Femtocells

Telefonica Germany extends coverage with femtocells

Operator group Telefónica will deploy femtocells in Germany to extend its network coverage in areas where buildings’ walls can degrade the quality of a mobile signal or in areas far from a macro cell tower.

Small cell maturity raises management issues

Femtocells have grown up and left home, according to ip.access founder and CTO Nick Johnson, commenting on the news Wednesday that the Femto Forum had rebranded as the Small Cell Forum. Johnson was unveiling the firm’s first 4G small cell – an event that highlights the growing maturing of the sector – yet brings with it some interesting network planning considerations.

Femto Forum rebrands to Small Cell Forum as Ericsson joins board

The Femto Forum has announced that is has changed its name to the Small Cell Forum, as it look to bring all outdoor small cell technologies under its umbrella. Small Cell Forum chair Simon Saunders told Telecoms.com that the new name would better reflect its work, which embraces residential, enterprise, metro and rural small cells in addition to indoor Femtocells and that the expanded outlook beyond residential devices had encouraged telecoms vendor Ericsson to join the board.

Femto competition driving free offerings

A growth in markets with multiple femtocell offerings is driving operators to offer the products for free, according to a new study from Informa Telecoms & Media. Femtocell services are currently available in 23 countries around the world, and 43 per cent of these countries have multiple operators offering the technology, the firm said. For the majority of these countries, at least one operator offers the devices free of charge.

Pros and cons of small cells

With mobile data traffic expected to double annually, small cell base stations are set to play an important role in expanding the capacity of wireless networks. Mobile operators are realizing that to meet the demands for data, video and application access caused by smart phones and other devices, there is a real beauty to going small.

Ubiquisys announces Intel powered small cells

Ubiquisys, the femtocell vendor, has announced a partnership with chip manufacturer Intel to develop a new range of intelligent small cell base stations. The devices will feature Ubiquisys application software and will be powered by Intel architecture.

RadiSys snaps up Continuous Computing

IP networking firm RadiSys has acquired traffic management specialist Continuous Computing, to better target opportunities in the rapidly growing 3G and 4G, femtocell and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) sectors.

Femtocells grow into the enterprise space

Femtocell deployments may have doubled to 19 since last year’s Mobile World Congress but the news that seems to be causing the most excitement among members of the Femto Forum is the growth in enterprise interest in the technology. “Last year, all commercial femtocell deployments were residential, now more than a third are enterprise-focused,” said Femto Forum Chairman Simon Saunders, adding that commitments to launch the technology have tripled to 34 in the past year.

Broadcom acquires femto developer Percello

US silicon vendor Broadcom has revealed its second major acquisition of the month with the announcement that it has signed a deal to buy femtocell chip developer Percello Ltd for $86m. The deal comes two weeks after Broadcom acquired multimode 4G platform developer Beceem.

Femtos outnumber macrocells in US

Femtocells now outnumber conventional outdoor cell sites in the US, marking a major milestone in the evolution of mobile networks. Conservative estimates suggest there are currently 350,000 femtocells and around 256,000 macrocells in the US. But by March 2011, there are expected to be at least twice as many femtocells as macrocells in the country.

Femto Forum publishes LTE interoperability APIs

The Femto Forum has published a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) which help enable LTE femtocell semiconductors and protocol software stacks from different vendors to interoperate.

Virgin, Qtel slapped down by watchdog

Virgin Mobile’s newly launched operation in the emirate state of Qatar has had its wrists slapped by the regulator along with its local host and network partner, Qtel (Qatar Telecom).

An industry in the grip of femto fever?

Global femtocell deployments have more than doubled in the last nine months, suggesting a maturity of the technology and a growing acceptance of the potential business models.

Femtos win more support in US

Expect to hear plenty of news about femtocells this week as the Femto World Summit kicks off in London. Telecoms.com had a briefing with what felt like the entire femto ecosystem on Monday morning ahead of the conference and came away with the sense that the technology and the business model are winning acceptance and adoption. The latest carrier to fly the femto flag being US rural player Mosaic Telecom.

Femtos extend reach into WiMAX territory

The Femto Forum joined forces with the WiMAX Forum on Thursday, publishing the first standard designed to bring both networking technologies closer together.

Femtocells hit magic $100 price point

The femtocell crowd have hit the magic $100 price point for their gear, at which point the technology should become a mainstream consumer proposition.

Mobile data surpasses voice

Global mobile data traffic surpassed voice during December of 2009, after growing 280 per cent during each of the last two years. According to Swedish vendor Ericsson, which published the figures, global mobile data traffic is forecast to double annually over the next five years.

Femtocell tech maturing

Femtocell technology is experiencing the first signs of maturity, with several tier one operators deploying the technology using a variety of business models.

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