The Business Case for Picocells and Femtocells in the Enterprise Market

Dr Alastair Brydon, Co-Founder, Unwired Insight

Dr Alastair Brydon and Dr Mark Heath

Co-Founders of Unwired Insight

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"Indoor base stations could enable existing and new mobile operators to provide the enterprise market with enhanced coverage, new services and attractive pricing of indoor mobile services. We show how to achieve a viable business case."

 

Product overview

The enterprise market presents an important revenue opportunity for mobile operators. However, the provision of indoor services is currently a major area of weakness. Mobile operators are increasingly threatened by the WLAN community's development and deployment of dual-mode services, which are tempting enterprises with the promise of reduced expenditure on traditional telecoms. The report shows how the introduction of indoor base stations - picocells and femtocells - could allow mobile operators to fight back. The report assesses the business case for the deployment of indoor base stations in enterprises, for a number of scenarios. Although indoor base station deployment in the enterprise market is embryonic, the report reviews early service implementations by mobile operators, and identifies actions that mobile operators and indoor base station vendors must take in order to make the most of opportunities in the enterprise market.

 

This report answers your key questions

The Business Case for Picocells and Femtocells in the Enterprise Market answers your key questions:

  • What are enterprises' key requirements for indoor services?
  • What can be learnt from early movers that are already deploying indoor base stations?
  • What are the key elements of the MNO business case for indoor base stations? What is the quantitative business case for a number of deployment scenarios?
  • What user densities and ARPU levels are necessary in order to achieve an adequate financial return?
  • How can improvements in transmission costs improve business case viability?
  • Given that picocells represent an immediate deployment option, is there a role for femtocells in the enterprise market and, if so, how and when?
  • What are the critical ingredients, over and above the deployment of indoor base station equipment, needed for success?
  • How should MNOs compete against emerging WLAN services that use dual-mode handsets?
  • What actions should MNOs and indoor base station vendors take in order to seize the opportunities for indoor base stations in the enterprise market?