SoftBank Offers Free Femtocells

Yesterday, at an impromptu event commemorating the company's 30th anniversary, Japan's SoftBank announced that it would offer its customers free femtocells.  Registration for this new service will start in May.

There has long been agreement in the industry that free offers are a pre-requisite for femtocells to hit mass market volumes.  It looks like SoftBank, a company with a strong reputation for innovation, is leading the pack once again.

Thanks to @Nobi for the pics from the event (see more here).


Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son holding a femtocell (Ubiquisys G3-mini):

Femtocell in a residential setting:

Femtocell in a retail setting:

Ubiquisys femtos spotted at CTIA Wireless

Ubiquisys G3-mini at the Femto Forum's Femtozone
(residential femtocell, 8 calls, 14.4Mbps, 8cm tall, 4.5W power consumption)












SFR and SoftBank G2 femtocells
Ubiquisys self-organising residential femtocells















Netgear all-in-one gateway - femto, wifi, ADSL, VoIP
(the tall black unit - features integrated Ubiquisys femto)




















Ubiquisys G3-Enterprise femtocell
16 calls, 14.4Mbps - forms a self-organising network (SON)

























Public Wireless Colo-Node HSPA metro femtocell
4x Ubiquisys 16-call/14.4Mbps femtocells, cable backhaul, self-organising, 2km range















Ubiquisys G2 IMS/SIP femtocell demo at the Tatara booth





















Ubiquisys G3-mini and G3-enterprise on the Ericsson booth
(2Wire femto gateway featuring Ubiquisys femtocell just out of shot)

IBM demonstrates Ubiquisys IMS femto at CeBIT 2010

IBM has been demonstrating Ubiquisys femtocells at CeBIT this week, as part of its NGN "Smart Networks" convergence solution for enterprises.

Ubiquisys is the sole provider of IMS femtocells, which have been commercially proven at innovative operator SoftBank in Japan.

The Ubiquisys enterprise femtocell represents a new kind of solution for enterprises of all sizes. Instead of manual radio planning as a one-off exercise, the femtocell protects business customers from this cost and complexity by contstantly scaning its environment and adapting its configuration automatically. Add more femtocells and they start to work together, communicating over the LAN to create a self-organising network (SON). This "breathing" femto network immediately responds to local capacity demands and to any changes in the macro network.

You can see the Ubiquisys femtocell in action in the picture above (it's the tiny device on the left - click for a larger image).

Ubiquisys femtocells spotted at MWC10

1. BBC 4x video streaming demo














2. 2Wire HomePortal(R) with Ubi snap-in US femto module















3. G3-mini - 8cm high, 8 calls, 14.4/5.7 Mbps, 4.5W power input










4. SFR Home 3G (France)












5. 16-call self-organising network (SON) femto (wall-mounted)














6. Netgear all-in-one gateway - femto, wifi, ADSL, VoIP




















7. SoftBank (Japan)