The remaining months of 2009 and 2010 will see the carefully planned and extraordinarily important rollout of femtocells go into high gear.

Femtocells are small base stations that serve two vital purposes: They extend coverage by pushing the telecommunications network into offices and homes and they reduce capacity problems by offloading traffic from the main cellular network. These devices, which are designed to work in concert with the “macro” base stations outside, are a central part of carriers’ plans to cope with an increasingly complex world in which data demands explode and 4G networks become more common.

Femtocells are simultaneously networking gear and consumer device. Experts point to the challenges of introducing such line-straddling technology and say that the industry has taken it a step at a time. “Femtocells are pretty much on track,” says Rupert Baines, the vice president of marketing for picoChip and the chairman of the Femto Forum’s Marketing Group. “Last year was the year of proving the technology with lab work and small scale trials. Next year will be when volumes kick in. 2009 is a bit of a transition.”

Strong Rationales

Femtocells will be worth it to carriers. They mention several elements that, taken together, will make femtocells extraordinarily beneficially – both to subscribers and to carriers’ bottom lines.

• 3G and 4G networking relies on higher frequencies than those used for 2G and earlier cellular networks. These higher frequencies are even less able to pass through walls and other obstacles to permeate premises. Thus, femtos are necessary adjuncts to the existing network.
• Femtocells help with the capacity crunch because the backhaul – the return path of signals from the field to the central switching facilities -- can be done using digital subscriber line and cable modems. This relieves stress on expensive and increasingly overcrowded cellular spectrum. An added bonus for carriers is that the use of modems and DSL shifts the cost from carrier to subscriber.

The case for femtocells is strong, and carriers have jumped on the bandwagon. In the United States, Sprint and Verizon have introduced services and AT&T is expected to by the end of the year. The current projects, however, are tentative affairs being done in advance of standardization and wide introduction of 3G femtocells.

The fact that femtocells are consumer gear means that things simply have to go smoothly. Nothing creates problems for an industry more quickly than botched rollouts. “The operators were petrified they would break the back of the network, so there was a huge amount of testing and planning done in the run up to this,” Baines says. “That was in the 2007, 2008 timeframe. Now it’s happening pretty much as expected.”

Previous Page Next Page