One new way for mobile phone operators to increase their service offering is by deploying femtocells within the home and office environments. This new technology presents a large array of benefits to consumers and mobile phone providers alike. A femtocell is a small transmit/receive device installed within a household or office and connected to the internet which allows mobile phone operators to provide improved coverage for up to four mobile phones within a building.
The benefits for the consumer are improved coverage and the convenience of being able to use the mobile phone, as well as integrating the home computers with the phone network. This offers potentially a huge array of functionality to the home: think control your TV by mobile phone, leave virtual ‘fridge notes’ to be delivered when recipient returns home, remotely control air-conditioning, synchronise music collections from phone to PC etc …
For mobile phone operators the marketing of femtocells offers a whole range of novel advantages. The first advantage is that of improved coverage within the home or work environment without the costly deployment of macro cells in low coverage areas. Secondly, it allows operators to win more market share from the fixed line operators. In deploying femtocells operators will enjoy increased and secure revenues, reduced churn, and the ability to offer cheaper services (cheap calls when making calls from home) to the consumer, not to mention all the customisable, chargeable applications the operators can offer.
At a time when mobile phone users have dramatically increased their data usage with devices like the iPhone and other Smart phones which puts significant strain on the networks, a femtocell will relieve the traffic on the main network, as the data is backhauled through the end users internet connection.
The majority of mobile phone usage takes place in the home and work environment and therefore it makes great sense to improve indoor coverage with the use of femtocells. This has the added benefit to consumers that their handset batteries last longer when used with in femtocell.
On a technical note, femtocells are small base stations within the home, capable of supporting up to four handsets at a time, all contained in a discrete unit barely bigger than a modem. Femtocells are unique in that they use the licensed spectrum which means they have to be deployed by licensed mobile phone operators.
Criticism regarding femtocells is centred on the fact that the end-user has to pay for the internet connection as well as for the coverage. Furthermore, there seems to be room for improvement regarding interference with nearby networks.
