Femtocells

Femtocells

Drive Fixed Mobile Substitution

Small indoor basestations – femtocells and picocells – will be the driving force behind fixed mobile substitution, according to research from industry experts, Analysys.

The analyst group believes that femtocells will spur the migration of voice traffic from fixed to mobile networks, until 3G networks carry the majority of voice traffic.

Femtocells will also undermine the case for converged cellular-wifi services, said Analysys, by enabling very similar tariffs without the need for dedicated handsets.

German carrier Deutsche Telekom quietly pulled the plug on its domestic fixed mobile convergence (FMC) service, T-One, in March. T-One fell victim to Deutsche Telekom’s own FMS (Fixed Mobile Substitution) service, @Home, which has experienced explosive growth as German mobile users move to adopt home zone services.

In the UK, meanwhile, O2 has been making encouraging noises about picocells and femtocells recently. Where many of its peers are opting to do Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) via wifi, using UMA or SIP-enable phones, O2 looks to be favoring small indoor GSM base stations to do the same job.

Femtocells can be applied to a number of wireless technologies, including 2G, 3G, 3G LTE, WiMAX and WiBro, but 3G presents the greatest opportunity.

“The potential of femtocells is substantial for mobile operators, but critical implementation and performance issues need to be resolved before they can be deployed widely”, said Mark Heath, an analyst at Analysys. “These include interference, range, performance, network integration and management, handover, billing and security.”