with AT&T.

This move by one of the technology giants in the wireless industry is being seen as validating the concept as well as ramping up the competitive stakes. "Having [Qualcomm's] weight behind us and behind femtocells is good," Andy Tiller, VP of marketing at ip.access, told sister publication FierceWireless Europe. "It's beginning to look like this market is about scale. We need big friends in that kind of market, and Qualcomm is one of those friends."

Ovum analyst Jeremy Green says that while Ovum is still somewhat skeptical about the femtocell business case, Qualcomm's decision to invest in ip.access gives the femtocell proposition more credibility.

This is the second big European announcement from Qualcomm this week. On Monday, the firm announced it was purchasing a 40 MHz chunk of L-band spectrum, prompting speculation that it was planning to use it to deliver mobile TV service.

For more:
- see this press release

Related stories:
Qualcomm wins U.K. spectrum but coy about plans. See this story about Qualcomm's spectrum win
T-Mobile invests in femtocell maker. Read this T-Mobile femtocell article
Rumor: ip.access wins femtocell deal with AT&T. See this article on ip.access and AT&T

Femto Forum agrees on one interoperability standard

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

The Femto Forum announced it has reached consensus on the standard way femtocells should connect with the mobile core network. The agreement is welcomed news as a number of vendors have come up with their own standards and mobile operator femtocell trials are heating up.

With interoperability a key factor in their success, femtocells have been deployed in trial networks without an agreed standard. However, vendors are meeting this week to hammer out the finer details of the agreed interfaces, with plans to send submissions as early as next week to the 3GPP, where there are already three work items in progress related to femtocells. By agreeing on the interfaces, the Forum believes it has removed one of the barriers that have discouraged some operators from making the leap from trial to soft commercial launches.

"We've enabled operators to move forward faster on their deployments," said Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum. "For many operators, until they have a clear path toward standardization, they won't take that first deployment step. So we've set out a road map, and now more operators are willing to take that step."

For more:
- check out this article from Unstrung
- read this report from Cellular News

Related stories:
Femto Forum adds new members. See this article on the Femto Forum
Motorola, Netgear announce femtocell products. Take a look at this article about Motorola and Netgear's femtocell gear

picoChip unveils LTE femtocell reference designs

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:59:53 -0400

picoChip unveiled its first reference designs for LTE femtocells and picocells, which will enable the company's existing femtocell customers to upgrade to LTE since the new kit can be combined with the company's HSPA products. The designs also run on the same common hardware platform as its WiMAX base-station reference designs. Ubiquisys and ip.access are among picoChip's customers.

For more:
- read this Unstrung article

Related stories:
picoChip, mimoOn develop LTE base station reference design. See this story on picoChip and mimoOn
picoChip receives strategic investment from Samsung. Take a look at this story about Samsung's investment in picoChip

SPOTLIGHT: TIM wants cheap femtocells... Don't we all?

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:59:52 -0400

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." Article

ABI survey identifies top three femto developers

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:53 -0400

ABI Research has released details of the top three femtocell developers using an analytical tool to determine a clear understanding of each supplier's market focus. The company stated that Ubiquisys had been ranked at the top of the list, with Alcatel-Lucent and ip.access claiming the second and third spots.

According to London-based Stuart Carlaw, a VP and research director for ABI, the market continues to see manufacturers shuffle as early RFP and trial activity takes hold. "Interestingly, major players in this market such as Cisco, Motorola, NEC and Nokia are not represented in the measurement matrix as they are positioning themselves as complete solution providers and have chosen not to produce their own products but to partner instead with dedicated box vendors."

The femtocell vendors were assessed by ABI on parameters such as innovation and implementation across several criteria unique to each vendor matrix. To view a list of the top ten firms in this vendor matrix, visit Femtocell Vendor Matrix.

For more about ABI Research's femtocell survey:
- check out this release

Rumor: ip.access wins femtocell deal with AT&T

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:59:56 -0400

According to a report from ThinkPanmure, AT&T has inked a $500 million deal with ip.access for 7 million femtocells, which it plans to sell to its subscribers for about $100. The firm says the deal was fiercely fought with companies such as Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks and Airvana heavily contending for the contract.

Further, ThinkPanmure believes such a win could push Cisco to look at ip.access as an acquisition target.

"We believe Cisco is looking to increase its profile in wireless, and that ip.access is likely next in this strategy as Cisco's femtocell play. We believe that if this were to happen, it would be integrated into the Linksys organization," said the firm.

- Check out ThinkPanmure's web site

Related articles:
Sprint launches femtocell service in two markets Report on Sprint's femtocell launch
T-Mobile plans femtocell trials Report on T-Mobile's femtocell plans

Verizon plans femtocell rollout this year

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:59:57 -0400

Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone said at the CTIA Wireless 2008 trade show last week that the carrier would begin offering femtocell products and service plans sometime this year. The announcement follows a move by Sprint into the femtocell arena. AT&T also is said to be evaluating a femtocell offering.

What remains to be seen is what Verizon will charge for the femtocell device and the service plan. Sprint charges around $50 for the product and $15 per month for service. Verizon's commitment, broader than Sprint's thus far and the only one by a U.S. telco that has both local wireline and wireless networks, may well bring femtocell deployment to its tipping point in the U.S. market.

To read more about Verizon's femtocell plans:
- take a look at this article from AP

Also, check out our recent webinar: Fixed Mobile Convergence:
Are femtocells and UMA/WiFi solutions competitive or complementary?

Related articles:
Sprint formally launches femtocell, Airave Report
Nokia Siemens and Ubiquisys jointly push femtocells Report
Cisco pours cash into U.K. femtocell developer Report
Operators want femtocells Report

Vodafone could launch femtocells this year

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:59:56 -0400

Commercial femtocell services could become available from Vodafone by the end of this year. The apparent drive behind this schedule is the potential CAPEX cost savings, which the company admits could be up to 20 percent of its 3G macro network deployments.

Vodafone, which last year finalized its RFP for femtocells, has been testing 3G home base stations from Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei in Spain for some months. However, the company's CTO, Steve Pusey, speaking at Vodafone's recent Technology Update, while highlighting the cost saving opportunity that femtocells present, also tempering the outlook for their commercial success.

"We're still studying it," said Pusey. "We've approached femtocells from a cost savings perspective. It gives us the potential to improve coverage and reduce backhaul costs. It may or may not have commercial opportunities beyond that."

Vodafone estimated that of its total network CAPEX spend for full-year 2007/2008, radio access will account for 48 percent, while backhaul will account for 32 percent.

For more on this story:
- read this article from Unstrung

Related articles:
Vodafone trials femtocells in Spain Report
T-Mobile plans femtocell trials Report

T-Mobile invests in femtocell maker

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:59:54 -0500

T-Mobile's venture arm has invested an undisclosed amount into the U.K.-based femtocell maker, Ubiquisys. Google, Accel Partners, Atlas Venture and Advent Venture Partners had previously invested in Ubiquisys. Cisco and Intel recently invested in femtocell company ip.access and Qualcomm has put money into Airvana.

T-Mobile said it plans to test Ubiquisys' femtocell technology in trials in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. in the coming months. Meanwhile, its U.S. subsidiary is using WiFi hotspots in the home as an alternative to a femtocell solution to improve coverage in the home. Once T-Mobile launches its 3G network in the U.S. we could see both femtocells and WiFi.

For more on T-Mobile's investment:
- read this article from the Guardian

Related articles:
Motorola, Netgear announce femtocell products Report
Cisco pours cash into U.K. femtocell developer Report

Motorola, Netgear announce femtocell products

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:59:53 -0500

A host of femtocell-related news has come out before this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Motorola introduced its first 3G femtocell customer premise equipment (CPE) and announced it will release two commercial devices in the second half of the year. Motorola's 8000 Series Femtocell Ethernet Gateway features a four-point Ethernet gateway, VoIP port, USB connections and a WiFi router.

Netgear announced its new Femtocell Voice Gateway that will become available in the first half of this year. Netgear's box includes a residential gateway with integrated ADSL2+ modem, router, 10/100 wired LAN switch, wireless access point, VoIP, firewall and 3G femto technology from Ubiquisys.

Meanwhile, after the Femto Forum announced plans to help harmonize the integration of femtocells into mobile core networks, NEC and Kineto Wireless announced a standards proposal based on the existing 3GPP Generic Access Network (GAN) model. The two companies said a formal standard will help the market achieve mass market success.

For more about the femtocell announcements:
- read this telecoms.com article

Related articles:
Nokia Siemens and Ubiquisys jointly push femtocells Report
Cisco pours cash into U.K. femtocell developer Report
Operators want femtocells Report

picoChip, mimoOn develop LTE base station reference design

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:59:54 -0500

WiMAX semiconductor company picoChip said it is collaborating with mimoOn to deliver the industry's first complete LTE base station reference design. The new PC86xx family of LTE reference designs cover the full range of eNode Bs from femtocells to multi-sector macrocells and is supported on the same common hardware platforms as picoChip's WiMAX products.

The move dramatically decreases the development cost and time to market for LTE, Rupert Baines, picoChip's vice president of marketing, told FierceBroadbandWireless. As a software-defined solution, it is future-proof and can be upgraded as the LTE standard is refined and updated. Finally, the common platform also supports WiMAX, with Wave 2 and MIMO available now, and upgrades for Release 1.x (FDD) and 16m.

"The reuse from WiMAX to LTE is about 70 percent," Baines said. "For our customers, they can reuse virtually everything. They've already designed the hardware and they just need to download a new code. There is a huge commonality."

For more about the partnership:
- read this release

Related articles:
picoChip, Korea Telecom to develop femtocells Report
picoChip teams with Systems4Silicon Release

Cisco invests in femtocell company

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:59:55 -0500

Femtocell company ip.access Ltd. said Cisco Systems has invested an undisclosed amount in the company, reflecting Cisco's interest in reaching into the femtocell market. ip.access is one of the suppliers chosen by Vodafone for its femtocell trial.

Cisco says it wants to learn more about femtocell technology. "Our intent and purpose of our investment in ip.access is to learn more about this technology," said a Cisco spokesman. "For ip.access, we hope to provide the benefit of our industry contacts as well as our expertise in IP networks."

For more about Cisco's interest in ip.access:
- read this article from Unstrung

Related article:
Cisco buys WiMAX vendor Navini for $330M Article
The Femto Forum is born Article

Operators want femtocells

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:59:54 -0500

The hype surrounding femtocells reached a fever pitch in 2007. These router-sized mobile home base stations promise to solve the many shortcomings faced by existing WiFi/cellular fixed-mobile convergence services and enable operators to offer consumers high-speed data, VoIP and voice services in the home with reduced infrastructure costs. Operators had begun talking about their trial plans, while Sprint launched commercial services in two markets.

The Femto Forum, an industry group advocating femtocell technology, was born this summer with a handful of smaller vendors, but closed out the year with some 40 members that include Alcatel-Lucent, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks, Motorola, and ZTE. Operators have also joined the ranks: Bharti Airtel in India, Bouygues Telecom, Carphone Warehouse Networks, Orsacom Telecom and Telefonica 02.

Still, there's much work to be done before femtocells can become a widespread reality. Chief among them are lack of standards, network integration and cost assumptions.

Related articles:
BT evaluating femtocells Report
Ericsson bows home femtocell Report

Femtocells: Are they really a good thing for vendors?

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

So Ericsson says it doesn't see a mature market for 3G femtocells until 2009 and won't enter the market until then. (See story No. 2). Will it be missing out on the market if it waits that long? Major operators are chomping at the bit to deploy these router-sized mobile home base stations in 2008. Femtocells promise to enable operators to offer consumers high-speed data, VoIP and voice services to the home with reduced infrastructure costs and cheaper end-user prices.

Is that necessarily a good things for infrastructure vendors? As an article in Unstrung notes, femtocells threaten to commoditize the market for base stations, obviously not a good thing for vendors struggling with margins in the infrastructure business. That may be one reason why Ericsson is stalling. Nokia Siemens is also staying out of the business for now.

Vendors like Ericsson would prefer a femtocell market using GSM since the technology is commoditized already. The vendor is ready to go with a GSM femtocell as part of a home gateway that incorporates a WiFi access point, home router and DSL modem. But no operator has committed to using it yet.

I suspect that operators are keen on skipping 2G femtocell technology and opting for the 3G flavor since they stand to gain more revenues in terms of wireless data services and voice.

Still, a host of unanswered questions surrounding femtocells exist. The big ones are around business models and how to integrate femtocells in the network. There isn't a standard way yet. So Ericsson does have a good reason for saying the 3G femtocell market isn't mature yet.--Lynnette

Ericsson staying out of 3G femtocell market for now

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:59:56 -0500

The world's largest infrastructure provider Ericsson says it is staying out of the 3G femtocell market until the market is mature enough. The vendor has developed a GSM femtocell but Ericsson doesn't believe the 3G femtocell market will mature until 2009. Analysts, however, say the the move is likely due to the fact that femtocells threaten Ericsson's core macro cellular infrastructure business. Femtocells pose a commoditization risk to Ericsson, which is already struggling financially.

To read more about Ericsson's views on 3G femtocells:
- take a look at this article from Unstrung

Related articles:
Ericsson announces residential femtocell Report
Femto Forum adds new members Report

Analysys: Many femtocell business cases flawed

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:59:53 -0500

A new study from Analysys says operators are considering widespread deployment of femtocells as early as next year, and a large-scale deployment of the indoor base stations carries significant risks. The report says that many of the business cases are not commercially viable, and the service could cannibalize existing revenue. Analysys says that a business case based on cheap voice service in the home would stimulate fixed-mobile substitution but could also lead to disaster since the revenue benefits are unproven. A business plan based on a variety of multimedia service propositions would create a better business case for femtocells as it has the potential to increase revenue, says Analysys.

To find out more:
- check out this report from Wireless Federation