Are Femtocells Dead on Arrival?
Femtocells are one of those products that, at least conceptually, look to have disruptive traits. The idea of putting a mini ‘cell tower’ in individual homes and businesses, greatly boosting indoor wireless coverage, certainly could be seen as accelerating ‘cord cutting’ behavior – perhaps in a game changing way. But not so fast.
ABI Research is cutting its forecast on femtocell shipments. ABI now says 55% fewer, from 790,000 units to 350,000 units, will ship in 2009. They also expect 2010 to slowdown. “We expect that deployments in 2010 will pick up but will be slower than expected – our data suggests about a 40% reduction on previous estimates.” Hardly a hyper accelerating trend.
Are consumers rejecting the femtocell proposition of paying for a device to improve coverage and features for a service that maybe they should be getting anyway, as a part of their monthly subscription fee? Femtocells aren’t cheap – they range from $150 to over $200.
I suspect if you just paid $200 for your new whiz bang smartphone, you don’t expect to pay another $150 to get better coverage in your home. By the way, that same smartphone is probably Wi-Fi enabled, allowing customers to use their existing home networks for better data coverage anyway. Data services are driving wireless growth and usage, not voice.
Are femtocells dead? Hardly. But the model will probably have to change. Customers have spoken, and they’re not going to buy femtocells en masse at current cost levels.
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Categories: Devices | Femtocell | Wireless
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i have issues in my home w/ wireless connectiviity both for voice AND DATA (poor coverage does not disciminate) and I would certainly buy a device IF it not only boosted my wireless mobile voice AND DATA, but also served as WiFi access point (and why not a fixed wireless phone also) served by either HSI or FTTH… basically a hi-bandwidth single point of data/voice interconnection in the home… Fem2Cell mfgs. & CSPs need t start looking at the broader picture… I agree w/ the article… I certainly will NOT buy this device for the single purpose of augmenting the crappy coverage provided by wireless service provider…
People would buy them if they were 25% cheaper AND did not add an additional monthly service fee. Carriers need to get over their addiction to monthly fees. Few people will want to pay their carrier EXTRA to essentially help the carrier out by offloading voice and data into an internet connection that the customer owns. Sounds like a sweet deal for carriers all around.
[...] Telecompetitor directs our attention to a study by ABI Research that indicates that femtocell shipments this year have been well, less than impressive. The technology, which creates essentially a micro-cell tower in the home, helps with coverage issues by allowing users to make calls over their home broadband connection. They’re useful to carriers, in that they ease strain on local towers, but so far many operators have done a pretty poor job marketing the devices to users or offering consumer value in pricing models. For whatever reason ABI poo poo’s the value issues, and instead blames the recession: While some observers say femtocells have yet to prove their value, Kaul points to a combination of other factors: the general economic malaise, which makes the 0 pricetag of an unsubsidized femtocell harder to swallow; the time operators need to get their systems and networks ready for a femtocell deployment and to devise innovative pricing plans; a fear in some quarters that a rapid increase in femtocell numbers would cause interference in the macro network. [...]
[...] un costo oscillante tra i 150 e i 200 dollari, spiega Telecompetitor, le femtocelle non si pongono di fronte ai possibili acquirenti nel modo giusto. [...]
[...] Are femtocells dead on arrival? Hardly! [...]
[...] we’ve noted before, the femtocell trend is far from conclusive. Previous femtocell attempts by wireless carriers have fizzled for the most part. We believe [...]
[...] home broadband service, thus relieving AT&T’s wireless network of the task. Femtocells have a mixed record of success and AT&T is the first company to go nationwide with a true 3G [...]