Femtocells

In his wireless blog, Alastair Brydon compares Vodafone’s Sure Signal UK femtocell offering with T-Mobile’s US smartphone WiFi applications, with some surprising findings. Offloading to femtocells or WiFi allows a mobile operator to bypass its expensive radio network infrastructure and should allow a mobile customer to freely use intensive applications, such as video streaming. However,… Read more

Mark Heath looks forward to 2011 and the continued progress of LTE and femtocells. He comments on the launch of 4G services by NTT DoCoMo and AT&T, and discusses SK Telecom’s deployment of femtocells, specifically to solve congestion issues. As 2011 starts, I would like to wish all our readers a great New Year! This… Read more

Mark Heath, of telecom consultancy Unwired Insight, discusses the latest femtocell news. It’s a hopeful time for femtocell vendors, following a lengthy period between femtocells being declared as the ‘next big thing’ and the point at which a significant number are being deployed. Vendors have been buoyed by the latest quarterly market status report by… Read more

Mark Heath of Unwired Insight discusses how 3G offloading will be needed to protect 3G capacity as 3G traffic levels continue to rise. With widespread deployment of LTE networks many years away, and with wireless traffic volumes continuing to increase, 3G offloading is becoming a necessity for mobile operators, to protect 3G capacity. Dedicated broadcasting… Read more

Indoor systems will support an increasing proportion of total service usage on mobile devices, with WiFi access points and femtocells deployed more widely. Indoor wireless systems will be a core part of the delivery platform for 3G operators and they will use both WiFi and femtocells to deliver services through fixed broadband connections. By the… Read more

Attempting to predict a single forecast for the evolution of the wireless service and traffic mix is risky, because there is significant uncertainty over how mobile markets will evolve. In particular, there is uncertainty over the extent to which complementary platforms (including WLAN, femtocells and sideloading) will be used alongside 3G macrocell networks to deliver… Read more

Not all services and content consumed via 3G devices have to be delivered by 3G macrocell networks. There are a number of complementary delivery methods for the delivery of some, or all, services and content, particularly for users with access to a fixed broadband service. Dedicated mobile broadcasting technologies, such as DVB-H, DMB and MediaFLO,… Read more

With a 20-fold increase in 3G traffic volumes forecast over the next five years, alternative means of delivering services to 3G handsets will be essential in order to prevent major capacity problems, according to Unwired Insight. A new report, entitled ‘Will 3G Networks Cope?’, shows that complementary distribution methods, including femtocells and broadcasting solutions, could… Read more

While 3G operators have been reporting annual increases of 300 to 700% in 3G data traffic volumes, they have not needed to be unduly concerned because volumes have increased from very low levels. However, a new report published today by Unwired Insight, entitled ‘Will 3G Networks Cope?’, shows that 3G traffic volumes will continue to… Read more