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Many industry experts are predicting that the SME community will be the first strong adopters of this new technology. “Sorry, you’re breaking up.” How many times have most of us uttered those words – or something similar – since the advent of mobile phones all those years ago. Despite developments in mobile technology, the problem has not gone anyway. Research carried out by analyst firm Quocirca found that around one third of all SMEs have problems with coverage at work. However, the answer could be at hand, in the form of a new piece of technology called femtocells. Industry analyst firm ABI predicts 102 million users worldwide by 2011.
Why do we need these femtocells?
SMEs pay a lot of money for mobile services, so they should be able to expect the same kind of service quality that they experience with traditional fixed line telephone services.
Also, we are becoming increasingly dependent on mobile devices. Anecdotal evidence points to half or more of all mobile calls being made within buildings and there is escalating usage of wireless laptops and PDAs.
How frustrating is it when sending a file wirelessly, only to find that the action failed halfway through?
Nor has the introduction of 3G solved the problem; in fact, quite the opposite: problems with coverage are often caused by obstructions, such as trees, buildings and even double-glazing.
3G finds it harder to penetrate these obstacles than 2G.
Building more mobile masts is not a viable option for financial and environmental reasons, hence why operators are now investing in femtocells, and although we will see only see limited roll-out in 2009, they will be widespread within a few years.
Enter femtocells
Femtocells are indoor mobile base stations designed to be ‘plug and play’ and are about the size of a paperback A5 book. These low-power indoor access points provide dedicated mobile network coverage inside a limited area, such as within an office or home.
Network operators are working out the business models at the moment, but femtocell services are likely to be attractively priced, particularly since they help network operators to reduce their own operating costs (as the subscriber’s own broadband line is used for ‘backhaul’, namely the connection back to the network).
Although much of the focus on femtocells has been on the consumer market, many industry experts are predicting that the business community will be the first strong adopters, particularly SMEs.
This is because network operators are realising that femtocells are a relatively easy and cost-effective way to not only improve radio coverage for business users, but to also offer a raft of other benefits such as fixed mobile convergence (FMC), or fixed mobile substitution and a range of value-added services, such as the ability to download large files, mobile VoIP and video calls.
Benefits to business users
For instance, when used for mobile Internet and mobile VoIP, picocells and femtocells can enable users to reduce expensive mobile phone call costs by using their mobile broadband IP connections. Femtocells could be used to enhance IP PBX services by providing a mobile PBX layer and eventually, could even offer an alternative to fixed line PBXs and one day, even LANS.
Femtocells are an alternative to voice-over-Wifi for VoIP, because they obviate the need for manufacturers to develop dual-mode phones. However, femtocells will not necessarily replace Wifi altogether and the two are expected to sit side by side for some years to come.
Femtocells are not just a short-term solution. Content-rich services such as video calls and mobile TV will need strong and consistent radio coverage. Femtocells are also being viewed as a vital part of ‘4G’ and LTE (long term evolution) of mobile communications. We can also expect to see femtocell functionality being integrated within home gateway devices in the future.
However, as far as SMEs are concerned, femtocells could start providing them with better, more sophisticated mobile services within the next couple of years, with firms such as RadioFrame Networks planning to launch products in 2009 and operators already gearing up for commercial roll-outs. Those broken or dropped mobile calls, not to mention failed mobile data transmission, could become a rare thing.
About the author: Mark Keenan is General Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, RadioFrame Networks Inc.
RadioFrame has pioneered the development of pico and femtocell products that are network-friendly and easily deployed plug-and-play solutions at the lowest cost available. www.RadioFramenetworks.com. Mark Keenan brings to RadioFrame over 20 years market experience in the telecoms industry and has held roles at Nokia Networks and BT Laboratories.
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