Femtocells Set to Double as Market Grows and Evolves

Femtocell market growth is set to surge in 2012, as the market matures and reorganizes into better defined segments around consumer, enterprise, rural and metro public space applications. Overall, the femtocell market will double in size this year, according to excerpts from Infonetics Research’s 3Q11 “2G/3G/4G Femtocell Equipment” market share, market size and forecast report.

“As price points continue to come down, we expect to see global femtocell revenue nearly double this year while unit shipments grow at nearly 140% compared to 2011,” predicts Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave, mobile offload and mobile broadband devices at Infonetics Research.

The highlights of the report include:

• Worldwide revenue from 2G and 3G femtocells used in consumer, enterprise and public spaces grew 9% sequentially in the third quarter of 2011, with 2G femtocell revenue declining and 3G femtocell revenue ramping up
• Year over year (3Q10 to 3Q11), global femtocell revenue is up 37%
• W-CDMA/HSPA femtocells accounted for 72% of all femtocells shipped in 3Q11
• 4G LTE femtocells are expected to start shipping in late 2012
• Femtocell market leader Airvana is the first to break through the US$25 million quarterly revenue threshold, expanding its revenue market share lead significantly
• The Cisco/ip.access partnership maintains its lead in terms of femtocell unit share, and increased its quarterly femtocell revenue to its second-highest level to date, but did not gain revenue market share as other players also posted notable gains, including Huawei and NEC/Ubiquisys
• A growing number of operators are offering free femtocells to their consumer subscribers, including SFR France, Softbank in Japan, and Cosmote in Greece