Indoor Coverage

Mobilkom Austria pilots femtocells for residential and SoHo

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:15:23 -0500

Another European operator has gone public with its intent to use femtocells to improve 3G coverage for both residential and business users. Mobilkom Austria has selected 35 customers to trial the service until mid-2009, to be followed shortly by the commercial launch.

Apart from residential users, the company has named the hotel chain Austria Trend Hotels & Resorts der Verkehrsbüro Group, and the Vienna ARZ computing centre as among the first customers within the pilot project to use femtocells to improve their indoor coverage. Hannes Ametsreiter, CMO Mobilkom Austria, said this was the first femtocell pilot project with real customers in Central Europe, and would look to prove that quick and secure indoor network coverage could be provided using this particular technology.

The pilot would be run using two different femtocells, both provided by Huawei. One model is aimed at the residential market to provide connectivity for up to four mobile phones or data cards, while the second is aimed at the SoHo market providing connections for up to 16 users.

For more on this story go to:
Telecoms.com

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T-Mobile pilots femtocells in Germany

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:12:24 -0400

Cologne and Bonn are the two German cities that T-Mobile has selected to test the commercial feasibility of 3G femtocells. The operator will be the first to conduct trials of the technology in Germany, albeit that numerous trials have already taken place elsewhere in Europe.

While T-Mobile demonstrated femtocells at the giant CeBIT exhibition earlier this year, this trial is aimed at testing how consumers react to the plug-and-play characteristics of femtocells. "Having achieved positive feedback from earlier tests, we are now continuing to explore the area of deep indoor coverage," said Guenther Ottendorfer, director of network technology at T-Mobile Deutschland.

In March of this year the T-Mobile Venture Fund said it had made a strategic investment in Ubiquisys, a developer of 3G femtocells, joining Google and original investors Accel Partners, Atlas Venture and Advent Venture Partners. T-Mobile has not said if this latest trial in Germany uses devices provided by Ubiquisys.

For more on this story:
- go to Total Telecom

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Strong consumer interest in Femtocells

Paul Rasmussen — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:47:24 -0400

Despite being almost unknown outside of wireless technology circles, European consumers have expressed a strong interest in acquiring a femtocell to boost indoor 3G reception.

According to a survey of 1,800 mobile and internet users in Poland, Spain, Italy, France, UK and Germany, over 40 per cent said they would definitely or probably plan to make a purchase in the next 12 months after the benefits of improved coverage, improved call quality and lower voice call charges were explained.

The survey, sponsored by Motorola, found that Poland had the highest potential rate of early femtocell adopters with 67 per cent planning to purchase a box, followed by Spain with 62 per cent, Italy with 61 per cent, France and the UK both with 34 per cent, and Germany with 33 per cent. Germany's stance is particularly interesting, given that the country already has very good indoor coverage for 3G, perhaps weakening the potential for femtocells.

However, femtocell technology would appear to be evolving in capability, which may lay the groundwork for greater awareness and potential adoption. Motorola found that femtocells were viewed as an extension to the family media environment, with 51 per cent of respondents interested in a 'family plan' that allowed various members of a household to connect to the femtocell.

Separately, Comcast has announced its intention to pursue WiMAX femtocells as a key to its wireless strategy given that the new Clearwire deal calls for 5 MHz of spectrum across the US to be set aside solely for WiMAX femtocells.

For more on this story:
- go to telecoms.com and Light Reading

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