Femtophilia

It seems that the whole industry’s gone femto crazy this week. And it’s largely the fault of the Femto Forum, which after getting off to a bit of a wobbly start three or four months ago, has come up smelling of roses with the backing of the major infrastructure players.

Femtocells look like they could be a big business for all concerned, representing a massive global opportunity for vendors, operators, content providers and consumers. According to Pyramid, the femtocell opportunity represents 30 per cent of the total 3G subscriber base by the end of 2010, two years after the expected commercial launch.

And given the disappointing results from the infrastructure vendors in the last quarter, I wonder if femtocells and picocells represent a decent revenue stream for the kit makers. It certainly looks like operators see them as an important mechanism for improving network performance and controlling infrastructure costs.

Check out our focus on femtocells.