Nonetheless the Jill Scott author anticipates the first large-scale

Nonetheless, the divulges beautifully human jill scott author anticipates jill sobule details the first large-scale femtocell deploymentswill arrive in Q2 2009, with the market ramping in 2010. With increasing userdemand for mobile broadband data, operators will look to femtocells to improveindoor coverage whilst easing capacity requirements and backhaul costs in theirmacro-network. There are several reasons for the femtocell's slow market birth, ranging fromthe technical to the commercial and strategic. Despite initial technicalproblems and the slow introduction of femtocell-related standards, it is true tosay that most of these issues have been overcome.

Through the efforts of theFemto Forum, the acceptance of the Iu-h interface by all the main femtocellvendors has ensured uniformity bedda at home jill scott . Interference has been dealt with and handoff islargely solved jill scoot . The remaining femtocell challenges are primarily commercial and strategic jill greenberg . Mostfemtocell vendors - Ubiquisys, RadioFrame, ip.access and Airvana - aremedium-sized, VC backed businesses who are stepping into the new territory oflarge-scale consumer deployments jill scott" "crown royal . The large network equipment providers such asNokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson and Motorola have chosen not to enter themarket directly, working instead with the femtocell vendors through OEM andreseller arrangements. Although this scenario is not that unusual in a newmarket it means that the specialist femtocell vendors lack the capital toexploit the mass market potential of femtocells and have a credibility gap toclose in order to reach acceptance by Tier 1 operators.

This gives rise to theclassic catch-22: without the capital to subsidise a large-scale femtocellrollout, vendors are unable to prove the viability of femtocells, but withoutthis proof of concept many operators will wait on the sidelines best of jill scott . This brings into play another crucial strategic issue: there is little firstmover advantage for mobile operators looking to deploy femtocells jane blonde . With the unitcost of a femtocell currently at around $200 and with the considerableinvestment required to roll-out a service to consumers, femtocell deployment isa high cost, high risk endeavour jill ankrom . By being first to market the operator accruesnone of the mass production cost advantages of the follower and takes all therisk with technical issues that will be ironed out at later stages jill niccolini . The femtocell vendors counter these challenges with the indisputable operationalbenefits of femtocells. Coverage in the home is improved, which is vital if dataservices on 3G/3.5G are to take off, and the backhaul is taken care of by theconsumers own broadband connection thus taking pressure off the transmissionnetwork. Furthermore, femtocells allow operators to offer homezone type serviceswith reduced tariffs within the home environment but without the need forspecial dual-mode handsets.

Churn can be reduced and whole families could betied into one network since they will all be using the same femtocell . Finally,so-called femto 2.0 services could help increase ARPU by offering media sharingand social networking features when the consumer is in the home-zone jill clayborn . The author anticipates the first large-scale femtocells deployments to arrive inQ2 2009 but with less than 500,000 units shipped during the year jill clapperton . Instead, 2010will be the year when shipments start to flow as the business case becomesclearer . The following three years are expected to see rapid growth as the priceof the femtocell unit drops and the need for better in-building coverage grows.This will be driven by a combination of market factors including the need tobackhaul high bandwidth mobile data; the growing use of data cards; greaterintegration of the femtocell with CPE; and the threat from fixed-line operatorsentering the mobile domain through dual-mode Wi-Fi solutions. Finally, as LTEarrives in many advanced markets there will be increased need to ship LTEfemtocells around the 2013 timeframe and some believe the first LTE deploymentswill be via femtocells. For more information visit WoodSenior Fax from USA: 646-607-1907Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 Copyright Business Wire 2009.