Reality check: Femtocells are not an Optus scam

Renai LeMay
Monday, 11 April 2011 15:48

IT Industry - Strategy

blog In a somewhat inflammatory article entitled Optus makes customers pay to fix its blackspots, the Sydney Morning Herald has lined up a slew of critics to slam Optus for daring to launch a femtocell solution into the Australian market. Chief among critics (surprise, surprise) is Telstra:

'Telstra wasted no time laying into its main rival, saying its fast Next G network did not require such devices. 'Femtocells are a means of compensating for poor coverage,' a spokeswoman said.'

But others also weigh in '¦ several noted telecommunications analysts and the chief executive of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network. The general consensus is that Optus should just fix its network and it wouldn't need femtocells.

Now, I'm in two minds about this. Yes, in effect Optus' charging model for its femtocells does double dip on customers '” you have to pay for your mobile phone calls and data as per normal, despite the fact that you're also paying for data downloads over your normal fixed-line broadband connection. In addition, it is possible to make the argument that Optus' network should just be good enough to work wherever it's needed '¦ as, many would argue, Telstra's Next G network does.

However, there are also other arguments to this one.