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Your advert here!!! Technical Editors:
Last modified: | Femto cells have image problemNot surprisingly, the mobile phone operators are fighting back against the loss of voice minutes to voice-over-Wi-Fi. Their solution is to put a 3G base station into consumers' living rooms in the shape of a 'femto cell'. Not everybody's cup of tea, of course. But essentially it enables regular 3G handsets to be used as both a cordless phone and a cellular phone. Just like the rival technology, UMA, which combines Wi-Fi and cellular. To buck things up and establish industry standards, yet another cellular body has just been created – this one imaginatively named the Femto Forum. The thought of installing a 3G base station in the front room will undoubtedly cause great consternation amongst certain sections of the populace. It's how vendors can combat the health scares which is the tricky bit. The truth is that femto cells are relatively harmless. For example, they utilise about 1 per cent of the transmitting power that a typical Wi-Fi base station might use. Moreover, they're even safer than that because a 3G handset won't have to expend as much power to communicate with a femto cell as it would typically require if situated a significant distance from a 3G base station. Oh, whoops. The cellular industry will have to admit that 3G phones have to crank the power up to communicate with distant 3G base stations. In practice the femto cell is most likely to form just one part of a multi-functional access point which will incorporate ADSL and Wi-Fi as well. Indeed, leading femto cell provider, Ubiquisys, has already done a deal to put its femto technology inside Netgear's access points. The femto cell is, of course, a brilliant way for mobile network operators to increase their 3G coverage. The consumer supplies the power and protection for the box plus an xDSL broadband connexion which acts as the network backbone. Femto cells will also be plug and play so that dispenses with installation costs, too. If it goes wrong then the consumer will phone up for advice on resetting the device. Which takes care of Level One support. So vendors like Sonus Networks say that handing out heavily subsidised femto-enabled access points is an extremely attractive alternative for operators instead of having to build more base stations and putting up more masts. The mix of suppliers playing in this space is intriguing. According to ABI's research, the top ranking femto cell supplier is Ubiquisys followed by IPaccess. In the middle you have established names in the Telco business such as Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung and now Huawei. Another winner is Picochip which supplies the necessary femto chips. Indeed it offers a PC8209 modem reference design for 3G Femto cells and both Ubiquisys and IPaccess use its products. The femto concept makes sense. It's just a question of how it is painted. For example, who worries out the EMF output of the base station required by all cordless phones?The full Inquirer story ... Put a 3G base station in your lounge www.femtoforum.org
Source: ABI Research |
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