Femtocells: the next big thing in mobile communications

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 05 August 2009 14:27

Opinion and Analysis

But this is just the beginning. Easy uploading and downloading of files from cellphone to home entertainment platforms; notification via SMS or Facebook update when someone arrives home; an icon that pops up on the phone when you walk in the door that gives access to applications available through the femtocell; being able to turn lights on and off from your cellphone, being able to unlock the door from your cellphone, are just a few examples of applications cited by Swift.

The uptake of 'open' mobile platforms like the Android and the iPhone will make it easy to develop femtocell applications with a large potential market. For example, earlier this year, Canadian software house Intrinsyc announced http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24856/127/ that it had teamed up with femtocell developer Ubiquisys to create an Android application that completely changes the user interface when the phone moves from a public mobile network area into a home or other location covered by a femtocell.

According to Intrinsyc "The home theme does not just look different; it has new icons for high bandwidth entertainment services like video streaming, social networking and home network integration, taking advantage of the fast low-cost data provided by the femtocell."

For operators femtocells offer numerous benefits: offloading traffic from the macro level network, lowering costs for data traffic. According to Swift, "A large amount of mobile activity happens in the home, and it is significantly cheaper for an operator to delivery a femto byte of data [over a terrestrial broadband line] than a macro level byte [over the cellular network]."

Swift won't give any numbers for Alcatel-Lucent's installed base and was not able to cite any published estimates from market analysts, but he said, "We have been quite surprised at the uptake. There has been a real acceleration since Christmas, and the launch of the Vodafone UK network has generated a lot of interest."

In addition to its three commercial networks, Alcatel-Lucent has about 19 trials underway. Swift would not say if his visit to Australia is linked to any planned trials down here. However, except for the fact that it is probably very busy with integration issues, VHA the newly merged entity of Vodafone Australia and Hutchison Australia would be a prime candidate.

Hutchison pioneered a dual local number/mobile number service on its CDMA network a decade ago. After several years it abandoned this, reportedly because it was too successful: user loved it but with the available technology Hutch was unable to quarantine the local calling option to a sufficiently tight area and was losing too much revenue.

However Hutchison did relaunch the service in 2005 but was forced to abandon it within a few months  when Telstra pulled the plug on its CDMA network. (Hutchison relied on roaming onto this to provide mobile services outside of the areas covered by its metro-only spectrum licences.)

Nor is Vodafone any stranger to 'home zone' type cellular services, enabled solely by the cellular network using location technologies. It offers this service in several countries, including New Zealand.

Then there is Optus which has tried both directly and through its MVNO subsidiary Virgin Mobile to garner customer revenues presently spent on fixed phones and broadband with the Optus Fusion service . It used a unit that offered a PSTN number and broadband service delivered via the Optus 3G networks. The offering proved too popular and was dumped because of the congestion it created on the Optus 3G network.