In telecommunications, a femtocell—originally known as an Access Point Base Station—is a small cellular base station, typically designed for use in residential or small business environments. It connects to the service provider’s network via broadband (such as DSL or cable); current designs typically support 2 to 5 mobile phones in a residential setting. A femtocell allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable. The femtocell incorporates the functionality of a typical base station but extends it to allow a simpler, self contained deployment; for example, a UMTS femtocell containing a Node B, RNC and GSN with Ethernet for backhaul. Although much attention is focussed on UMTS, the concept is applicable to all standards, including GSM, CDMA-2000, TD-SCDMA and WiMAX solutions. Telecommunication involves the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ... The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying, wireless computer networking, and wireless communications. ... The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying, wireless computer networking, and wireless communications. ... Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) mobile phone technologies. ... Node-B is a term used in UMTS to denote the BTS (base transceiver station). ... The Radio Network Controller (or RNC) is the governing element in the UMTS radio access network (UTRAN) responsible for control of the Node-Bs, that is to say the base stations which are connected to the controller. ... Global System for Mobile communications (GSM: originally from Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. ... IS-2000 is the second generation of CDMA digital cellular, an extension of IS-95. ... TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) is a 3G mobile telecommunications standard, being pursued in the Peoples Republic of China by the Chinese Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT), Datang and Siemens AG, in an attempt to develop home-grown technology and not be dependent on Western... Official WiMax logo WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access. ...

For a user, the attractions of a femtocell are improvements to both coverage and capacity, especially indoors. There may also be opportunity for new services and reduced cost. The cellular operator also benefits from the improved capacity and coverage but also can reduce both capital expenditure and operating expense. Capital expenditures (CAPEX or capex) are expenditures creating future benefits. ... In throughput accounting, the cost accounting aspect of Theory of Constraints (TOC), operating expense is the money spent turning inventory into throughput. ...

Femtocells are an alternative way to deliver the benefits of Fixed Mobile Convergence. The distinction is that most FMC architectures require a new (dual-mode) handset, while a femtocell-based deployment will work with existing handsets. Technological convergence is the modern presence of a vast array of different types of technology to perform very similar tasks. ...

History

In 2002, a group of engineers at Motorola in Swindon, UK, started a skunkworks team, called the AFG, to develop new technologies. Some of their major achievements included the world's smallest full-power UMTS base station, one of the first demonstrations of television to mobile, and the invention and development of the access point base station (ie. Femtocell). The original design was intended to provide a direct equivalent to a WiFi access point, but for mobile cellular (UMTS, CDMA-2000 or WiMAX). The unit contained all the core network elements and did not require a cellular core network, requiring only a data connection to the Internet or WiFi core network. Skunk works is a term used in aerospace engineering and other engineering and technical applications for secret (black) projects. ...

Disruptive Wireless has a discussion on the history and the first people to use the term 'femtocell'.^[1] From this, it appears that by mid-2004 a number of companies were independently investigating femtocells (although mostly using other terms such as "residential basestation" or "3G access point).

By 2005, the idea had become more widely recognised with demonstrations and conference discussion. By this stage more companies were involved, including more established suppliers Airwalk, ip. Access and RadioFrame Networks.

By early 2007, the idea had become mainstream, with a number of major companies publicly demonstrating systems at the cellular industry 3GSM conference in February, and operators announcing trials. In July, the Femto Forum trade organisation was founded to promote femtocell deployment worldwide.^{[citation needed]} Comprised of mobile operators, telecoms hardware and software vendors, content providers and start-ups. Its main work is conducted via four working groups tackling: Regulatory issues; Network and Interoperability; Radio and Physical Layer; and Marketing and Promotion.

In 3Q 2007, Sprint Nextel started a limited rollout (Denver and Indianapolis) of a home-based femtocell built by Samsung Electronics called the Sprint Airave that works with any Sprint handset.^[2]

As well as system manufacturers, semiconductor companies have announced chip-level products to address this application. Analog Devices has developed a chipset for the RF-IF and baseband, while picoChip claims significant commercial traction on their baseband DSP. Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI) is an American multinational producer of semiconductor devices. ... picoChip is a venture-backed fabless semiconductor company based in Bath, England, founded in 2000. ...

Issues

Although claims are made that Femtocells could be a panacea for straightforward system deployment, there are a number of complications that need to be overcome.

Interference

The placement of a femtocell has a critical effect on the performance of the wider network, and this is one of the key issues to be addressed for successful deployment.

Without unique spectrum for the femtocell 'underlay network', or very careful spectrum planning in the wider network, there is a concern that femtocells could suffer from severe interference problems. For example, in a femtocell handover between a macrocell network to a home femtocell access point, there are limitations in the standards which must be taken into account. For example, there is a limitation in the number of adjacent cell sites - typically 16 - for which the mobile unit can scan for, measure and then pass to the RAN handover algorithm (for 2G and 3G standards, for example). Further, if a single frequency CDMA system is being operated, where the macro and femtocell network utilise the same frequency band (a typical situation for many operators who licensed only one 3G frequency band), then the power control algorithms of the macro cell and femtocell can create interference ,^[3] where for example a mobile unit increases its transmit power to the femtocell as part of the 'near-far' power control inherent in CDMA systems, whilst it is within the coverage area of a macro unit. The resultant high power transmitter in the macro field acts as an interferer since the frequency is shared. Finally, there is the issue of coverage area, where in high-rise accommodation, femtocell users on different floors can create interference to other users. There are several partial solutions to this problem, but primarily the only way to prevent interference is to use a different frequency for the femtocell coverage, particularly for CDMA deployments. The partial solutions include utilising the mode-2 fixed power option available in the 3G configuration parameters, which would prevent the mobile unit power from increasing and causing interference, though there is an obvious performance trade-off if this approach is used.

Many vendors are reported to have developed sophisticated algorithms to address the problem, and modelling by carriers indicates this is viable.^{[citation needed]} As such, the trials now in place are designed to test these techniques and to determine to what degree interference is a problem and under what circumstances. In his paper for 'PIMRC 07',^[4] Claussen describes the UMTS femtocell/macrocell interference problem and concludes that to manage the interference that "Essential requirements such as autoconfiguration and public access" are needed. In this case 'public access' means that all deployed femtocells using the same frequency (ie. of the same operator) would need to allow anyone to access the femtocell; there are obvious backhaul issues with this if the user is paying for the DSL or Cable backhaul connection. It is suggested in the paper that this could be offset by low cost calls. In another paper,^[5] Ho and Claussen identify the pre-requisite for auto-configuration of the femtocell power level in order to reduce interference - though in Claussen's first paper the algorithm requires knowledge of the macrocell transmit power, which would require the operator to configure the femtocells centrally, and line-of-sight distance to the femtocell, which requires knowledge of where the femtocell is installed. In his second paper, Ho highlights the issue of increased network traffic due to handover messages between the macrocell and femtocell.

The 3GPP meeting reported that: "To the extent investigated so far co-channel deployment is feasible for open access. For closed access, analysis conducted so far indicates that co-channel deployment is feasible if adaptive interference mitigation techniques are used. Further work is required to summarise the trade-off between HNB performance and the impact on the macro layer and to determine whether an acceptable tradeoff can be identified".^[6] There will be an update from the March meeting.

Spectrum

Crucially, access point base-stations operate in licensed spectrum. As licensed spectrum allocation is made to operators on a fee basis, deployment of equipment must meet the strict requirements of the licenses. To make best use of spectrum, operators use frequency and cellular planning tools to optimise the best coverage for a given amount of spectrum. The introduction of access point base stations using licensed spectrum that are sold directly to the customer has implications for frequency and cellular planning, since an unexpectedly located access point base station could interfere with other closely-located base stations.

Access control

There is also the related issue of what happens when a neighbor's mobile appliance attaches to the network using another neighbor's femtocell, or how that can be prevented from occurring.

Lawful interception

Access point base stations, in common with all other public communications systems, are, in most countries, required to comply with lawful interception requirements. Lawful interception (aka wiretapping) is the interception of telecommunications by law enforcement authorities (LEAs) and intelligence services, in accordance with local law and after following due process and receiving proper authorization from competent authorities. ...

Equipment location

Other regulatory issues^[7] relate to the requirement in most countries for the operator of a network to be able to show exactly where each base-station is located, and for E911 requirements to provide the registered location of the equipment to the emergency services. There are issues in this regard for access point base stations sold to consumers for home installation, for example. Further, a consumer might try to carry their basestation with them to a new location. This could cause problems if the device were carried to a region or country where it is not licensed. Some manufacturers (see Ubicell) are using GPS within the equipment to lock the femtocell when it is moved to a different location or country;^[8] this approach is disputed, as GPS is often unable to obtain position namely indoors because of weak signal. Enhanced 911 service or E911 service is a North American telephone network feature that automatically associates the physical address with the calling partys telephone number. ... Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ... Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ...

Network integration

From an operational or deployment perspective, one of the key areas that needs to be considered is that of network integration. A conventional cellular network is designed to support a relatively small number (thousands, tens-of-thousands) of basestatations, whereas a femtocell deployment of millions of consumer access points requires a different architecture to support this scaling. The issue of increase in network traffic as a result of co-channel macrocell / femtocell deployment is discussed in the paper by Ho and Claussen.^[9]

Privacy

There is a potential privacy issue with femtocells, in that a mobile appliance will camp-on to the femtocell when close by. Since the target market is in-business (SOHO) or at-home femtocell deployment, the operating company can potentially determine when a person is at home or at the office. On the one hand, this raises all sorts of interesting new marketing opportunities, such as learning more about a person's habits in order to improve targeted marketing, whilst, on the other hand, it has the potential to infringe privacy; the debate has yet to play out in this market.

Emergency calls

Access Point Base Stations are also required, since carrying voice calls, to provide a 911 (or 999, or 112) emergency service, as is the case for VoIP phone providers.^[10] This service must meet the same requirements for availability as current wired telephone systems. There are several ways to achieve this, such as alternative power sources or fall-back to existing telephone infrastructure. IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ...

Quality of service

When utilising an Ethernet or ADSL home backhaul connection, an Access Point Base Station must either share the backhaul bandwidth with other services, such as Internet Browsing, Gaming Consoles, set-top boxes and triple-play equipment in general, or alternatively directly replace these functions within an integrated unit. In shared-bandwidth approaches, which are the majority of designs currently being developed, the effect on QoS may be an issue. Ethernet is a large, diverse family of frame-based computer networking technologies that operate at many speeds for local area networks (LANs). ... Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional modem can provide. ... A set-top box (STB) is a device that connects to a television and some external source of signal, and turns the signal into content, which is then displayed on the screen. ... In baseball, a triple play (denoted by TP) is the act of making three outs during the same continuous play. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Spectrum accuracy

To meet FCC/RA spectrum mask requirements, Access Point Base Stations must generate the RF signal with a high degree of precision, typically around 50 parts-per-billion (ppb) or better. To do this over a long period of time is a major technical challenge, since meeting this accuracy over a period longer than perhaps 12 months requires an ovenised crystal oscillator (OCXO). These oscillators are generally large and expensive, and still require calibration in the 12-to-24 month timeframe. Use of lower-cost temperature-compensated oscillators (TCXO) provides accuracy over only a 6-to-18 month timeframe. Both depend on a number of factors. The abbreviation FCC can refer to: Face-centered cubic (usually fcc), a crystallographic structure Federal Communications Commission, a US government organization Farm Credit Corporation/Farm Credit Canada, a Canadian government organization Families with Children from China, an adoption support organization Florida Christian College, a college in central Florida Fresno City... For other uses, see Ra (disambiguation). ... RF may mean: RF, the IATA code for Florida West International Airways RF, NYSE ticker symbol for Regions Financial Corporation Royalty free Rf or RF may stand for: Radio frequency Volumetric flow rate/rate of flow (Rf) RF connectors, electrical connectors designed to work at radio frequencies Red Faction, a... OCXO (short for Oven Controlled X-tal (Crystal) Oscillator) is a technique used for avoiding temperature changes that affect the resonance frequency of a piezoelectrical crystal. ...

The solutions to this problem of maintaining accuracy are either to make the units disposable/replaceable after an 18-month period and thus keep the cost of the system low, or to use an external, accurate signal to constantly calibrate the oscillator to ensure it maintains its accuracy³. This is not simple (broadband backhaul introduces issues of network jitter/wander and recovered clock accuracy), but technologies such as the IEEE 1588 time synchronisation standard may address the issue, potentially providing 100-nanosecond accuracy (standard deviation),^[11] depending on the location of the master clock. Also, Network Time Protocol (NTP) is being pursued by some developers as a possible solution to provide frequency stability. Conventional (macrocell) basestations often use GPS timing for synchronization and this could be used to calibrate the oscillator.^[12] However, for a domestic femtocell, there are concerns on cost and the difficulty of ensuring good GPS coverage. The Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is a protocol defined in the IEEE 1588 – 2002 standard that allows precise synchronization of networks (e. ... The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a protocol for synchronizing the clocks of computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks. ... Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ...

Standards bodies have recognized the challenge of this and the implications on device cost. For example, 3GPP has relaxed the 50ppb precision to 100ppb for indoor basestations in Release 6 and has proposed a further loosening to 250ppb for "Home NodeB" in Release 8.

Handover

In order to ensure that the user gets the best data rate out of the system, the mobile appliance must somehow know to connect to the femtocell when within range, even if there is still sufficient signal from, for example, an external macrocell base station. Forcing the mobile appliance to do this, whilst preventing your neighbor's mobile appliance from doing the same, is quite a challenge. In addition, handoff from the femtocell to the wider area macrocell and back again is potentially quite complex.

Air Interfaces

Although much of the commercial focus seems to have been on UMTS, the concept is equally applicable to all air-interfaces. Indeed, the first commercial deployment is the cdma2000 Airave.^[13] Femtocells are also under development for GSM, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX and LTE. The LTE study groups have identified femtocells ("Home eNode B") as a priority area. Global System for Mobile communications (GSM: originally from Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. ... TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) is a 3G mobile telecommunications standard, being pursued in the Peoples Republic of China by the Chinese Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT), Datang and Siemens AG, in an attempt to develop home-grown technology and not be dependent on Western... Official WiMax logo WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access. ... LTE may refer to: LTE International Airways Compaq LTE Lift to Experience Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (see Thermodynamic equilibrium) Liquid Tension Experiment Leukotriene London Transport Executive 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) (also see HSOPA) Loss of Tail rotor Effectivity (Helicopter) Category: ...

Architectures

Cellular Base Station (Picocell)

One approach for a femtocell is to use the traditional basestation architecture. In this case, the femtocell is a basestation, connecting to the core network using a standard interface; for example, a WCDMA Node B connecting to a RNC via a backhaul connection (the Iub). The slight difference to a typical base station deployment is that the backhaul would be carried over broadband ("Iub over IP") which may have quality & security concerns. A more significant drawback of this architecture is that standards based basestation controllers are designed to support only a limited number of high-capacity basestations, not large numbers of simple ones. This architecture was previously referred to in the literature as a picocell deployment and is one in which a base station controller is introduced to provide the necessary support to the numerous small pico-head base stations. A Picocell is wireless communication system typically covering a small area, such as in-building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, etc. ... W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a wideband spread-spectrum 3G mobile telecommuncation air interface that utilizes code division multiple access (or CDMA the general multiplexing scheme, not to be confused with CDMA the standard), is a 3G mobile communications standard allied with the GSM standard. ... RNC can mean. ... A Picocell is wireless communication system typically covering a small area, such as in-building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, etc. ...

Collapsed Stack

More common architectures collapse some of the network functionality into the basestation ("collapsed stack" or "Base Station Router"), not just the basestation itself (Node B or BTS) but also the controller (eg RNC) and enable local radio resource control. This would then connect back to the mobile operator core at a higher point eg Iu interface for WCDMA for central authentication and management. This addresses the scalability concerns above, as the resource is located locally. The original Access Point Base Station followed this architecture but also incorporated the core MSC/GSN functions of authentication, control and switching.

UMA core

A variant of the above is to use GAN/EGAN Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) standards. In this case, the femtocell integrates the UMA client to connect to the core, using UMA as a connection method rather than the Iu type interface. This could be attractive, for example, to carriers who have already deployed UMS for use with WiFi or dual-mode handsets, as they can leverage the investment in UMA Network Controller. The approach differs from a dual-mode handset approach where the UMA client is integrated in the device. In the former system the terminal is not affected and the air-interface is still standard - the UMA client is incorporated in the femtocell. Generic Access Network (GAN), also known as Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), is a telecommunication system allowing seamless roaming and handover between local area networks and wide area networks using a dual-mode mobile phone. ... UMS can refer to: USB mass storage device class Unattended Machinery Space Unified Messaging (System, Server, or Service) Uniform Mark Scheme Universal Management Service User Mode Scheduler Universal Mercenary Squad Use Map Settings ( Starcraft Map Type) University Model School This page expands a three-character combination which might be any... Wi-Fi (or Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wifi), short for Wireless Fidelity, is a set of standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) currently based on the IEEE 802. ...

SIP or IMS

The final, and most sophisticated structure is to move to a full IP-based architecture. This approach was utilised in the original Access Point Base Station. In this case, even more functionality is included within the femtocell, and the integration to the core is done using an IP-based technology, e.g. SIP, IMS or H.323. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. ... IMS may refer to: IMS Associates, Inc. ... H.323 is an umbrella recommendation from the ITU-T, that defines the protocols to provide audio-visual communication sessions on any packet network. ...

Deployment

Currently, the most significant deployment is that of Sprint. This started in 3Q/2007, and is a limited rollout (Denver and Indianapolis) of a home-based femtocell built by Samsung Electronics called the Sprint Airave that works with any Sprint handset.^[14]

A number of operators have announced intention to have field trials in 2008, including O2,^[15] Softbank,^[16] TeliaSonera,^[17] and Vodafone.^[18]

Most analysts^{[citation needed]} agree that 2008 will primarily be field trials and soft launch, while commercial launch will be commence in 2009.

References

1. ^ Disruptive Wireless
2. ^ Airave
3. ^ "Uplink Capacity and Interference Avoidance for Two-Tier Femtocell Networks", Vikram Chandrasekhar and Jeffrey G. Andrews
4. ^ Performance of Macro- and co-channel femtocells in a hierarchical cell structure", Holger Claussen, Bell Laboratories Alcatel-Lucent, The 18th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications 2007 (PIMRC'07)
5. ^ "Effects of user-deployed, co-channel femtocells on the call drop probability in a residential scenario", Lester T. W. Ho, Holger Claussen, Bell Laboratories Alcatel-Lucent, The 18th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications 2007 (PIMRC'07)
6. ^ 3GPP TR 25.820 V1.0.0 (2007-11)
7. ^ FCC requirements for 911 provision by VoIP providers
8. ^ Hands on with the Samsung Ubicell
9. ^ "Effects of user-deployed, co-channel femtocells on the call drop probability in a residential scenario", Lester T. W. Ho, Holger Claussen, Bell Laboratories Alcatel-Lucent, The 18th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications 2007 (PIMRC'07)
10. ^ FCC requirements for 911 provision by VoIP providers
11. ^ IEEE-1588 Standard for a precision clock synchronization protocol
12. ^ Hands on with the Samsung Ubicell
13. ^ [1]
14. ^ Airave
15. ^ O2
16. ^ Softbank
17. ^ TeliaSonera
18. ^ Vodafone

Further reading

• See also Wi-Fi Wireless access point
• BBC News: Home Cells Signal Mobile Change
• Reuters video news about femtocell
• Netgear and Ubiquisys team to develop femtocell home gateway
• Japan Softbank (formerly Vodafone Japan) conducts six month field trial with all leading vendors
• Tatara Systems and picoChip partnership to collaborate on femtocell market
• Google invests in femtocell vendor
• Sequans, PMC-Sierra team on Mobile WiMAX femtocell solution
• O2 trial could see a picocell in every home
• Ubiquisys and Kineto successfully test UMA for femtocells
• picoChip works with Semtech to enhance femtocell reference designs
• "Ubiquisys and Motorola responded to the RFP together, according to one industry source."

Planet WAP-4000 Wireless Access Point In computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP or AP) is a device that connects wireless communication devices together to form a wireless network. ...

External links

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...

Equipment

• 3Way Networks Femtocell (Now Airvana)
• Airvana Femtocell
• Airwalk Femtocell
• Alcatel-Lucent Femtocell
• Axiom Wireless
• Ericsson Femtocell
• Huawei Femtocell
• ip.access Oyster Femtocell
• Kineto Femtocell core network solution
• Motorola Femtocell
• Nokia Siemens Networks' Femtocell
• RadioFrame Networks Femtocell
• Samsung Ubicell Femtocell
• Ubiquisys Femtocell
• InfiNet Wireless Femtocell
• [2]

Software stacks

• Trillium Femtocell Software
• [3]

Chips and reference designs

• Percello: Femtocells silicon vendor
• Bitwave Semiconductor BWS1101 multi-band software defined transceiver 700MHz to 4.2GHz (currently at alpha release)
• CEVA-XS1200 baseband device: CEVA DSP
• Picochip PC205 multi-standard baseband device: DSP + ARM9
• PMC-Sierra PM8800 WiZIRD 2x2 MIMO WiMAX RF chip
• Sequans SQN1130 WiMAX 802.16e chip
• ST Microelectronics GreenSIDE STW51000 multi-standard baseband device: DSP + ARM9
• Terocelo Lycon(TM) RF chipset

Industry body

• Femto Forum
• UMA Today

Independent research

• Sound Partners Research

Market

Equipment to chipset mapping

• Airvana (acquired 3-way Networks, which was using Analog Devices BlackFin) (3GPP2 CDMA 1X unit)
• Airwalk (3GPP2 CDMA 1X unit)
• Alcatel-Lucent (3GPP UMTS unit) picoChip chipset
• Axiom Wireless: Picochip chipset (3GPP UMTS unit)
• Ericsson (3GPP UMTS WiFi unit)
• GWT (3GPP2 1x + EvDO unit)
• Huawei
• ip.access: Picochip chipset (3GPP GSM UMTS unit)
• RadioFrame Networks: Structured ASIC using CEVA-X1620(TM) DSP core (3GPP GSM unit)
• Sagem (3GPP UMTS unit) picoChip chipset
• Samsung ZTE: [4] (3GPP2 CDMA 1X unit)
• Ubiquisys: Picochip chipset (3GPP UMTS unit)

Cellular equipment vendor to femtocell vendor partnerships

• Cisco <-> ip.access
• Nokia Siemens Networks <-> Airvana, Nokia Siemens Networks <-> Ubiquisys
• Motorola <-> Ubiquisys
• Thomson <-> ip.access

Reported market estimates

• "Forward Concepts forecasts $4.9 billion femtocell equipment revenue in 2012"
• "36 Million Femtocell Shipments Expected in 2012"
• "We forecast 17 million residential Femtocells in Western Europe in 2011”
• “By 2011 there are forecast to be 102 million femtocell users"
• "3G femtocell deployment to 20% of households by 2012 would only save about USD20 per customer per year, because significant numbers of macrocells would still be needed"
• "estimates that there will be 50,000 femtocell units shipped this year and 1 million units next year"
• "market will be worth $2bn by 2011 "

Target product and service costs

• "Under €150 in volume"
• "Very aggressive price targets (<<$200)"
• Airave unit and service plan costs: $49.95 plus a flat monthly rate for unlimited local and nationwide calling