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December
2009
State
of the market
It was with a sense of trepidation that we
recently
published our first state of the femtocell market report. Our fears
were realised a little over a week later when it was already out of
date. SFR’s femtocell launch took the total number of femtocell
deployments to nine. Such is the rate of change in the industry that
this is something we’re obviously going to have to get used to.
The report provides the latest information (as at the publishing date!)
on operator deployments, the vendor ecosystem, the regulatory
environment and the state of technology standards – all free of
charge. It will be updated quarterly to ensure that it keeps track of
evolving industry developments.
The inaugural report provides an overview of the offerings from
AT&T, China Unicom, NTT DOCOMO, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Sprint-Nextel,
StarHub, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone. It also provides a summary of
the entire femtocell vendor ecosystem from the large multinational
telecom and technology vendors to the specialist producers of
semiconductors, access points, gateways, hardware components and
software sub-systems.
The report also contains an update on the
current
state of technology standards. For example, this includes an overview
of activity in 3GPP which completed the world’s first femtocell
standard in April. Equipment that meets this standard will be entering
the market in the coming months ahead of interoperability testing in
March 2010. It also provides an insight into activity within 3GPP2 and
the WiMAX Forum where standards are expected to be completed over the
next 6 months. Finally, the report also provides an update on activity
in national and international regulatory bodies to clarify issues of
policy and regulation relating to femtocells.
The
state
of the market report is available here. Expect to see
its successor in February!
Also in this issue:
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Words from the chair
by Simon
Saunders, Chair,
Femto Forum
If we turn the clock back to the
beginning of 2009, the big question facing the femtocell industry was
whether operators were serious about deploying the technology. This
question has been well and truly answered with nine tier-one operators
now providing services – despite a global economic downturn and a
lack of standardised equipment. The question for 2010 looks set to
be will we see these deployments start to achieve volume?
With
femtocells set to make a starring appearance at the world’s
largest consumer electronic show, CES, in Las Vegas in January the year
looks set to get off to the best possible start.
This year has witnessed femtocell deployments
by
AT&T, China Unicom, NTT DOCOMO, SFR, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Verizon
Wireless and Vodafone – they joined old hands Sprint-Nextel and
StarHub. Critically we’ve also seen the first femtocell standard
which is currently making its way into vendors’ devices. There is
a full update on the state of the market in this issue.
So what about 2010? The femtocell industry looks set to start
undergoing a major change now that operators have demonstrated they are
keen to deploy. The most noticeable change must surely be a flood of
new entrants into the femtocell market – such is the nature of
all consumer technologies. When the Forum launched there were less than
half a dozen femtocell vendors, we can expect to see this number start
to dramatically increase. This development can only help to create a
healthier and more dynamic femtocell market.
We can also expect 2010 to see
recent advances in femtocell technology
start to hit the market.
In addition to the introduction of
devices that meet the new 3GPP standard, we can also expect
to see the first enterprise deployments as
well as potentially wider take-up of outdoor femtocells.
Residential devices will become more compelling
with the introduction
of femto-powered
mobile applications
which will allow consumers to
access and control media devices in
the home.
The Femto Forum will be front and centre helping
to drive these industry developments. We will be chairing the official
femtocell panel sessions at both CES
and Mobile World Congress. We are also organising Femtozones at CES,
Mobile World Congress and CTIA which will serve as the central
information point on femtocell technology featuring public
presentations from industry leading operators and a broad ecosystem of
solution vendors – for more info, keep checking the website. We look
forward to seeing you there!
I hope you enjoy the newsletter and please feel free to provide
feedback on any issues we've covered by emailing us.
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