Unstrung: France Fires Up Femtocells

"French mobile operator SFR launched a 3G femtocell service today using petit base stations from Ubiquisys" writes Michelle Donegan in Unstrung.

It was great to see such a professional launch, especially when it is combined with a variety of price plans for SFR customers.

And the promotional video adds a new twist to the benefits of femtocells....

Location, GPS and femtocells: the global perspective

In his “Do you know where your femtocell is?” commentary on AT&T’s 3G Microcell rollout, Paul Callahan says that “GPS is fast becoming a requirement for femtocells” (Airvana FemtoHub, Oct 6). That’s certainly true in the US market, but the global picture is very different.

For CDMA networks GPS is part of the system - it’s a pre-requisite. But one of the key reasons why CDMA failed to take off across the world was its reliance on GPS, which is owned and controlled by the US Government. For UMTS, the 3G network choice of most operators around the world, GPS is not required.

With femtocells, operators need to meet national location regulations for emergency calling. Customers want to know that their emergency call will result in an accurate response. And several operators have told me that they see a robust emergency location system as a moral obligation, not just a regulatory one.

In reality there are many ways that a femtocell’s location can be determined. These provide different levels of granularity, complexity for the consumer, device cost and probability of success. There are pros and cons for each method which I’ll cover on another day.

Location determination methods employed by femtocells:

• GPS
• 3G and 2G Network Listen Mode: where the femtocells listen to surrounding macro cells and determine their location based on the location of these cells.
• Using the Broadband Access Database – where available (market by market) this allows a location lookup based on IP Address.
• Customer Declaration – currently used in European femtocell deployments to supplement Network Listen, where the customer takes responsibility for registering the installation address.

Operators are selecting the right mix of location methods to meet the needs of their markets. The best answer for femtocell vendors is therefore to offer both GPS and non-GPS options for location. And coming back to AT&T’s UMTS femtocells – GPS is definitely the right answer.

3G Femtocells: Who Makes What?

It’s great to see AT&T start marketing their 3G (WCDMA) femtocell, the 3G Microcell. Unlike the 2G femto offerings from Sprint and Verizon in the US, this not only promises a premium voice experience but also full speed 24/7 mobile broadband.

Following the launches from SoftBank, StarHub and Vodafone, the AT&T Microcell is a clear signal that the femto market is taking off across the world.

And on the face of it, there are around 20 3G femto vendors competing to supply operators with 3G femtocells. But that’s only half the story.

Firstly, you can’t always go by the brand you see on the box. For example, the AT&T Microcell is supplied by Cisco, but the femtocell inside the Cisco device was developed by picocell/femtocell developer ip.Access.

Secondly, the only true measure of a femtocell product in this hyped-up market is a commercial launch. Taking this measure, there are only four 3G femtocell vendors in the market today (in alphabetical order):
- Alcatel-Lucent at Vodafone, UK
- Huawei at StarHub , Singapore
- Ip.Access at AT&T, USA
- Ubiquisys at SoftBank, Japan.

There are some interesting similarities here. All of these companies have been doing intensive femtocell development for at least 3 years, and all have been working with their operator customers for at least two years. They also have in common 3G Radio Access and Core Network expertise as well as significant knowledge and experience working with mobile handsets.

This expertise is vital, because femtocells are extensions of the Carrier’s Macro Network. They are an integral part of a highly complex, high-reliability carrier-grade network with all that brings in terms of capabilities, features, network IOT, management systems, handset IOT and cognitive radio functions. The result is a software system that presents an extremely high barrier to market entry for any prospective femtocell vendor, which is why there are so few in reality. It is also a reason why no femtocell reference design has ever made it to market, despite having being around for years.

But femtocells are also consumer products, and they have to meet the demanding volume and price points of this industry. This is a well trodden path by home gateway manufacturers and the component companies that supply them – it just takes time.

There are other 3G femtocells under development, but today it’s all about four industry pioneers.