Femtocell

Market Status

Issue. 9 December 2011

Purpose of this Document

The market status report provides regular updates on the status of femtocell market development as it pertains to service providers and femtocell ecosystem manufacturers, and also covers standards and regulatory aspects. Informa Telecoms & Media is researching and producing this report on behalf of the Femto Forum. The news and analysis is based largely on news items submitted through the Forum by members and analyst houses, supplemented by research we have conducted through publicly available websites and sources. Editorial control remains with Informa Telecoms & Media (see also copyright and acknowledgement sections at the end of the newsletter). Suggestions for contributions may be submitted to the contact details at the end of this report.

2011 Informa Telecoms & Media, Femtocell Market Status

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Latest Market Developments

Having experienced healthy growth during 2011, the femtocell market is now demonstrating it can scale with multiple deployments that reach well into 100s of thousand units, including Vodafone, Sprint, AT&T, Softbank and SFR.

The majority of Tier-1 mobile operators worldwide have expressed interest in small cells, particularly for capacity driven networks including LTE.

8 of the top 10 mobile operator groups (by revenue) now offer femtocell services, including AT&T, France Telecom/Orange, Telefonica, T-Mobile/Deutsche Telecom and Vodafone amongst others.

As of December 2011, there are 37 commercial services (from 31 in June 2011) and a total of 46 deployment commitments (compared to 43 in June 2011). As of December 2011, there have been 7 new operator deployments since June 2011.

According to an Informa survey that took place during Q2 2011, 60% of operators believe that small cells will be more important than macrocells for an effective LTE deployment strategy.

The Femto Forum has grown to include 66 mobile operators representing 1.99 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, across multiple wireless technologies (WiMAX, UMTS and CDMA) and account for 34% of total mobile subscribers worldwide plus 70 vendors, illustrating that the femtocell ecosystem is experiencing healthy growth.

The CDMA femtocell market is also growing with Verizon Wireless and Sprint having launched enterprise femtocells during Q4 2011 and the Femto Forum publishing a best practice guide for deploying CDMA femtocells in cooperation with 3GPP2.

Important progress has been made in the evolution of femtocell chipsets with new launches from Cavium, Freescale, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. These join existing chipset vendors Broadcom, DesignArt, Picochip and Mindspeed.

Femtocell-specific 3GPP, 3GPP2 and WiMAX standards have been completed, signalling that femtocell technology has been ratified by the highest profile standardisation bodies worldwide.

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Operator Aspect
The femtocell market continues to experience a flurry of activity, including further operator launches and commitments and major milestones, including SFRs free femtocell offering. Femtocell interest in the mobile operator community continues to grow, while deployments increased to 37 in 24 countries (from 36 in 24 countries) during Q4 2011. Several operators have now reported deployments with 100s of thousands of femtocells including: Sprint (US) has reported more than 500K units Both Softbank and SFR have reported more than 100K units Vodafone having reported femtocell registered users in the hundreds of thousands in the UK Although AT&T has not reported their numbers directly, analyst estimates also put this at over 500K units

Femto Forum operator members currently represent more than 2 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, across multiple wireless technologies (WiMAX, UMTS and CDMA) and account for 34% of total mobile subscribers worldwide. Figure 1 illustrates operator members in the Femto Forum. For updated information on the Femto Forum members and their activities, please see http://www.femtoforum.org/femto/membership.
Figure 1: Femto Forum mobile operator members

Source: Femto Forum

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Femtocell Service Commercial Deployments and Announcements

As the number of femtocell deployments continues to increase, several operators have now launched for both consumers and enterprise markets, while some are deploying femtocells in public places for coverage and capacity enhancement. Several markets are now subject to competition, where operators have identified femtocells as a competitive advantage and their competitors are launching femtocells to address consumer demand. As of October 2011, eight of the top 10 mobile operator groups (by revenue) now offer femtocell services, including AT&T, France Telecom/Orange, Telefonica, T-Mobile/Deutsche Telecom and Vodafone amongst others. Femto Forum memberships include both Tier-1 and Tier-2 operators, illustrating that the business case for femtocells are not unique to the larger operators. The total number of operator members of the Femto Forum is 66. Table 1 below illustrates commercial femtocell services as of June 2011.
Table 1: Femtocell commercial deployments as of Q4 2011 (36 in 23 countries) Offering
Consumer and Enterprise: Airave

Example Pricing
$4.99 per month ($10 for unlimited calling, $20 for family plans)

Capabilities
Up to 6 3G users

Launch date
September 2007

USA

http://bit.ly/sprint_us Consumer: Home Zone (UMTS) $32.1 per month Up to 4 3G (postpaid) users November 2008

Singapore

http://bit.ly/starhub_singapore Consumer and Enteprise: $249.99 Network Extender Up to 3 2G 1xRTT users January 2009

USA

http://bit.ly/verizon_us Consumer: Sure Signal (UMTS/HSPA) Various options 50 upfront Free for >45 contracts Up to 4 3G users July 2009 (Access Gateway) Rebranded January 2010

UK

http://bit.ly/vodafone_us Consumer: 3G MicroCell $159 Up to 4 3G users September 2009

USA

http://bit.ly/ATT_us Consumer: Home 3G (UMTS/HSPA) 199 upfront Up to 4 3G users November 2009

France http://bit.ly/sfr_france

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Japan

Consumer: My Area (UMTS/HSPA)

$10 per month

Up to 4 3G users

November 2009

http://bit.ly/docomo_japan Consumer: 3G Inn (UMTS/HSPA) FAP cost: CNY 1,200 Monthly fee: CNY 10

China (Northern Provinces)

Up to 4 3G users

November 2009

http://bit.ly/china_mobile Consumer: Sinal On (UMTS) 99.99 upfront 7,8 monthly

Portugal

Up to 4 3G users

December 2009

http://bit.ly/optimus_portugal Consumer: CallZone (WCDMA) Access point: SING$323 Monthly charge: SING$53.50 Up to 4 3G users January 2010

10

Singapore

http://bit.ly/singtel_singapore Consumer: Voz y Datos Premium Oficina (WCDMA) Consumer: Femtocell service (WCDMA) Public: Femtocell service in public areas (WCDMA)

11

Spain

15 per month

Up to 4 3G users

June 2010

http://bit.ly/vodafone_spain
Free of charge Up to 4 3G users June 2010

12

Japan

http://bit.ly/softbank_japan Announced June 2010

13

Qatar

Metro coverage

Up to 4 3G users

http://bit.ly/vodafone_qatar
Consumer: au Femtocell (CDMA2000 EV- DO) Free of charge (in coverage deadspots) Up to 4 3G users July 2010

14

Japan http://bit.ly/KDDI_japan

15

Greece

Consumer: Vodafone Access Gateway

Free of charge (>40 monthly contract. 75 (<40 monthly) 150 retail price

Up to 4 3G users

July 2010

http://bit.ly/vodafone_greece Consumer: Mi Cobertura Movil 9/month service charge Requires 3MB DSL service from Movistar

16

Spain

Up to 4 3G users

August 2010

http://bit.ly/movistar_spain

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17

United Kingdom

Enterprise: Femtocell services for business customers

October 2010

http://bit.ly/t-mobile_UK Consumer: Femtocell Unite Femtocell tariff addons: Unilimited 3G voice, network, Internet.

18

Up to 4 3G users

November 2010

Moldova

http://bit.ly/moldtelecom Public: Femtocells for data offload Deployed in public areas Up to 4 3G users December 2010

19

South Korea

http://bit.ly/sktelecom_kr

20

New Zealand
http://bit.ly/vodafone_nz

Consumer and Enterprise: Sure Signal

Home AP cost: NZ$349 Enterprise AP cost: NZ$1033.85

Home: Up to 4 3G users Enterprise: Up to 16 3G users

January 2011

21

Ireland

Consumer: Sure Signal

49 for Vodafone DSL customers 99 for rest

Up to 4 3G users

February 2011

http://bit.ly/vodafone_ireland

22

Norway

Enterprise: Full Dekning

NOK 99

Up to 4 3G users

February 2011

http://bit.ly/network_norway

23

Thailand http://bit.ly/tot_thailand

Public: Disaster areas: 2G femtocells deployed in disaster areas

March 2011

24

Australia http://bit.ly/optus_au

Consumer: Homezone

Monthly fee of AU$5-10 (includes free calls)

Up to 4 users

April 2011

25

Australia

Enterprise: Vodafone Expand

Unknown

Two models: Small: Up to 4 users Large: Up to 16 users

May 2011

http://bit.ly/vodafone_au

26

Russia http://bit.ly/megafon_ru

Consumer: Minicells

Free

Up to 4 users

May 2011

27

Italy http://bit.ly/vodafone_it

Consumer and Enteprise: Booster Privati Booster

Consumer: $240 Enterprise: $780

Consumer/Enterprise: Up to 4/8 users

May 2011

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28

Hungary http://bit.ly/vodafone_hg

Consumer and Enterprise: Mini Bzis

Consumer: $165 Enterprise: $640

Consumer/Enterprise: Up to 4/8 users

May 2011

29

France http://bit.ly/orange_fr

Enterprise: Couverture Site Confort

Upfront fee: 1,400 Monthly fee: 70 Multi FAP plans available

Up to 4 users

May 2011

30

Romania http://bit.ly/orange_ro

Enterprise: Extra Signal

Upfront fee: 500

Up to 16 users

May 2011

31

Russia http://bit.ly/mts_ru

Consumer: Reliable Access

Unknown

Up to 4 users

May 2011

32

Czech Republic http://bit.ly/vodafone_cz

Consumer: Private 3G Zone

Upfront fee: CZK 3377

Up to 4 users

July 2011

33

Enterprise
Russia http://bit.ly/beeline_ru

Unknown

Up to 8 users

August 2011

34

Netherlands http://bit.ly/vodafone_nl

Enterprise: Sinaal Plus

Unknown

Up to 4 users

October 2011

35

Greece http://bit.ly/cosmote_gr

Consumer: Perfect Signal

Upfront cost: 90 Discounts for postpaid subscribers

Up to 4 users

October 2011

36

Unknown
Romania

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Presented by Vodafone during Base Station Conference, September 2011

$9.95 per month 2 year contract - $49.95 equipment fee 1 year contract - equipment fee $99.95 Month to Month service equipment fee $199.95

37

United States

Consumer: Homecell

Up to 4 users

December 2011

http://bit.ly/mosaic_us
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

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There are several other operators that have expressed interest in past femtocell trials and have announced their plans to launch femtocell services in the future, including Free in France who aims to introduce femtocells in a home gateway product during 2012. Mosaic Telecoms and Celcoms commitments are significant in being the first instances of smaller operators committing to femtocells, showing that the femtocell business case also benefits smaller operators. Following after these two regional operators, Moldtelecom is the latest operator to offer femtocells, confirming that the business case for smaller operators is positive. Bouygues Telecom has also expressed that femtocells will help to expand indoor coverage with LTE networks. Table 2 below presents a summary of deployment commitments expressed publicly. Table 2: Femtocell deployment commitments Operator

Details
Expects to include femtocells in home gateway during 2012
France

Intention to deploy an IMS-based femtocell network

United States

Intention to deploy a femtocell to improve coverage and capacity.

United Arab Emirates

Taiwan

Intention to deploy femtocells after regulatory approval. All three operators in Taiwan report that they will offer femtocell services with
Taiwan

subsidies.

Taiwan

Intention to deploy an Iu-h femtocells, pending regulatory approval.

Turkey

Intention to deploy femtocells during 2011 to bridge fixed and mobile services
United Arab Emirates USA

Intention to deploy femtocell services. Intention to deploy femtocells for consumer services. Femtocell service BoostBox for residential and enterprise now listed on website as pre-launch. Link Intention to deploy femtocell services for consumer and enterprise customers.

United Kingdom

Kuwait

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Intention to deploy femtocells.

Israel

Bouygues CEO has claimed that femtocells will help the operator to improve indoor coverage for LTE networks
France

Intention to deploy femtocells for the consumer market.

United States - Alaska

Intention to deploy LTE femtocells worlds first during 2011.

South Korea Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

The following chart illustrates a historical representation of deployments and commitments, both of which have increased more than 200% within a year, while there have been 6 operator deployment announcements in the last half-year alone and 18 similar announcements in 2011 so far.
Figure 2: Historical femtocell service deployments and commitments

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

Operators continue to identify a number of major user segments for femtocell and exciting service scenarios. All femtocell deployments had previously been focused on consumer deployment, so it is significant to see that several operators have now commercialised a femtocell service specific to enterprises. Enterprise only

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femtocell deployments are starting to accelerate compared with previous quarters. Beeline (Russia) and Vodafone (Netherlands) have launched enterprise only femtocell services during Q3 2011. Additional segmentation is being considered, including open access, metro and rural applications. The following table summarizes femtocell offerings segmented according to target group.
Table 3: Femtocell deployment segmentation according to target group

Target group Consumer Enterprise Consumer and Enterprise Public Rural

Number of deployments 20 6 6 3 1

Examples Vodafone UK, AT&T, Cosmote T-Mobile UK, Network Norway, Orange France Vodafone NZ, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Vodafone Qatar, SK Telecom, TOT Thailand Softbank (using satellite backhaul)

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

From a regional perspective, the distribution of femtocell service deployments is expanding year on year in all regions. As of Q3 2011, no next-generation (WiMAX or LTE) femtocell services have been deployed, but Tier-1 mobile operators have expressed the view that LTE and subsequent high-capacity air interfaces are most likely to be deployed through hierarchical cell structures, including femtocells. The publication of the 3GPP and WiMAX Forum standards for LTE and WiMAX femtocells respectively is a key-enabling factor towards this.
Table 4: Commercial service launches by Geography and Technology

Regional view APAC EMEA Americas

UMTS femtocell launches 8 24 1

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

CDMA femtocell launches 1 - 2

Pricing models
As the femtocell market evolves, a variety of pricing models have surfaced, illustrating that mobile operators are active in assessing the business case of femtocells and applying it to their regional environment. The following table illustrates a selection of pricing models tied to femtocells, for both consumer and enterprise markets.

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Table 5: Selection of pricing models for femtocell services

Market

Consumer

Enterprise

Pricing model Addons for unlimited calling Free femtocell Low upfront fee High upfront fee Monthly fee High upfront fee

Deployment examples MoldTelecom, Sprint, Optus Softbank, Vodafone (GR), SFR Vodafone (UK) Vodafone (IT, HU), Verizon Sprint, Movistar, NTT DoCoMo All operators

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

The majority of consumer femtocell services rely on a low upfront fee. On the other hand, enterprise deployments are subject to high costs (e.g. Orange France charges an upfront fee of 1100 and 70 per month for an enterprise femtocell) but these costs are justifiable since femtocells are operator installed and technicians perform on site visits and surveys to select the best location for installing the femtocells. In addition, enterprise femtocells are bigger units compared to consumer units which may also increase the cost considerably. Notable examples are Optus, Mold Telecom and Sprint, who are offering bundles that can be applied to their femtocell services to offer unlimited voice, data or messaging in return for a monthly fee. A major trend is now free femtocells with Softbank, Vodafone and Cosmote in Greece and SFR now offering the FAPs for free. SFRs example is notable, which does not require customers to fulfill ARPU requirements to qualify for a free femtocell.

Trial Status
Trial activity has been very healthy during 2009 and 2010 and has created a good pipeline for deployments during 2010 and 2011. Although the majority of trials remain behind closed doors and no public announcements are made, the increase in announcements shows a healthy growth in the femtocell market. According to Informas calculations, the number of trials that are taking place during Q3 2011 are more than 50.

Competitive landscape
Several markets across the globe are now subject to femtocell competition, where more than one mobile operator have launched femtocells to address competition. The following map illustrates the state of the femtocell market in the global landscape.

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Figure 3: Femtocell competitive markets

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

Ecosystem Industry Support

The Femtocell ecosystem continues to grow in both breadth and depth as the femtocell market transitions from early adopter phase to early market growth. At a high level the femtocell ecosystem can be segmented by End-to-End solution providers: These vendors provide a complete femtocell solution which includes Femtocell Access Points (FAP), femto gateways, necessary middleware and other parts that complete a large scale femtocell deployment. This segment includes NSN, ip.access, Ericsson, Huawei, Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent. Femtocell Access Point (FAP) providers: Vendors who offer FAPs directly to operators or through other partners, including Ubiquisys, ip.access, Airvana and Netgear. Femtocell Core Network providers: Vendors that focus on provisioning femtocells in the mobile core network, including Kineto Wireless and Spidercloud. Software and Component providers: Vendors who focus on specific parts of the femtocell software stack or provide the necessary silicon to power FAPs. Vendors include Picochip, Percello, Continuous Computing, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. Others, including test and certification houses, research institutes and other enablers that may focus indirectly on femtocells operation. It is common for vendors to focus in more than a single market segment, especially end to end providers that may offer specific parts of a femtocell deployment standalone. 2011 Informa Telecoms & Media, Femtocell Market Status page 13

There are 68 vendors in this ecosystem today focusing on products and services in the emerging femtocell marketplace. There are currently 8 providers of End-to-End and System Integration worldwide and more than 23 FAP providers covering most licensed spectrum types; their number is increasing rapidly as component manufacturers are introducing flexible reference platforms for femtocell access points. There are more than 23 equipment providers providing core network components that can support femtocell services and in excess of 17 component, software and tools vendors providing a health supply to various parts of the solution space. All major infrastructure vendors have now joined the Femto Forum and there are several smaller companies targeting smaller, specialist segments, including test and certification, femtocell specific silicon and core network components.
Figure 4: Femtocell ecosystem

End$to$end$$ system$providers$

Network$$ Elements$

Other$ enablers$

Products$

Components$ and$So6ware$

Source: Femto Forum

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Figure 5: Segmentation of vendors in femtocell ecosystem

25"

23" 17"

23"

20"

15"

11"
10"

8"

5"

0" End"to"End" solu.ons" Components"and" So5ware" Femto"Access" Points" Networking" elements" Other"enablers"

Source: Femto Forum

End to End Solution Providers & System Integrators

At present there are 8 providers of end-to-end femtocell systems worldwide. Solution providers made good progress throughout 2009 to early 2011 assembling trial and initial market solutions. All solution providers have committed to supporting open standards, especially the 3GPP Iu-h interface standard that was ratified during 2009. Several Tier-1 vendors are in this segment, including NSN, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, ZTE and Cisco. The presence of all Tier-1 vendors is evidence of the perceived potential of the market.

Femto Access Point

There are currently 23 femtocell CPE vendors and between them they have more than 50 available or announced product offerings. The breadth of CPE solutions varies in both technology and integration of other broadband access technologies. Standalone and integrated CPE have already entered the market. FAP vendors have provided a variety of intelligent algorithms for interference mitigation and this is a critical turning point for mobile operator acceptance. These vendors are also starting to expand their product lines to enterprise and larger area femtocells, representing a healthy competitive development in a key part of the ecosystem.

Femto Core Network

20 vendors now provide core network components for femtocells with several solutions covering security, provisioning and integration of the femtocell services into the existing mobile operator core network. The categories included in this section are security gateways, femto gateways (FNG or HNB-GW), Convergence Servers (e.g. MFIF) and HNB management.

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Components, Tools and Software

An important factor contributing to rapid market development is a healthy ecosystem of component vendors, development and test tool as well as protocol/system software. Silicon providers are continuously evolving hardware platforms to enable FAP vendors to offer femtocell access points that are more efficient and capable of higher capacity.

Market Forecasts
Informa Telecoms & Media expects the femtocell market to experience significant growth over the next few years, reaching just under 48 million femtocell access points (FAP) in the market by 2014. The following chart illustrates Informas forecasts (June 2011) for femtocell access point shipments.
Figure 6: Femtocell access point forecasts
!60!!

Femtocell(access(points(in(market((millions)(

!50!!

!40!!

!30!!

!20!!

!10!!

!"!!!! 2009! 2010! 2011! 2012! 2013! 2014!

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

In addition, many industry analysts who cover a number of aspects of the femtocell ecosystem have begun to track and forecast the progress of the femtocell market. The following table provides a summary of publicly announced statements, sorted by reverse chronological order. The table is followed by more information regarding each statement: Mobile Experts published a report on small cell backhaul, claiming that more than 1.8 million small cell wireless backhaul unit shipments during 2016. (Mobile Experts October 2011)

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IDate estimates that worldwide femtocell access point market will reach a cumulative total of 39.4 million deployed units by 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 71% between 2011 and 2015. (IDate September 2011)

Infonetics anticipates that femtocells will gain mass-scale traction in 2012, at which point the year-over- year unit growth rate will jump to over 100%, and will stay at triple-digit levels in 2013. (Infonetics September 2011)

ABI Research estimates that Enterprise femtocells are to make up 36% of shipments by 2016 which relates to 50% of security gateway revenues (ABI Research August 2011)

Infonetics estimates that total global revenue from femtocells used in consumer, enterprise, rural and public spaces grew 45% during the past 4 quarters. (Infonetics June 2011).

Visiongain expects femtocell revenues will reach US $27 Billion in 2016 and that femtocells have entered into the growth stage of their lifecycle during 2011 (Visiongain May 2011).

Juniper Research predicts that Wi-Fi and femtocell networks will play a significant role in easing data traffic by carrying 63 percent of data traffic, or almost 9,000 petabytes by 2015 (Juniper Research April 2011).

Infonetics Research predicts that rapid acceleration in the market will happen during 2012, when femtocell shipments should exceed 5 million worldwide, driven by a diversification from the consumer and enterprise segments to rural and public spaces. (Infonetics Research March 2011).

Cisco expects that by 2015, over 800 million terabytes of mobile data traffic will be offloaded to the fixed network by means of dual-mode devices and femtocells. Without dual-mode and femtocell offload of smartphone and tablet traffic, total mobile data traffic would reach 7.1 exabytes per month in 2015, growing at a CAGR of 95 percent. (Cisco February 2011)

Maravedis expects the price of femtocell access points to fall to as low as US$70-80 in 2011 from its $100 price during end-2019. Maravedids also expects the demand for femtocells will be highest in 2012, when upfront payment is expected to be below $50. (Maravedis January 2011).

Standards Development
The majority of industry standards have ratified femtocells in their activities, including 3GPP, 3GPP2 and WiMAX. Ongoing standardisation activities are taking place to enhance the operation of femtocells in these networks.

3GPP Femtocell Standardisation

3GPP Release 9 was functionally frozen during December 2009 and extends significantly by fully supporting LTE femtocells for the first time thereby allowing upcoming rollouts to incorporate the technology from the 2011 Informa Telecoms & Media, Femtocell Market Status page 17

outset. It also supports a greater number of simultaneous users, emergency warning systems and both private and public usage models. Release 9 provides end-to-end support for LTE femtocells, including all radio and OAM aspects, enabling the development of the first standardised devices. It also supports hybrid access so femtocells can be used in retail environments to provide open access to customers yet also provide prioritised usage for a closed group such as staff. WCDMA uplink bandwidth requirements have been revised allowing a major increase in the amount of calls that can be simultaneously supported. Finally, the standard also supports public warning services so that areas without macro coverage can receive emergency messages such as Tsunami warnings. 3GPP Release 10 has been frozen in March 2010 and protocols were made stable during June 2011. Release 10 has introduced support for mobility enhancements for Home eNodeBs. The Stage 2 architecture for the enhancements was ratified in the RAN Plenary in December 2010, which introduces a new Iurh interface between the femtocell access points and supports soft and hard handover between femtocells. Other important additions to Release 10 include Self Optimizing Networks (SON), Selective IP Traffic Offload (SIPTO) and Local IP Access (LIPA). Proposals to consider new functionality, including support of Cell_FACH for HNBs and inter-CSG handover for HeNBs were removed from the Release 10 work item, and are now likely to be considered during Release 11.

Broadband Forum Standardisation

The Femto Forum has worked with the Broadband Forum to to standardize the inclusion of the ability to manage Femtocell based services. The Femto Forum announced the activity in this area this past March with the publication of the Femtocell Services Release 1 API (press release) The Femto Forum guideline WT-262 is going to be issued as TR-262 from the Broadband Forum, making femtocell integration simpler in broadband networks. Broadband Forum TR-196 Femto Access Point Service Data Model was published in April 2009. A new update to TR-196 to include enhancements for LTE and CDMA2000 networks is expected during Q1 2011.

3GPP2 Femtocell Standardisation

The 3GPP2 formal publication of femtocell specifications was published during March 2010. The following list describes the technical specifications of the new standard: SIP/IMS is used in the core network to integrate femtocell services, allowing a variety of components from different vendors to interoperate.

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Enhanced System Selection is supported for improved handset battery life, faster femtocell and macrocell system acquisition, improved handoff between femtocell and macrocell and femtozone awareness.

Local and Remote IP Access is supported, allowing packet data traffic to be directly offloaded from femtocells to customers home networks, corporate intranets, or to the public Internet. When mobile devices are operating outside of the femtocell subsystem, the 3GPP2 specifications also include a remote access capability to allow mobile devices to connect to the users IP network at home and exchange IP data with their home network via a secure remote tunnel

The 3GPP2 specifications provide a complete security architecture that allows CDMA2000 femtocell networks to support large numbers of femtocells via standard commercial IPsec/IKEv2-based security gateways. The 3GPP2 security architecture and protocols are compatible with the security architecture for 3GPP radio technology-based femtocell devices. This architecture not only protects system operators core networks, but also provides for highly secure authentication of FAP devices using secure certificate-based mechanisms and protocols that are widely deployed and validated for security, robustness, manageability, and scalability.

WiMAX Forum Femtocell Standardisation

The WiMAX Forum and the Femto Forum announced the publication of the first WiMAX femtocell standard during June 2010 (http://www.femtoforum.org/femto/pressreleases.php?id=139).

The specifications incorporate a security framework that allows WiMAX networks to support a large number of access points via standard commercial IPSec based security gateways. This phase of specifications also contains simple Self Organizing Network (SON) capabilities to allow automatic configuration of large numbers of femtocells. Future revisions will further enhance the SON capabilities to standardize automatic interference management between femtocells and macro base stations. The standard also incorporates support for three usage models to support different deployment scenarios such as residential, enterprise and outdoor environments. The Open Model allows the femtocell to operate like a normal WiMAX base station by allowing anyone to use the service; Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) Closed allows a limited number of pre-allocated subscribers to use the femtocell. The Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) Open extends the previous model to allow the subscriber to add users themselves.

Regulatory Developments
In April 2011 the Femto Forum issued two regulatory updates: 1. Regulatory considerations for LTE deployments 2011 Informa Telecoms & Media, Femtocell Market Status page 19

The Forum issued a short statement for the benefit of regulators who may be considering specific regulatory requirements for femtocells using LTE technologies. It emphasised that femtocells are fully encompassed in the 3GPPs LTE standard and, as is the case with existing 3G femtocells, are fully managed by a licenced mobile operator via secure connections and management systems, allowing them to comply with relevant licencing conditions in the same fashion. It also highlighted the regulatory benefits of femtocells including improved access to mobile services and improved spectrum efficiency thereby making the technology a key part of LTE rollouts. A full paper of femtocell regulatory considerations is available on the Forums website here: http://www.femtoforum.org/femto/Files/File/regulatory_support_for_lte_femtocells_6apr11.pdf 2. Cellular interference distinguishing between types of cellular boosters and femtocells The second update focused on the controversy surrounding the issue of interference caused by the use of cellular signal boosters in the United States. It highlighted that certain specially designed signal boosters can be deployed without causing interference issues, the controversy therefore surrounds the use of improperly designed signal boosters. However, it also highlighted the distinction between boosters and femtocells which provide the virtues of specially designed signal boosters but with the added advantage that they also significantly improve network capacity. As such femtocells can provide mobile services in areas where cell capacity is under major strain a situation which cell boosting technology is fundamentally incapable of addressing. In addition, several national and international regulatory bodies have taken specific steps to clarify issues of policy and regulation relating to femtocells. The FCC is organizing a forum focusing on indoor deployments of small cells to take place during 28th October to discuss technologies available, potential business models and economic impart of small cell deployments. In March 2011 UK regulator Ofcom published its consultation on the award of the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum, expected to take place in the first half of 2012. This includes an option for a portion of the 2.6 GHz band, potentially up to 2 x 20 MHz, to be awarded specifically for low-power use. This portion of the band could be shared by as many as ten operators concurrently, with technical measures and a potential code of practice amongst operators to limit potential interference. This consultation represents perhaps the first example of a spectrum award being explicitly designed to take account of the technical Femto Forum provides specific information for regulators at http://www.femtoforum.org/femto/regulatory.

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Latest News from Femto Forum

3GPP2 and Femto Forum Publish Best Practice Guide for cdma2000 Femtocell Deployments 3GPP2 and the Femto Forum announced the publication of an operator guide for cdma2000 femtocell and small cell deployments. It provides an overview of cdma2000 standardized architecture and interfaces, as well as deployment best practices. These include rollout models, frequency planning, provisioning options, radio parameters, interference mitigation techniques, security and handoff.

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Contact Information
Femto Forum would be pleased to respond to further queries on femtocell deployment. Contact details: Postal: Email: info@femtoforum.org Web: www.femtoforum.org The Femto Forum P O Box 23 Dursley GL11 5WA UK

Suggestions for additional content particularly analyst forecasts may be submitted to marketcommentary@femtoforum.org Informa Telecoms & Media Editor Dimitris Mavrakis, Principal Analyst Contact details: Postal: Email: dimitris.mavrakis@informa.com Web: www.informatandm.com Informa Telecoms & Media 37-41 Mortimer Street London W1T 3JH UK

Copyright
2010 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication are protected by international copyright laws, database rights and other intellectual property rights. The owner of these rights is Informa UK Ltd, our affiliates or other third party licensors. All product and company names and logos contained within or appearing on this publication are the trade marks, service marks or trading names of their respective owners, including Informa UK Ltd and Femto Forum Limited. This publication may be freely circulated by Femto Forum and its members; however, it may not be commercially exploited without the prior permission of Informa UK Ltd. Whilst reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the information and content of this publication was correct as at the date of first publication, neither Informa UK Ltd nor any person engaged or employed by Informa UK Ltd accepts any liability for any errors, omissions or other inaccuracies. Readers should independently verify any facts and figures as no liability can be accepted in this regard - readers assume full responsibility and risk accordingly for their use of such information and content. Any views and/or opinions expressed in this publication by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Informa UK Ltd.

Acknowledgment
Informa Telecoms & Media acknowledges with thanks the news items and contributions submitted by Femto Forum members and Analyst Houses through the intermediary of the Femto Forum.

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