"The trend towards fixed-mobile substitution is increasing in
many countries, and 3G networks are at a relatively early stage in their
development. In this context, 3G femtocells could not have arrived at a
better time for the mobile industry. A number of technologies have been
over-hyped in recent years, but indoor base stations have the potential to
transform the telecoms industry."
Product overview
Small, low-cost, indoor cellular base stations, often referred to as
picocells and femtocells, are a major new development for wireless networks.
Indoor base stations are similar in appearance to WiFi access points but are
effectively miniature cellular base stations, containing all the necessary
functionality to connect to a mobile core network. Instead of expanding
their existing macrocell networks, mobile operators can place indoor base
stations, with DSL (or other broadband) backhaul to their networks, in homes
and workplaces in order to achieve low-cost, high-quality, indoor coverage.
The prospect of substantial cost savings and new service opportunities from
this change is generating intense interest from operators and could bring
about a radical departure from traditional cellular network architecture.
However, many questions relating to the implementation of indoor base
stations remain unanswered.
This new report describes how indoor base stations could be used across
different wireless technologies, including 2G, 3G and WiMAX. It considers
the business case for their application and identifies the issues that need
to be resolved to enable widespread deployment. It quantifies likely revenue
and cost benefits, including the savings that operators can make by avoiding
macrocell network expansion. It also assesses the strategic impact of home
base stations on the telecoms industry, including fundamental changes to
network evolution. The report draws on interviews from a range of indoor
base station experts and vendors in Europe and the USA.