A base station in every home

05 Sep 2007
00:00

 

By using the backhaul inherent in the home through DSL, says Dr Ray Owen, head of technology for home and networks mobility at Motorola South & East Asia, it is possible to save significantly on backhaul costs like transmission and site rental associated with traditional microcells and macro-cells.

'Backhaul accounts for a significant cost of the deployment of infrastructure, especially when it comes to the use of high-speed cellular data,' he notes. 'This can account for 30%-40% of the overall capex of a wireless broadband access network.'

Additionally, there are opex savings for operators with equipment located in the end-user residence, as the carrier no longer foots the bill for the power consumed, Owen adds. 'If this cost can be shifted, then this will help the balance sheet, because the annual energy bill for most operators is significant.'

According to ABI Research, savings from backhaul and energy costs could equate to over $70 billion by 2012. The projection assumes that 70 million femtocell would be installed in homes around the world serving more than 150 million users.

Superior to UMA

Cost benefits aside, vendors and analysts suggest femtocells provide other potential benefits for mobile operators. These including increased voice revenue from fixed-mobile substitution, group subscriptions and tariffs based on home femtocells, as well as enhanced mobile data service and fixed broadband services. Vodafone, as an example, aims to use femtocells to increase its capacity by providing location billing with home zone plans.

According to Robert Wiggins, mobility research fellow at Yankee Group's enabling technologies service provider division, Vodafone will give away a femtocell if two members of a household sign up with the carrier.

Analysys' Brydon says femtecells could also provide a superior alternative to converged cellular/Wi-Fi services, such as those based on UMA. Mobile operators could offer tariffs similar to those of UMA-based services, with low-priced calls for the home and premium-priced calls elsewhere.

Leonidas Sivridis, analyst at Visiongain, says a key advantage of the femtocell solution is improved coverage and customer satisfaction that can be achieved without customers having to change the mobile devices they use. UMA-based services require dedicated handsets. Also users of voice over Wi-Fi connections can experience patchy connections. Services delivered over unlicensed spectrum also tend to be more prone to radio frequency interference, despite the wide availability of Wi-Fi hotspots.

'Given there will always be more single-mode handsets than dual-mode and as networks move toward LTE, quality indoor coverage over licensed spectrum will be particularly important,' Sivridis says.

Motorola's Owen believes femtocells will impact the installed Wi-Fi base, extending in-home networking capability beyond the 'tech-savvy' population. Wi-Fi, usually a class-licensed or unlicensed technology, is prone to interference even within the home from technologies using the same frequency bands. Guaranteeing connectivity and ensuring user quality of any voice, video or web-browsing service can be difficult at the operator level with Wi-Fi because there is little control on the end-to-end network experience.  

Today most DSL providers don't take responsibility for home Wi-Fi routers unless the operator provided them. The reality is that for a truly end-to-end, fully secure and high-performance in-home network, some consumer technical expertise is required, Owen says.

Pages

Follow Telecom Asia Sport!
Comments
No Comments Yet! Be the first to share what you think!
This website uses cookies
This provides customers with a personalized experience and increases the efficiency of visiting the site, allowing us to provide the most efficient service. By using the website and accepting the terms of the policy, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy.