Femtocells are calling...

The best thing about femtocells is just saying the word "femtocell." It makes me tingle all over.This is supposed to be the next BIG thing in broadband. 

Paul Berriman, the CTO of Hong Kong's principle phone company, PCCW, is a big fan of femtocells. He says they provide savings on backhaul costs, improve in-building coverage, reduce churn, promote migration and provide a platform for operators to build an effective delivery system for triple- and quadruple-play services.  Well, if Paul says so, it's probably true. We tend to worship the guy because of his superior intellect and good taste in fine wines.

Conceived in 2002 by a group of engineers at Motorola in the UK, a femtocell is a very small cellular base station using wide area network radio access technology, such as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). Femtocells are designed for installation at the end of a broadband connection such as in a single-family home or multi-dwelling unit building to serve a small number or users (~5 or so) and are are expect to cost anywhere from $100 to $300. 

Here's what one looks like (click on image). It's called the Oyster 3G from a company named IP Access.

ABI Research  says there could be as many as 19 million femtocells shipped worldwide, 102 million users of femtocell products, and 32 million femtocell access points worldwide by 2011.  Wow. Really?  I thought only Chris Angel could predict the future?

Femtocells are an alternative way to deliver the benefits of Fixed Mobile Convergence. The distinction is that most FMC architectures require a new (dual-mode) handset, while a femtocell based deployment will work with existing handsets.  This potentially threatens the dual-mode handset market but not really.

Ultimately the big value of femtocells is their ability to let service providers to extend their cellular coverage and filling cover holes without the need for expensive towers.

Providers are also looking at Wi-Fi to do the same sort of thing. Hanging a Smart Wi-Fi AP off the end of a broadband line that tunnels to some central office - providing voice over Wi-Fi services for dual mode handsets.

Like always, there will be many alternatives from which to choose. One look at my phone bill (click on picture), explains why femtocells, FMC and voice over IP are the next big thingys.