|
|
"For a small but rapidly growing segment of heavy wireless data users an operator can easily halve the cost of delivering wireless data at home or in the office by offloading traffic from the macro cellular network onto a femtocell," it concluded.
And earlier this year Wim Sweldens, president of Alcatel-Lucent's wireless activities, said: "The main driver of small cells adoption today is the delivery of crystal-clear voice services to buildings or areas that used to be 'blind' to the macro network. However, both residential and business users are quickly discovering the benefits from the increased mobile data capacity as well'¦Studies by Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs show that - versus classic Pico or DAS [distributed antenna system] solutions - small cells are not only cheaper by more than 60 percent, but also enable in-building mobile coverage much faster than any other solution." Alcatel-Lucent is the supplier of Optus' femtocells.
There is also great scope for femtocell delivered value-added services. In March this year The Femto Forum, the industry and operator association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, published a set of application programming interface (API) specifications that will enable mobile network operators to make applications that are 'femtocell aware' or femtocell specific.
The Femto Forum's vice-chairman and head of its Services Special Interest Group, Andy Germano, said: "There is a major opportunity for operators to start offering unique new applications. Already in Japan, we are seeing mobile operators offering commercial, revenue-generating applications that send an SMS to parents when children arrive home from school. The number of potential applications enabled by this new and exciting API is literally endless."
|
You can read more stories on telecommunications in our newsletter ExchangeDaily, click here to sign up for a free trial... |
