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April
2010
Femtocell
Industry Awards 2010 NOW OPEN
Deadline for submission of
entries: 5 May
Entry is now open for the Femto Forum 2010 Femtocell Awards. Click here
for more information and to submit your entries.
The awards are open to everyone involved in femtocell development
(Femto Forum members and non-members) and we welcome entries from
organizations of all sizes, representing all continents. Judging will
be independent of the Femto Forum, the panel being composed of well
known figures from the world of femtocells, selected for their
experience and impartiality.
Winners will be announced at a prestigious Awards Ceremony on 23 June
2010 at the Femtocells World Summit in London. Shortlists will be
announced on 27 May 2010.
The Categories
1. Individual
contribution to Femto Forum activities (judged
by Femto Forum group chairs)
2. Residential femtocell access point design and technology innovation
(vendor)
3. Greater femtocell (enterprise and other) design and technology
innovation (vendor)
4. Femtocell network element design and technology innovation
5. Femtocell application concept (vendor or operator)
6. Progress in commercial deployment (vendor or ecosystem)
7. Commercial launch – marketing campaign (operator)
8. Commercial launch – technical implementation (operator)
9. Contribution to femtocell standards (individual or company)
10. Enabling technology (components, subsystems, modules etc.)
11. Social vision - use of femtocells for social/economic/environmental
development(vendor or operator)
12. Judges choice (open to all)
Also in this issue:
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Words from the chair
by Simon
Saunders, Chair,
Femto Forum
2010 has had a roaring start with Vodafone’s high profile promotion of
their femtocell offering and AT&T’s nationwide launch. Since
our inaugural market status report last November, operator commitments
to femtocell deployments have leapt by 75% meaning we can expect a
spate of commercial offerings to appear over the coming months.
As exciting as the growth in operator deployments and commitments has
been, so also is the diverse range of the operators involved. We now
have a collection of the largest operators in the world offering
femtocell services including China Unicom, AT&T and Vodafone.
We also have smaller national and local operators such as Cellcom,
OPTIMUS and Network Norway committed to the technology. We even have
fixed ISPs such as France’s Free planning to use femtocells as the
basis for a completely new mobile network rollout. Evidently,
femtocells are of interest to operators of all shapes and sizes.
The fact that the barriers to femtocell deployment have tumbled down
has perhaps been the reason for the sudden rise in operator interest.
The importance of industry standards has always been fundamental in the
mobile industry meaning that the recent completion of the 3GPP2
femtocell standard taking place simultaneously with the first plugfest
for its 3GPP counterpart is of enormous importance.
Equally important has been the increased clarity surrounding the
femtocell business case. The Femto Forum updated its business case
research in February and found that operators can realise an overall
return of ten times on their femtocell investment through
macrocell-offload. The flexibility of the femtocell business case is
illustrated by the wide variety of femtocell-based service offers
already provided, including "from free" offers for customers showing
loyalty to the femtocell operator.
With the 3G femtocell market growing rapidly, the past few months have
seen the industry start to plan for LTE and WiMAX femtocells. The first
WiMAX femtocells are now on the market and major progress has been made
recently in the development of LTE designs. This represents a
fascinating market opportunity as operators will be able to rollout
these new networks using femtocells. This means there is a great
opportunity for outdoor, enterprise and consumer femtocells to
transform the traditional network architecture model. The Forum
published research into the area which concluded that femtocells
provide the best possible LTE & WiMAX user experience and
improve
the operator business case for the new networks while also offering
alternative rollout models and supporting new services.
Finally, I’d just like to draw your attention to the Femto
Forum’s annual awards which are now open for submissions.
The
winners will be announced at the Femtocell World Summit in June which
is all set to be the biggest femtocell event ever. 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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