The rollout of femtocells across the globe is gaining momentum but as with all new technologies, price will be the key to success.
UK research firm Informa Telecoms & Media says femtocell deployments have more than doubled in the last nine months as more and more tier one operators jump on the bandwagon.
According to Informa, some 13 operators currently have commercially launched femtocells, compared with only six commercial launches in November.
In the June quarter alone, Vodafone Spain, AT&T, Softbank Mobile and KDDI commercially deployed femtocell services.
Vodafone’s decision to rollout femtocells in a second European market illustrates the success of its heavily-promoted “Sure Signal” service in the UK.
AT&T became the first US operator to announce a nationwide 3G femtocell rollout and Softbank Mobile in Japan is the first operator to offer both free femtocells and free DSL backhaul.
“Femtocells are currently positioned for solving coverage problems but capacity is the next item to be addressed,” Dimitris Mavrakis, senior analyst at Informa, told telecomasia.net.