Ubiquisys have produced their "Femto-Engine" which has all the software needed for a femto cell and they also supply blueprints for any additional hardware that's required so original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have all the information required to produce a working cell.
$100 has been a key price as this should enable mobile network operators (MNO) to bundle the femto cells for free with their service. Currently in the UK Vodafone sell their SureSignal femto cell for £50 (if the customer has a certain price plan for their mobile). In the US AT&T charge $150 for their microcell product.
There is a volume requirement to hit the sub $100 price, an OEM would need to order 100,000 in one go. Any MNO with any volume should be able to shift that kind of number easily, especially as it's highly beneficial to them as femto cells mean loading on their traditional networks is reduced.
These femto cells are only 3G units as it's much more difficult to produce 2G femto cells (and they require frequency planning), but it's the 3G traffic (i.e. mainly data) that is a real problem for the MNOs, so femto cells in the long term and as LTE comes into play are a no brainer.
Showing posts with label Ubiquisys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ubiquisys. Show all posts
2009/08/13
Femto cells to be big?
Ubiquisys has just raised $11m as they expect the Femto cell market to explode.
Why is everyone so surprised? Femto cells in the home using the customer's broadband connection makes sense for the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) as they remove some of the backhaul requirements which is an incredibly expensive operational cost.
As new data services are launched like HSPDA+ which offer 20Mb/s or so download speeds and eventually LTE (or even WiMAX) the backhaul requirements just get worse.
Currently the MNOs restrict the in-premise cells to just a few users, but in the future it's likely the femto cells will be given away for free, the customer gets "free" or greatly reduced call charges and free or cheap data. However at some point the MNOs will allow 3rd party users on to the cells for calls and data. They can then use in-home cells for micro fill and offloading traffic from the main cell sites.
This only is really practical for 3G femto cells as they will co-operate with neighbouring cells and not interfere on the radio side of things. Unfortunately 2G femto cells still need to be frequency planned which causes a nightmare if they are randomly deployed (unless they have their own spectrum to sit in, which is available in the old GSM Guard Bands - but of the MNOs only O2 has a low power guard band license).
Vodafone have taken the initiative in the UK and it's surely only a matter of time before the other operators follow suit with their own femto cell rollouts.
Why is everyone so surprised? Femto cells in the home using the customer's broadband connection makes sense for the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) as they remove some of the backhaul requirements which is an incredibly expensive operational cost.
As new data services are launched like HSPDA+ which offer 20Mb/s or so download speeds and eventually LTE (or even WiMAX) the backhaul requirements just get worse.
Currently the MNOs restrict the in-premise cells to just a few users, but in the future it's likely the femto cells will be given away for free, the customer gets "free" or greatly reduced call charges and free or cheap data. However at some point the MNOs will allow 3rd party users on to the cells for calls and data. They can then use in-home cells for micro fill and offloading traffic from the main cell sites.
This only is really practical for 3G femto cells as they will co-operate with neighbouring cells and not interfere on the radio side of things. Unfortunately 2G femto cells still need to be frequency planned which causes a nightmare if they are randomly deployed (unless they have their own spectrum to sit in, which is available in the old GSM Guard Bands - but of the MNOs only O2 has a low power guard band license).
Vodafone have taken the initiative in the UK and it's surely only a matter of time before the other operators follow suit with their own femto cell rollouts.
2007/07/23
Google invests in Ubiquisys
Ubiquisys an Oxford based company have developed a 3G femtocell (known as Zonegate) using Picochip technology.
Google have invested around $10m of their $25m B round financing.
Google have also said they are looking at investing $4.6bn in the 700MHz wireless auction in the US (if the FCC holds the auction in a manner they consider fair).
It wouldn't be suprising if Google put money into the UK 2.5GHz auction that will happen next year, they may well also invest in a UK GSM Guard band license holder.
It seems Google believe licensed spectrum is the way forwards and are implementing that strategy.
Google have invested around $10m of their $25m B round financing.
Google have also said they are looking at investing $4.6bn in the 700MHz wireless auction in the US (if the FCC holds the auction in a manner they consider fair).
It wouldn't be suprising if Google put money into the UK 2.5GHz auction that will happen next year, they may well also invest in a UK GSM Guard band license holder.
It seems Google believe licensed spectrum is the way forwards and are implementing that strategy.
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