femtocells

TI introduces DSP for femtocells

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:47:40 -0500

Texas Instruments introduced a new digital signal processor for femtocells, marking the chip company's entry into this market. However, the company stressed that it isn't ready to throw R&D money at developing specialized femtocell silicon because it believes the market is too fragmented. TI believes a specialized femtocell silicon won't be necessary until at least two years from now when femtocell sales volumes will begin ramping up.

"Femtocells are very fragmented and at a very infant stage," Josef Alt, business development manager of the communications infrastructure group at TI, said during an interview with Unstrung. "If you have a cost optimized solution today, you end up having it tailored to something and make some compromises... There's great value in having a product here to adapt to various requirements of the market."

For more:
- take a look at Unstrung

Kineto gets more funding, more attention from Motorola

Lynnette Luna — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:17:34 -0400

Kineto Wireless raised $15.5 million and announced Motorola has become a strategic investor in the fixed-mobile convergence company. The company's unlicensed mobile access (UMA) technology is the basis for dual-mode cellular/WiFi offerings such as T-Mobile's Hotspot@Home service. Kineto's technology is also one of the key technologies used in the radio access network (RAN) gateway approach for femtocell architectures.

Motorola's investment is a part of a broader commercial relationship with its Home & Network Mobility business. Kineto's existing investors -- Oak Investment Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Venrock, Seapoint Ventures and InterDigital--also contributed in on the round, and NEC, which recently announced a strategic investment in the vendor, is being counted in the total as well.

For more:
- read Unstrung

Related articles:
NEC makes strategic investment in Kineto Wireless
Japan's SoftBank to launch 3G femtocells in January

Ovum: Operators should not rush to deploy femtocells

Peggy Albright — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:02:57 -0400

The research firm Ovum is cautioning operators to resist any pressure they might have to introduce femtocells on a wide scale. While Sprint in the U.S. is offering voice-only femtocells and SoftBank in Japan plans to deploy 3G femtocells in early 2009, Ovum believes that in the short term, various factors, including the standardization process, pricing, quality of service issues and other factors will prevent the technology from achieving the sales volumes it needs to become a mass-market opportunity. The firm says operators should only push ahead with femtocells if they have particular need to introduce potentially disruptive technologies in their markets. Article

Japan's SoftBank to launch 3G femtocells in January

Peggy Albright — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:32:54 -0400

The wireless industry, expecting femtocells to usher in another market for products and services and eager to get that ball rolling, now knows where to look for the next femtocell deployment: Japan.

Japanese operator SoftBank Mobile announced it is on track to commercially deploy a 3G femtocell service in January 2009. The deployment will be of particular interest not only because it will be early to market but because the SoftBank product will connect to an IP Multimedia Subsystem core network. SoftBank will introduce the service with Ubiquisys ZoneGate femtocells. NEC will supply the overall femtocell system, which includes the IMS core and Femto Gateways. The femtocells will be targeted to the residential market for use in the home, and will typically connect to the consumer's fixed Internet connection.

Sprint, in the U.S., does get to claim first-mover status in the femtocell service business. The operator introduced the Airave femtocell program in two markets in September 2007 and took the product nationwide this past summer. However, that service is promoted primarily as a voice product; it does not support Sprint's EVDO data speeds.

Vendor NEC, in addition to the SoftBank deal, announced it has made a strategic investment in the U.S. FMC solutions company, Kineto Wireless. Kineto, which helped pioneer UMA-based dual-mode devices and other innovations, is naturally pursuing femtocells as well. Kineto indicated the funding will be applied to femtocell development.

For more:
- see this article
- see this release

Related articles:
Sprint goes nationwide with Airave femtocell
Sprint launches femtocell service in two markets
SFR to launch femtocell service within months
T-Mobile pilots femtocells in Germany
Verizon plans femtocell rollout this year

Motorola-backed firm unveils silicon solution for WiMAX femtocells

Peggy Albright — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:06:44 -0400

As the emerging femtocell industry seeks to find ways to bring the price point for residential, business and hot-spot products down to $100, competition for low-cost components and products will heat up. DesignArt Networks, a fabless semiconductor company backed by Motorola Ventures, today unveiled a new WiMAX femtocell system-on-a-chip as well as reference designs for the technology, which it says will meet that pricing challenge. The single-chip product is called the DAN2200. The company said chips based on the technology will be available in the first quarter of 2009. The company is also working on a silicon solution for LTE femtocell products.

Product vendors recently announcing femtocell strategies to achieve a $100 price point include Radioframe Networks and Nokia Siemens Networks.

For more:
- read the release

Related articles:
RadioFrame gets $26M in funding for femtocells
PicoChip unveils LTE femtocell reference designs
Nokia Siemens looks to slash femtocell prices

ABI: Femtocells to overtake UMA, SIP solutions by 2013

Lynnette Luna — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:27:53 -0400

ABI Research expects cellular-based femtocells to outpace UMA and SIP-based WiFi solutions by 2013, grabbing 62 percent of the market. According to Stuart Carlaw, vice president and research: "Although UMA-based WiFi solutions have seen early gains in greenfield markets, these solutions have not proliferated much outside their current carrier footprints. This can be attributed partly to the carriers' desire to assess femtocell developments, but also to lingering concerns regarding the concept of WiFi-based fixed-mobile convergence." Article

Informa: Femtocells could exceed 40M by 2013

Lynnette Luna — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:08:29 -0400

Informa Telecoms & Media says the number of femtocells deployed by the end of 2013 could exceed 40 million, with 22 million units coming online in 2013 alone. This trend could assist operators in offloading up to 8 percent of their total mobile traffic to fixed networks via the end user subscriber line, resulting in significant savings. Informa believes the capital expenditure to implement femtocells capable of supporting 22 million new net additions would run to about $3.7 billion, of which 85 percent would be invested in femtocell access points. Article

Study: Femtocell success relies on handset innovation

Lynnette Luna — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:51:33 -0400

The hype surrounding the mass deployment of femtocells has been doused with cold water by a new study into the need for handset vendors to quickly transform their devices to support the technology. According to the report, published by Research & Markets, the femtocell industry is basing its optimism on the notion that subscribers will use their cell phones differently when in range of femtocells. There will be different applications and behavioral patterns when people are at home--perhaps content backups, podcasts or even advertiser-sponsored TV programming. The mobile phone may need to be linked to the TV, PC, HiFi or other items of domestic technology, claims the firm. Article

Femto Forum takes page from DSL world for CPE provisioning

Lynnette Luna — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:42:35 -0400

The Femto Forum is taking its que from the DSL world when it comes to provisioning home base stations and remotely managing them. The forum announced that its members have agreed to implement the Broadband Forum's TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol for real-time management of customer premise equipment (CPE), as the basis for the management protocol for femtocells.

The Forum noted that femtocells will be deployed in high volumes and installed by the subscriber so the provisioning and configuration has to e completely automated and managed remotely by the mobile operator. The TR-069 standard has proven it allows operators to offer simple installation and provisioning; perform advanced diagnostics and conduct remote firmware and service upgrades with millions of end devices, in an extremely cost-effective manner, the forum noted.

The Femto Forum said it plans to continue working closely with the Broadband Forum to define extensions to TR-069 to add additional femtocell capability to the standard. The two bodies have been working together over recent months to ensure the protocol is able to meet the criteria of femtocells.

For more:
- check out this release

Related stories:
Femto Forum looks to agree on 4G/WiMAX integration standards. Femto Forum story
Femto Forum, NGMN Alliance unite for femtocells. Femtocell story