The Femto Forum, the independent industry association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, has extended its membership to include major operators and equipment vendors including new members Alcatel-Lucent, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks and Telefónica O2, elected to the board.
Femtocells are generally used to increase indoor coverage of 3G data networks. Unlike WiFi, the low-powered access points operate in cellular’s licensed spectrum and link to ordinary cellphones. Residential DSL or cable broadband connections are used for the backhaul.
According to Wikipedia, the mobile appliance must somehow know to connect to the femtocell when within range, even if there is still sufficient signal from, for example, an external macrocell base station. Forcing the mobile appliance to do this, whilst preventing your neighbor’s mobile appliance from doing the same, is quite a challenge. In addition, handoff from the femtocell to the wider area macrocell and back again is potentially quite complex.
Sprint is now selling “femtocell” boxes to its subscribers for improved cellular reception in the home. Select Sprint customers will be able to buy Samsung Electronics Airave boxes (FAQ). With an Airave box, calls made at home won’t count against the available minutes, and would fall under a separate flat-rate plan.
Carriers don’t mind because traffic routed through a land line means less of a burden for the wireless network and lower operating costs.
Motorola, one of the Forum’s new members, announced its first 3G femtocell trial with a European operator. (See Unstrung, Moto Trials 3G Femtocell). Motorola’s femtocell in this trial is understood to be based on UbiquiSys’s ZoneGate 3G femtocell, which Google is also an investor.
New members in The Femto Forum include: Alcatel-Lucent, Aricent, Azaire Networks, Bharti Airtel, Bouygues Telecom, Carphone Warehouse Networks, Celcom, Continuous Computing, General Communication Inc, Kineto Wireless, Mapesbury Communications, Mavenir Systems, MobileOne, Motorola, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks, Orascom Telecom, PCCW Mobile HK Limited, Pirelli Broadband Solutions, Rakon, Rogers Wireless, Reef Point, Sagem Communications, SerComm, Sonus Networks, Starent Networks, Telefónica O2, Thomson, Unwired Australia, UTStarcom and ZTE Corporation. These members join the seven original founding members: Airvana, ip.access, NETGEAR, picoChip, RadioFrame, Tatara and Ubiquisys.
According to Mediamark Research (pdf), the percentage of people living in U.S. households with one or more cellphones has exceeded the number of people living in households with landlines, 86.2% to 84.5%.
Related Dailywireless stories include; Sprint; Femocell at Home, Google Invests in Femocell Company, T-Mobile At Home, and T-Mobile UMA Goes National.
.gif)
