A quick summary of #SCWS2012 in tweets

Summary of the interesting announcements and things that happened in the Small Cells World Summit 2012

DAY 1

@lesanto: "small cells are seen as a viable option to meet the demands of exponentially growing networks". even Mongolia is getting into the small cells!

@lesanto: First keynote speaker is Simon Saunders chairman of the Small Cell forum (he's written a LOT of books on the subject...)

@lesanto: I will be quoting Simon Saunders in this style: SS "this is the premier Small Cells event in the world"

@lesanto: SS "the agenda over the next few days is effectively a guide to all the Small Cells issues - a well balanced program"

@lesanto: SS "people often ask which Small Cells event they should go to. I say this one, if you can only do one industry this is it"

@lesanto: Simon Saunders "why is it that Small Cells are a good idea in the first place?"

@lesanto: SS "the more we try to serve the unlimited demand for data with macro cells the more interference we have to deal with"

@lesanto: SS "Small Cell networks help us to serve those data demands without increasing interference"

@lesanto: SS "we founded the Femto Forum in 2007 to answer these challenges"

@lesanto: SS "through hard work we achieved an open architecture for the 3G Femtocells. We highlighted a business case for Femtocells"

@stewartbaines: Simon Saunders: Capacity at limits, pushing Shannon's Law. We need more cells, tighter interference control and cost control

@lesanto: SS "deploying more small cells decreases network interference if managed properly"

@lesanto: SS "it is very heartening to see operators today deploying Femtocells successfully, we're seeing a great deal of maturity"

@thinksmallcell: Operators are finding the cost savings, churn reduction of femtocells to be much better than originally forecast - Simon Saunders

@lesanto: SS "Key attributes of small cells include Scalability, Automated configuration and optimisation..."

@lesanto: SS "we see the need and opportunity to do even more with small cells"

@Ubiquisys: "Our work today is about differentiating the technology to fit different environments"

@lesanto: "60% of operators surveyed consider small cells will be more important to LTE deployments than macrocells"

@LisaGCisco: Chair Simon Saunders highlights the Small Cell Forum work areas that include home, enterprise, metro and rural small cells

@stewartbaines: Simon Saunders: i struggle to find an operator that does not have small cells on their roadmap

@lesanto: go to http://smallcellforum.org where you can download the Small Cells Market Status report (free)

@lesanto: Small Cells forum now has 76 technology providers as members

@lesanto: In 2007 commercial deployment of small cells = zero -- now we have 41 operators deploying them commercially, including 9 of top 10

@bmbarnowski: great retrospective on the evolution of the femtocell/smallcell forum by SS … 2007 was a lonely year indeed for femtos ..

@lesanto: small cell deployment was once solely focussed on domestic deployment, now deployment is much broader inc commercial

@lesanto: 3.8 million femtocells deployed commercially worldwide

@Alejandro_Avren: 3.8 million femtocells deployed globally, says simon saunders of the small cell forum 

@lesanto: several deployments have reached real scale, such as Sprint : over 600,000 units deployed

@lesanto: there will be more small cells deployed than macrocells by the end of 2012

@lesanto: to summarise : small cells have properly arrived ;0)

@Ubiquisys: By the end of 2012 there will be more Small Cells (6.4m) than Macro Cells

@thinksmallcell: forecast 6.4million small cells by end 2012 = more than all global macrocells all technologies

@lesanto: prediction: 91.9 million small cells will be deployed worldwide by end of 2016

@MarkBLHenry: Simon Saunders: "... The central magic of cellular is spectrum reuse..."

@lesanto: small cells offer a very substantial opportunity to increase capacity in a network

@stewartbaines: Simon Saunders: more small cells (6.4m) than macro (6m) by end of year. 80% all cells will be titchy by 2016 #SCWS2012. I got 2 of them :)

@lesanto: small cells can offer real positive change for the user experience on a 3g network

@lesanto: wi-fi and small cells need integration - they should be deployed in cooperation

@disruptivedean: Survey results at #SCWS2012 about coexistence & integration of Small Cells & WiFi point to wishful & unrealistic thinking about #HetNets

@lesanto: we see the opportunity for a deeper integration of small cells and wifi

@disruptivedean: Just had further evidence about slow/misguided focus of Carrier WiFi. WBA announced a trial of NGH WiFi starting Q4 #TooSlow

@lesanto: 2011 Small Cells Forum published small cell APIs

@Ubiquisys: The two overriding themes of @SmallCell_Forum's work are: a) Open and b) Multi-technology 

@disruptivedean: My summary of intro at #SCWS2012: Good move shifting from femto to broader small-cells. Looking bright for LTE. Unconvinced by WiFi pitch

@lesanto: "Vodafone's strategy is to drive Small Cells from a customer needs perspective"

@lesanto: products such a Vodafone's 'sure signal' need to be plug and play, easy to install and use

@SmallCell_Forum: 3.8 million femtocells deployed globally today #SCWS2012. Market status report now at: http://www.smallcellforum.org/resources-white-papers

@lesanto: Vodafone are now running a trial of commercial small cells in Germany with great feedback already

@thinksmallcell: Vodafone to launch enterprise femtocells in Germany 2013. Good feedback from trials so far

@lesanto: data is becoming continually more important to customers, and they also want less wires and network devices in their homes

@thinksmallcell: Vodafone showcasing new FemtoPlug - embedded femtocell into a small mains plug. 8 calls 21Mb/s. Sagemcom and ALU suppliers.

@lesanto: enterprise customers are a very important segment of Vodafone's femtocell proposition - they want easy integration into their IT

@danieldotfox: Wow. The new Sure Signal product from #Vodafone looks amazing. Well thought out consumer proposition. Nice!

@SmallCell_Forum: Vodafone announces femtoplug: tiny femtocell with ethernet over mains. To be launched in existing markets 'within weeks'. 

@disruptivedean: Liking the new "femtoplug" products announced by Vodafone. Very neat residential femto integrated into electric plug. 

@lesanto: Present speaker, Alan Law, Technical Lead for femtocells, Vodafone Group...

@lesanto: "where do you put small cells? How can we determine where the hot spots are? Fortunately there are tools available to help here"

@lesanto: "geolocation tools can also be exploited for network quality improvements"

@Ubiquisys: "Geolocation can be used to identify traffic hotspots"

@lesanto: "Vodafone have gained essential experience on how to address challenges with public access small cells for many environments"

@lesanto: "the availability of multi-technology small cells eases deployment"

@lesanto: "accelerate availability of multi-technology small cells to reduce the number of site boxes required to ease deployment"

@lesanto: "it not just about network cover and quality - it is also about driving new services and revenue growth"

@lesanto: Next speaker : Sebastien Pham Programme Manager New Products Vodafone New Zealand.

@LisaGCisco: Vodafone's Alan Law underscores importance of Iuh standard to accelerate small cell market adoption 

@lesanto: Vodafone NZ faces the challenge of a relatively large area with a relatively low number of users.

@lesanto: 4.8 million mobile subscribers in 2011 in New Zealand - 97% 3g coverage (vodafone) - rural broadband is very challenging

@lesanto: Vodafone deploying small cells in homes in NZ, but their Sure Signal will only work on Vodafone's own DSL network.

@lesanto: watching a video on how small cells can help you make better mobile calls at home : are you hanging out a window to get a single?

@stewartbaines: Femtos bring broadband to rural communities in NZ:http://www.vodafone.co.nz/suresignal

@lesanto: plug in a Sure Signal small cell box into your DSL and suddenly you can make mobile calls from anywhere in the house!#sorted!

@stewartbaines: No more driving testing: use geolocation tools to identify traffic not-spots. Vodafone at #SCWS2012 #smallcells

@lesanto: Next vid: a small business in NZ in a building known as the bunker - thick concrete and steel walls = poor mobile reception!

@disruptivedean: Ironic that Small Cell industry finally getting enterprise proposition right, at same time that #BYOD drives #BYOSP in businesses 

@lesanto: yep, you've guessed it : they plug in a Sure Signal small cell and their mobiles all work - even inside the bunker ;0)

@stewartbaines: @katebo Orange is doing a prez on it's enterprise femtocell strategy at#SCWS2012. Will grab a post for Connecting Technology blog

@danieldotfox: Small Cell feedback via Vodafone.nz, from customers: It's life changing! We all need and depend on mobiles... Food for thought!

@lesanto: small cells were deployed during the Feb 2011 Christchurch earthquake to replace broken macro cells in certain essential areas

@Ubiquisys: Femtocells have been used in disaster situations for emergency coverage, such as the Christchurch earthquake 

@vodafoneNZ: @Ubiquisys Our network team did incredible work for Chch #eqnz. Used creative tools including the Truck http://bit.ly/NGPzM7

@lesanto: new speaker : Emmanuel Adnot International Strategy Manager at Orange...

@lesanto: Orange Group had $45bn turnover in 2011

@lesanto: talking about : How Femtocells support Orange's B2B strategy...

@lesanto: "coverage needs in enterprise markets are niche" Emmanuel Adnot, Orange (EA)

@lesanto: "10% of B2B customers have indoor mobile reception issues that effect their business"

@lesanto: "10% is a niche but it still represents a significant market"

@lesanto: "45% of those connectivity issues are suffered in basement or storeroom situations" EA

@lesanto: "80% of customers suffering local connectivity issues are ready to move to an operator offering a solution to the problem"

@lesanto: "small cells are part of the B2B indoor coverage strategy" EA

@lesanto: "30% of B2B users are using smartphones - but that share is growing massively"

@lesanto: small b2b customers need both wi-fi and small cell solutions to answer their connectivity issues

@lesanto: "small cell installation reduced churn by almost 50% where connectivity had previously been an issue"

@lesanto: "B2B customers suffering indoor connectivity problems are ready to pay for small cell solutions"

@lesanto: "Orange will launch small cell solutions to the UK market in summer 2012"

@danieldotfox: In Portugal, #Orange cam charge over €1000 for a B2B femto. Wow.

@stewartbaines: Orange study: 80% of business customers ready to churn if their coverage issues are not addressed. #SCWS2012. Similar to Alcatel research...

@SmallCell_Forum: Orange: PT, FR, Romania B2B femtocells launched, 2 more countries to be launched (UK, Be) by end 2012 #scws2012 plus Poland next year

@stewartbaines: Small cells can be basis for location-based services. Stop the dumb pipe!

@lesanto: "what's next? Femtocell as a service for small operations..

@lesanto: "what's next: femtocell and other techs within a small cell - leverage indoor coverage solution for location based services"

@Ubiquisys: What's next for B2B femtocell solutions? Here's @orange's outlook

@lesanto: why are Orange concentrating on B2B for small cells? Could it be the cost? I can't see many consumers paying $1500 a pop!

@lesanto: but Orange haven't ruled out bringing small cells to the consumer...

@dmavrakis: Orange believes that SMBs that have coverage problems are willing to pay €1500 for an access point.

@stewartbaines: Orange France enterprise femtos cost 1500 euros. But you do get a visit from an engineer. I thought they were plug & play?

@lesanto: next speaker : Martin Guthrie - head of business development - NEC

@lesanto: MG "small cells are beautiful"

@lesanto: "the world is getting smaller, so are macro cells"

@lesanto: "smaller and smaller cell sizes are an inevitability along with the technical and cost benefits they bring"

@lesanto: " many small cells advantages : better coverage, greater capacity gain, higher density coverage"

@lesanto: "business case benefits of small cells are not fully understood"

@Ubiquisys: The elephant in the small cells room is dichotomy between vendors: "look at our tech" & operators: "how can we make money?" @NEC

@lesanto: "benefits: reduced customer churn : increased customer acquisition : reduced cost of new macro deployment : "

@lesanto: " more benefits: leverage presence of mobile operator in the home : Increased ARPU "

@Ubiquisys: "Integration with operators' existing network and system is key" @NEC

@lesanto: technical and marketing support is essential when deploying small cells - choose your vendor carefully!

@lesanto: "make sure that your small cell solutions use advanced & adaptive radio management technologies that won't interfere with macro"

@lesanto: Next speaker : Mark Gallagher Principle Engineer, Cisco

@lesanto: "mass adoption of the mobile internet is going on right now - scaling to meet this demand is the challenge"

@Ubiquisys: The next speaker is Mark Gallagher of @CiscoSystems "Defining the New Normal"

@small_cells: "usage patterns in mobile internet are as important as the size of use"

@disruptivedean: Watching Cisco at #SCWS2012 . Think that it's underestimating % of smartphone data that goes via WiFi, only small % of which is offload

@small_cells: "network densification is required : small cell development = highly dense topologies"

@Ubiquisys: "Network densification is required. Small cell deployment = highly dense topologies" @CiscoSystems

@small_cells: "you must use all the spectrum assets available to you"

@small_cells: globally available data sources can be incorporated into RF planning tools to give a clear picture of where to add small cells

@small_cells: "you need a simple, scaleable small cell solution that's properly managed"

@small_cells: "there is significant revenue potential in the small cell business model" -- think beyond simply making savings

@small_cells: "Small cells really are the new norm"

@Ubiquisys: London hotspots map shows usage, including tweets & Flickr photos, identifies small cell deployment locations.

@Ubiquisys: Small cells future built around growing penetration of mobile internet. Take learnings from adjacent markets.

@Lance_Hiley: #ciscosystems shows geolocation tool to identify potential #smallcellsdeployment locations using #flicker and #twitter uploads

@small_cells: "small cells are splitting into two categories : capacity and coverage"

@small_cells: "how can we cope with the data tsunami that's coming at us?"

@small_cells: "the cost difference between a small cell and a macro is large"

@Ubiquisys: Joe Madden of Mobile Experts on Small cell economics and time-to-market

@small_cells: "with data growth doubling every year you really need to plan ahead to cope"

@Ubiquisys: Data growth in US will not be uniform. Most data is consumed in downtown metro areas.

@small_cells: "imagine if it was your job to find sites for 28,000 new macro masts per year to cope with data demand!"

@Ubiquisys: Balanced solution = towers in the rural areas, picocells in urban areas.

@stewartbaines: Joe Madden: It worries me that operators are talking small cells only for LTE. You need a balance (small + macro)

@lesanto: "operators are not keeping up with the data curve, I don't see them spending enough capital to keep up with demand"

@lesanto: "I think we're going to fall behind data demand in a serious way in 2015/2016"

@Ubiquisys: Operators won't be able to keep up with data demand. Be ready to ship millions of picocells in next few years.

@lesanto: "when customers want to use more data than they can get we'll have unhappy customers and that means churn"

@disruptivedean: HIghly questionable supply/demand curve at #SCWS2012 that doesn't cover impact of pricing & policy management constraining "demand"

@lesanto: "those unhappy customers will force operators to make choices they hadn't previously wanted to make for economic reasons"

@stewartbaines: Joe Madden: be ready to ship millions of small cells, whether cheapest or not, by 2015

@lesanto: "we are projecting high numbers of small cells because of time-to-Market issues..."

@lesanto: The #London2012 olympics throws up a real challenge for mobile operators - small cells are already installed for the event.

@danieldotfox: #O2UK has 100 small cells within the London area.

@Ubiquisys: Currently on stage, Robert Joyce of Telefonica. Case study: delivering small cells into the heart of central London

@SmallCell_Forum: O2 says "small cells are the only way" for future capacity, even factoring on extra spectrum and LTE-A.

@lesanto: "2g hotspots aren't in the same place as 3g hotspots so replacing existing 2g small cells for 3g cells won't always bring results"

@danieldotfox: #O2UK really like 'open' femto cells. Interesting!

@lesanto: O2 bid on access to street furniture, street lamps etc, in order to use them to provide wi-fi and small cells

@lesanto: BUT, once O2 had the poles they discovered the councils wanted planning permission for each and every lamppost installation...

@stewartbaines: O2: 400 individual planning applications required to deploy metro wifi in Kensington and Westminster. Ouch!

@lesanto: O2 also had to considerer the form factor of the installations, London lampposts are not suitable for big set upis!

@lesanto: O2's London network is fed both 'over the street' and 'under it' - using a mix of masts, cells and fibre...

@lesanto: O2's mobile network plan for London aims to serve a Gig per Km2

@lesanto: O2 have 12 access points for mobile in Trafalgar Square alone

@lesanto: You lot should see just how complex serving mobile to the streets of London is. Remember this next time you complain about signal

@lesanto: Olympic village buildings are clad in aluminium for heat retention - this also locks out mobile signals!

@lesanto: the result is the Olympic village has become probably the densest installation of small cells anywhere...

@SmallCell_Forum: O2 have deployed 1200 femtos in a in an apartment block for some 'very healthy people' (!) in London for this summer

@lesanto: O2 want to use their Olympic experience to roll out small cells elsewhere - but say the price has to come down!

@joelpagot: @wendyzajack nice pic! #smallcells also come in "green" (low-power mobile devices)

@Ubiquisys: Here's a prototype solar powered small cell. Interesting concept.

@joelpagot: @Ubiquisys Good example for #GreenICT #smallcells big impact: more capacity for less

@SmallCell_Forum: After announcements by O2 and Orange today, is UK first market in world where all operators have publically announced femtocells?

@thinksmallcell: O2 deployed 1Gb/s per square kilometre capacity onstreet 3G/WiFi in London using Small Cells - believe will meet forecast demand

@Lance_Hiley: Telefonica's Rob Joyce forecasts 1Gb/s per km #backhaul requirement for London #smallcells by 2015.

@disruptivedean: @Lance_Hiley Quite astonishing to think that 1sq km use of mobile data in 2015 is only equivalent of a single FTTH broadband cnxn

@markc_reed: “@thinksmallcell: O2 deployed 1Gb/s per square kilometre capacity in London using Small demand #SCWS2012” what about install & bhaul cost?

@lesanto: Manish Singh CTO of Radisys is now on the stand

@Ubiquisys: @radisys: Over the next three years, which sources of disruption will have the greatest impact on mobile operators?

@disruptivedean: Radisys survey at #SCWS2012 shows operators still think "good user experience" = seamless WiFi authentication & handover. Very wrong indeed

@Ubiquisys: You need a portfolio of products to address different segments. Requirements are evolving, so flexibility is a must. @radisys

@thinksmallcell: 46% of operators surveyed said logistics and deployment model were barriers to rapid small cell rollout - Radisys survey

@danieldotfox: #O2UK state that 1Gbit per square kilometer is needed for sufficient outdoor data capacity within 2015 timeframe. Crikey.

@Ubiquisys: NGMN Alliance's Julius Robson is talking about small cell specific backhaul requirements

@lesanto: The relentless growth of data consumption - can we handle it? http://smallcells.posterous.com/the-relentless-growth-of-data-consumption-can via @small_cells

@Ubiquisys: Deployment prerequisites for small cell deployment: unserved demand, suitable site, backhaul connectivity #NGMN

@Ubiquisys: Small cell devices are more visible than macros and need to be small, light, touch safe and tamper proof

@stewartbaines: Wilson Street post from #SCWS2012: Orange or Vodafone taking best approach to femtos? - http://www.wilson-street.com/2012/06/scws2012-femtocells-pile-them-high-and-sell-them-cheap-or-keep-them-for-the-most-valuable-customers/

@lesanto: Somewhat technical this presso... not eminently tweetable see "security of LTE backhauling" white paper by ngmn - http://www.ngmn.org/uploads/media/NGMN_Whitepaper_Backhaul_Security.pdf

@Ubiquisys: Small cell backhaul connections are viewed as untrusted and may need IPsec encryption

@lesanto: "backhaul is a key enabler for small cells, but there is uncertainty around which solutions are suitable"

@Ubiquisys: Backhaul white paper is available at http://www.ngmn.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Downloads/Technical/NGMN_Whitepaper_Small_Cell_Backhaul_Requirements.pdf

@lesanto: The streets of London are paved with small cells #SCWS2012 http://smallcells.posterous.com/the-streets-of-london-are-paved-with-small-ce via @small_cells

@Lance_Hiley: Availability of #smallcells can be relaxed in hotspot deployment scenario says Julius Robson, editor of @ngmn_alliance Whitepaper

@lesanto: since the show started this morning we have seen 5% growth in the industry as two major mobile operators have adopted small cells

@SmallCell_Forum: France & UK first countries globally where all mobile operators have announced femtocells.

@lesanto: majority of South Koreans using LTE networks by 2014

@lesanto: South Korea enjoys one of the highest adoptions of high speed networks in the world

@lesanto: SK telecom launched the world's first LTE + wi-fi femtocell network in 2011

@lesanto: SK telecom is preparing for the PETA byte era - which is next year! 1 PETA = 10 to the power of 15 bytes.

@stewartbaines: @lesanto Key thing about the petabyte era, is SK Telecom will has 1 petabyte PER DAY on their mobile network.

@lesanto: Small cells can provide extended coverage at lower cost

@lesanto: "For interference mitigation in small cell deployment, a central interference management system is being developed"

@Ubiquisys: Nick Karter of @qualcomm will now talk about the convergence of 3G, 4G and wifi

@lesanto: "the growth in data traffic is outstripping the ability to put new spectrum on the market" (say it again)

@lesanto: "there is an increase in operator provided wi-fi"

@lesanto: "wi-fi is already a small cell but without all the features you expect from a mobile network"

@lesanto: "Hotspot 2.0 - converging the wi-fi and cellular networks"

@lesanto: "people use cellular primarily for email and facebook, while they use wi-fi for youtube"

@lesanto: "optimising power consumption is critical when combining so many functions into one box"

@lesanto: "you need a good application processor to manage the network efficiently"

@lesanto: providing mobile data is extremely complex - it's a typical swan swimming scenario, serene above the surface, mad action below it.

@Ubiquisys: Need for RF coordination with coexistence of Wi-Fi and LTE. Optimising power limitation is critical. @qualcomm

@lesanto: "security is obviously very critical to a mobile network"

@lesanto: "Hotspot 2.0 - the mission is to make wi-fi connectivity (of mobile devices) as seamless and easy as cellular"

@danieldotfox: The #Qualcomm approach to multiradio/multi spectrum type access points looks good. Mixed in with Hotspot 2.0. Smart thinking.

@Ubiquisys: Manish Gupta of Symmetricomm: Timing and synchronisation for small cells

@Ubiquisys: Small cells defined: Residential, Enterprise, Metro. What is the distinction?

@Ubiquisys: Panel discussion coming up at #SCWS2012: Backhaul challenges for small cell deployment

@Ubiquisys: Rural environment small cell deployments vary wildly. Any data connection is better than zero in many remote areas

@lesanto: rain can degrade mobile network performance. They call it 'rain fade' - #WhoKnew? see: http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/rain-fade

@LisaGCisco: Multi-operator white label small cells might be a solution to the complexity and cost of multiple public small cell networks

@Ubiquisys: "GPS is great, but make sure you have a back up" #SCWS2012 panel

Day 1 Summaries:

• ABI Research: Small Cells World Summit 2012 - Day 1
• Ubiquisys: Small Cells World Summit 2012: What happened on day one?
• Official Blog: Small cells get smaller while the small cell world expands

DAY 2

@Ubiquisys: First speaker this morning : Matthew D Brown, Marketing Product Manager, Femtocell, Optus Australia

@lesanto: Matthew Brown Marketing Product Manager Femtocell, Optus Aus. "delivering femtocells to market isn't just about technical aspects"

@stewartbaines: Optus: coverage is still the massive factor in acquisition and retention in Australia

@small_cells: Matthew is treating us to a case study on marketing femtocells to the challenging Australian mobile market

@small_cells: "we decided to include the additional benefit of unlimited calls in a femtocell tariff"

@LisaGCisco: Optus 3G Home Zone provides a value add with unlimited calling according to Optus Product Manager Matthew Brown

@small_cells: Optus consumer marketing video promises 5 bars of mobile signal and unlimited calls - a dual message

@small_cells: Optus marketing strategy was to lead strongly with coverage message and value proposition of tariff

@SmallCell_Forum: Optus Australia: unlimited femtocell voice calls cheaper than a latte

@small_cells: "we managed to mitigate the negative effect of it seeming like they were paying for coverage, hence the unlimited calls package"

@small_cells: "our initial commercial pilots taught us about the big challenge of integrating the femtocell with a variety of different modems"

@small_cells: "this product needs a seamless deployment, it must just plug and play - the consumer is short of patience with set up"

@stewartbaines: Optus: key to residential femto success...5 bar coverage AND differentiated (free standard national) calling from home

@small_cells: Optus have a lot of useful experience with consumer femtocell deployment, it's well worth learning the lessons they've learned!

@stewartbaines: I never realized my femto should be 1m away from my WiFi. You learn something new everyday!

@small_cells: "customers really enjoy the benefit of the connectivity, they absolutely love it - the challenge is how to price that service"

@small_cells: Great presentation from Matthew, lots of useful practical information from the Optus femtocell experience

@stewartbaines: Optus: next steps is presence-based apps and further differentiated pricing.

@stewartbaines: Optus: we're looking for presence-based apps/services for femtos. Anyone got a case study?

@small_cells: next speaker : Xiaojia Liu, Deputy General, Manager of Technology, China Unicom

@small_cells: "wireless network evolution is ongoing"

@small_cells: "more than 40 launches of the LTE network and 200 more commitments"

@small_cells: "LTE-A requires a 1gbs downlink"

@small_cells: "limited coverage of macro sites will become a very big problem"

@small_cells: Service Development Trends: Phones once used for voice call and SMS - now various uses and services including HD TV.

@Ubiquisys: As smartphone use grows, user habits have changed. There are now billions of 'always-on' customers

@small_cells: "40 - 60% mobile calls taking place indoors" leading to connectivity and capacity issues

@small_cells: "densely populated areas lead to more interference between installed femtocells requiring better interference handling technology"

@small_cells: "two deployment scenarios: Hotspot scenario and rural scenario - both requiring different solutions"

@Ubiquisys: Dense scenario is more suited to #China. Need a flexible, intelligent interfence coordination method #Chinacom

@small_cells: "main objective scenario : coverage (for) holes and hotspots"

@small_cells: "one objective of small cells is to minimise CAPEX and OPEX"

@Ubiquisys: Broadband resource, cost per unit and construction complexity should be taken into account in deployment #Chinacom

@small_cells: "small cells seem more flexible and give more choices for operator deployment"

@small_cells: "small cells bring more: higher capacity, better micro-offload, enhanced user experience"

@small_cells: "with small cells we can do more"

@stewartbaines: Is China Unicom suggesting handover between individual HeNBs?

@MarcianoGilbert: China Unicom: 2 small cells rollout scénario: Hotspot (close, semiopen, open for M2M use) & rural; Wifi + Cellular in tandem.

@Ubiquisys: Operators could provided new types of revenue-generating services in small cell development

@SmallCell_Forum: China Unicom: Small Cell Forum has important role in standardisation, comms, cooperation and IoT testing for small cell evolution

@LisaGCisco: Xiao Han China Unicom underscores key role of Small Cell Forum in increasing industry adoption through standardization and IOT

@MarcianoGilbert: China Unicom 10 provinces for precommercial network in small cells #ALU @SmallCell_Forum @Alcatel_Lucent

@lesanto: *very* detailed presentation from China Unicom - hope the slides are available for careful study later...

@SmallCell_Forum: China Unicom: X2 interface is a key component for managing interference in LTE: welcomes news that SCF is working on X2 interop

@small_cells: Next speaker: Mike Schabel - VP LightRadio, Alcatel-Lucent "Metro Cell : Thinking outside the box"

@small_cells: MS "I'd like to share our experiences with introducing LightRadio"

@small_cells: "there is a lot to extract from spectral efficiency - 1x or 2x capacity improvement"

@small_cells: "operators continue to lobby for more spectrum, including adding wi-fi"

@small_cells: "but we really need to look at spatial efficiency - outdoor metro cells are a part of that efficiency"

@stewartbaines: ALU: spectral efficiency can get 1.5x more capacity. Spatial efficiency can get 10x more capacity

@small_cells: we'll have an expanded number of nodes, as many as tens of thousands - and they could be anywhere

@small_cells: "but the box is probably the smallest part of the picture that needs to be solved"

@small_cells: "we have recognised just how important the beyond the box solution is"

@small_cells: "there's a large number of deployment challenges that need to be solved"

@small_cells: "ecosystem partners are likely to change, the whole value chain is up for grabs again"

@small_cells: "we need to talk about the box, I can't escape talking about the box"

@small_cells: it's important that the box is modular to meet the challenges of multiple deployments

@small_cells: "the box is in the public eye so we focussed on the look of the box"

@small_cells: "everything but the kitchen sink has to go into this box"

@small_cells: "you have to be careful about the design of the box, pay attention to details like heat dissipation"

@thinksmallcell: ALU 70% data traffic offload is the tipping point for commercial viability of a dedicated small cell carrier.

@thinksmallcell: ALU recapping that spatial efficiency (small cells) essential to meet forecast capacity growth of 25x

@stewartbaines: No silver bullet for metrocell backhaul. "I can't keep up" says Schnabel, ALU. Need every possible option

@thinksmallcell: ALU forecast 10x growth in cellsites for metro cells. OPEX more significant than CAPEX

@thinksmallcell: ALU explaining MetroDock - pluggable radio cards for compact metrocell. Is this the "radio blade server" for city lampposts?

@small_cells: "Backhaul : No silver bullet - requires comprehensive options"

@stewartbaines: If you can hang a Christmas light, can you really hang a metrocell?

@small_cells: "Site selection: no longer about RF positioning. Need to balance site availability, power, and backhaul"

@thinksmallcell: ALU claim to have automated design tool balancing RF location, backhaul and power for commercially viable best fit for#metrocells

@Alejandro_Avren: ALUH site acquisition major challenge for metrocell deployment..scramble has already begun

@small_cells: "what's not practical is to find an ideal site with no backhaul, that won't solve the problem"

@small_cells: "installation & commissioning a massive challenge, must design the product to make it easy to install without high-skilled labour"

@small_cells: "we have been going through and learning a tremendous amount of lessons with LightRadio"

@thinksmallcell: ALU saying they fully support X2 interface which would facilitate multivendor #HetNets

@small_cells: Next speaker : Will Franks CTO and co-founder of Ubiquisys

@small_cells: "smart cells is a hot topic in the industry"

@small_cells: "small cells serve 4 locations : Home : Enterprise : Urban : Rural "

@small_cells: "data wasn't the original driving factor it was voice quality and capacity"

@small_cells: "Now we are in the post data revolution era"

@small_cells: "we talk about metro cells on lampposts but 70% of mobile data is consumed indoors"

@stewartbaines: Ubiquisys: enterprises femtos are 1/4 cost of picos and DAS. Good news as most enterprises don't have DAS or picos due to cost

@small_cells: "rural backhaul is very costly, femto based technology with satellite backhaul speeds up rural deployment"

@small_cells: "small cells - a 7.7billion dollar opportunity!"

@small_cells: "one of the great things about metro indoor is there are a lot of sites - the real hotspots are indoor"

@small_cells: "50,000 public access small cells deployed - 200,000 open access femtocells deployed"

@Ubiquisys: Will Franks: Ubiquisys has 50k metro indoor small cells deployed around the world, mostly in Asia

@small_cells: "example Metro indoor hotspots stats: 90% of phones are smartphones : data to voice ratio is 10:1 : 10,000 data session in 24 hrs

@small_cells: "data dominated by chatty smartphone apps - signalling procedures per UE in busy hour - up to 50 users"

@Ubiquisys: Will Franks: traffic is dominated by data/signalling. Data is dominated by chatty smartphone apps. Users are highly transient.

@small_cells: "transient users - ave 7 mins in cell - different profile to wi-fi users who tend to dwell longer"

@small_cells: "cafe hotspot : people get their coffee and immediately fire up their browser or social network"

@small_cells: 'Map' of cafe hotspot cell usage shows data data data - lots of chatter but very little talking!

@Ubiquisys: Will Franks: small cells cover specific areas where traffic is heavily correlated

@small_cells: "challenges are not data use but cell overload, camp-on attempts, data vs signalling"

@small_cells: "our aim is zero touch deployment, making it as simple and as hands off as possible"

@Ubiquisys: Will Franks: The challenge for public access hotspots is no longer about headline data rates or call capacity

@small_cells: "hotspot robustness : these cells are 100% utilised in busy times and have to be able to manage themselves"

@small_cells: "smart cells are about extending the cloud to the edge of the network"

@small_cells: "why smart cells : it's about user experience"

@small_cells: "smart cells provide high-speed, short-range signal with low contention"

@small_cells: "Ubiquisys teamed up with Intel to put a comms-tuned compute platform in a small cell to make a smart cell"

@small_cells: "there are no standards issues with smart cells at all"

@Ubiquisys: Will Franks: Smart cells = small cell + hi spec server + clever apps

@small_cells: "proactive and predictive cache used to cut backhaul traffic - improves user experience"

@theshipster: Ubiquisys Will Franks: In Japan, small cells, with satellite backhaul, take rural coverage deployment time from 1 yr to 1 day

@small_cells: "more smart cell applications: cellular - wi-fi policy management : video / ad server : CDN clients : "

@Ubiquisys: With proactive smart cell caching, first play of a video plays from cloud, subsequent of same file play from cache

@small_cells: "small cells come in many flavours : home femtocells, enterprise small cells, metro indoor, metro outdoor and rural"

@Ubiquisys: Smart cells: optimise end UX, optimise backhaul performance, offer new edge cloud apps for service products

@MarcianoGilbert: Colt on stage promoting new business model managed femto services or How MVNO can distribute femto as a service

@Ubiquisys: Femto as a Service (FaaS) from a fixed service provider can accelerate deployment in buildings. Len Schuch of Colt

@small_cells: "enterprises have to embrace BYOD and Colt certainly are"

@Ubiquisys: FaaS opens the door for more mobile operators to deploy small cells

@small_cells: "demand and supply - don't believe the data crunch is a myth"

@small_cells: "near-time data growth has exceeded the value of last years Cisco VNI analysis"

@small_cells: "it's not just background data and email it is about delivering QoS"

@small_cells: "by 2016, 70% of data will be video"

@small_cells: "it's not 75kbps per sub spread over 6h it's 10Mbps per sub in 30s bursts"

@small_cells: "you can deliver high quality with low throughput but as soon as throughput increases you loose QoS"

@small_cells: "it's generally the backhaul which is the limit to throughout..."

@MarcianoGilbert: New thermodynamic demo on stage . After PV=NRT you have macro + small cell * hetnet = high QoS*high throughput

@Ubiquisys: Here's a slide visualising that smart cell proactive caching capability

@thinksmallcell: ip.access say X.2 interface isn't sufficient for purpose today. It needs to be for true multi vendor #HetNets

@small_cells: Speaker now is Hiroyuki Hosono Radio Access Network Development Dept at NTT DoCoMo

@small_cells: NTT DoCoMo already rolling out LTE products

@small_cells: by last March 30% Japanese population could access LTE, that'll be up to 70% by end of 2012!

@Alejandro_Avren: By end of 2012, NTT will cover 70% of population with LTE coverage

@small_cells: Japan will have almost total LTE coverage by end 2014

@small_cells: NTT DeCoMo have already signed up 2.2 million LTE subscribers and expect to hit 10m by end of 1q 2013.

@small_cells: "NTT DeCoMo see two main advantages for LTE femtocells : expanded coverage and traffic offload"

@small_cells: "approx 12 x data growth expected between 2011 & 2015 - we need to satisfy that future traffic demand"

@small_cells: "we will develop femtocell networks to help meet future data demand" NTT DeCoMo

@thinksmallcell: NTT DoCoMo forecast 12x mobile data traffic growth between 2011-2015. LTE #femtocells essential

@small_cells: "we may limit data speed of heavy users" NTT DeCoMo

@Alejandro_Avren: BH Telecom: more smart phones sold last year than PCs

@small_cells: "in 2011 more smartphones than PCs were sold"

@Ubiquisys: The number of smartphones sold exceeded PCs last year. In a few years the no of smartphones will dwarf PCs. #BHTelecom

@Ubiquisys: We are watching Adnan Hatalasevic talking about business solutions and synergy design for small cells and Wi-Fi

@small_cells: Next speaker Steve Price, Gen Manager, Comms and Infrastructure division, Intel

@small_cells: "I'd like to talk about building intelligence into the overall network"

@small_cells: watching a 'what happens in one internet minute video' ....http://techbullets.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/internet-in-one-minute-intel.html



@small_cells: "mix of social networking and mobile users has changed the way we work and socialise. Now think ahead to 2015"

@stewartbaines: Here is that Intel internet minute infographic:

@small_cells: "what kind of network do we need for 2015 when there will be twice as many connected mobile devices as today?

@small_cells: "if done correctly you can increase revenue and decrease operating expenses"

@small_cells: "small cell base stations redefine HetNet economics"

@small_cells: "what is a smart cell? All small cells have some intelligence but now we are taking Intel's datacentre skills to the operator"

@small_cells: "the consumer with a mobile intelligent device can upload as much as he downloads, networks have to be symmetrical"

@small_cells: "we believe smart cells need massive storage abilities and high performance CPUs"

@small_cells: "smart small cells allow you to take advantage of value added services and offer better user experience"

@small_cells: "putting intelligence in a device increases cost, so we wanted to determine the economic benefits of smart small cells"

@small_cells: "we found there was a reduction in network operating costs of 22% when using smart cells, mainly from backhaul savings"

@Ubiquisys: Smart cells are more expensive than standard small cells, but fewer are needed to accomplish the same results @intel

@small_cells: "Summary business case findings: Improvements are seen in OpEx savings, specifically, in network OpEx"

@small_cells: "smart cells help with operator bottom line, beyond capacity and coverage"

@small_cells: "local caching and filtering eliminates peak hours overload"

@Ubiquisys: Conclusion: Smart Cells help with operator bottom line, beyond capacity and coverage @intel

@small_cells: we are in the midsts of a very exciting time in mobile comms - and the smart small cell is a key aspect of this revolution

@small_cells: "even Moore's law can't keep up with where the networks are going"

@small_cells: "silicon alone can't solve the thirst for bandwidth"

@Ubiquisys: Doug Pulley of @mindspeed is now talking about small cell architecture for RAN evolution

@small_cells: Next speaker : Doug Pulley - CTO Wireless, Wireless Business Unit - MindSpeed

@small_cells: "Small Cell Networks - Taking the strain - how many small cells to cover London - or the world!"

@small_cells: "Cell Traffic Dimensioning - what does it really take to overwhelm a cell?"

@small_cells: "internet video will be driving much of future mobile data traffic"

@small_cells: "is there a busy hour? most reports show traffic usage is fairly constant from 8-8"

@small_cells: "people are consuming data via multiple devices, my kids use three simultaneously - I don't know how they do it!"

@small_cells: Mindspeed's study suggests a London wide small cell network with over 71,000 base stations --- and 19 million needed worldwide!

@thinksmallcell: Mindspeed research study estimates global need for 19,059,612 small cells globally to meet Cisco VNI data traffic forecast

@small_cells: "all this detail helps specify and build the best small cell SoC solutions"

@small_cells: Next speaker is Viraj Abhayawardhana Specialist Strategy at BT talking about backhaul...

@small_cells: "BT provides fixed backhaul to all major mobile operators in the UK"

@small_cells: "BT Openzone has the biggest WiFi footprint in the UK. 16 wireless cities in the UK. 4 million UK hotspots"

@small_cells: "BT investing £2.5b extending fibre infrastructure close to home"

@small_cells: "Small Cells: How to identify sites, how to acquire sites, how to manage sites cost effectively, how to manage teams & field force

@small_cells: "street lamps came out top for small cell location"

@small_cells: "to reduce backhaul we must reuse as much capability as possible so we must try to leverage the fibre roll out"

@small_cells: "backhaul isn't just about access it's all about integrating, building an end to end OSS is a significant cost"

@SmallCell_Forum: BT: "Comedy and small cells: it's all about the timing"

@small_cells: "small cells have challenges in sites, backhaul and power - and costs have to come down"

@small_cells: "to solve backhaul problems, end to end service delivery and maintenance should be considered"

@Ubiquisys: Now in the conference room: OMA and @SmallCell_Forum cooperation - new enablers for new enhanced apps, from @telecomitaliaTw

@Ubiquisys: Digital use case at home: The Home wakes up and is aware of owners' presence, and gets adaptive to them! @telecomitaliaTw

@Ubiquisys: Shopping mall use case: Device tells you "Your favourite green ties today discounted" @telecomitaliaTw

@Ubiquisys: Now up at #SCWS2012, Yoav Volloch from @Broadcom: 3G/4G/5G multi RAT small cells

@Ubiquisys: Licensed vs Unlicensed: LTE enjoys better frequency bands, while Wi-Fi supports carrier aggregation @broadcom

@Ubiquisys: Broadcom believes a small cell is a multi RAT access point that manages the entire spectrum over a given cell range

@Ubiquisys: The business model for open access femtocells can be the same as ‘selling power to the grid’ @Broadcom

@Ubiquisys: Small cell solutions were born due to the practical need to increase 3G license spectrum capacity @broadcom

@Ubiquisys: Small cells are not low cost Macro cells; they have their own personality@Broadcom

@Ubiquisys: The final session of the day - a panel on new technologies reshaping the business case for small cells

@Ubiquisys: We get very hung up on presence + location aspect, but a valuable app is getting flat-rated local calls in coverage area

@stewartbaines: should enterprises get free at-desk mobile calls if they have a femto? And what of PBX integration?

@stewartbaines: Operators should think of the commercial value of presence & location from small cells

@Ubiquisys: @SmallCell_Forum asked consumers 'what apps would you pay for?’ Many were excited about having a home phone network

@Ubiquisys: #SCWS2012 in pictures http://ubiquisys.com/small-cells-blog/small-cells-world-summit-2012-in-pictures/ - Is that you I see?

Day 2 summary blogs

• Official Blog Day Two round up : Adding value, beyond the box and taming your femto
• ABI Research: Small Cells World Summit 2012 - Day 2
• Ubiquisys: Small Cells World Summit 2012: What happened on day two?http://ubiquisys.com/small-cells-blog/small-cells-world-summit-2012-what-happened-on-day-two/

Small Cell Forum 2012 Award Winners


Day 3


@small_cells: First Speaker - Andy Sutton, Principal Network Engineer at Everything, Everywhere.

@small_cells: "small cells could be interpreted as anything non-macrocell"

@small_cells: "two different scenarios : capacity or coverage?"

@small_cells: "Femto provides in-building coverage for voice services"

@small_cells: "Public Access external small cells for capacity"

@small_cells: "we anticipate supporting voice as well as data on our public access small and pico cells"

@small_cells: "we're likely to see an improvement in spectral efficiency"

@small_cells: "if we deploy a 3g solution today we want to see an evolution path to LTE"

@small_cells: "on average we look at small cells costing 1/10th the cost of a macro"

@small_cells: "key performance indicators should ideally be the same as the macro network"

@small_cells: "you could open a new area of coverage and this is a different scenario to simply adding capacity to an existing hotspot"

@small_cells: "small cells are a game changer in terms of how we architect networks"

@small_cells: "both LoS and NLoS have a part to play in small cell backhaul"

@small_cells: "backhaul could be fully integrated with macro network or completely decoupled with an overlay (underlay) solution"

@small_cells: "we will see small cells rolled out in volume to support mobile network evolution"

@small_cells: "small cell sites must have a very low TCO in the region of 10% of that associated with macro sites"

@small_cells: "several backhaul solutions will be required to meet all likely deployment scenarios"

@small_cells: "reducing latency could be a significant battleground in the LTE market"

@small_cells: Yoshihito Shimazaki Deputy Division Head, from Softbank

@small_cells: Yoshito will talk to us about the status of LTE small cells

@small_cells: "in Japan data usage is crazy"

@thinksmallcell: everything everywhere say 3G metro cells will gain real traction during 2013. Expects dual carrier 3G before LTE

@small_cells: "What is the key to mobile market up-growth -- Market share : ARPU improvement : Market Value Improvement "

@small_cells: "four competition elements to win: 1 Network 2 service 3 charge rate 4 customer service "

@small_cells: "number of Softbank base stations: 190,000 -- excluding home femtocells"

@small_cells: "by May 2012 Softbank had deployed 121,850 home femtocells, the figure continues to rise"

@small_cells: very dense deployment of small cells in metropolitan Tokyo

@small_cells: "outdoor cell sites cannot cover all indoor areas in downtown Tokyo"

@small_cells: "femto to macro handover is very important to indoor"

@thinksmallcell: SoftBank almost completed trial of handover from inbuilding Femto to macrocell. Improved abnormal call drop rate by 3.5%

@small_cells: "we got the number one tv commercial by deploying the white dog"

@small_cells: "smartphone data traffic is 10X more than a feature phone"

@small_cells: "mobile network traffic will grow 12X from FY2010 to FY2016"

@small_cells: "Tokyo data use is very crazy, I can't believe it"

@stewartbaines: SoftBank: mobile distribution in Japan. Check out the Tokyo spike

@small_cells: "we are deploying a multi-layer cell architecture"

@small_cells: "we need a very strong co-operative interface coordination"

@small_cells: current speaker : Jang Ahn Kwon Chief Marketing Officer & VP, Contela Inc.

@thinksmallcell: korea has >50% smartphones, 7M LTE subs today, 14M by end 2012. Competition is fierce

@thinksmallcell: LTE congestion in Korea came sooner than expected

@small_cells: "home small cell needs to be dual mode to support 3G and LTE for legacy handsets"

@thinksmallcell: Korea residential femtocells need to be dual mode 3G and LTE say Contela. Not everyone in a family will have LTE handsets

@thinksmallcell: Contela achieved 60Mbps downlink and 25Mbps uplink performance on their LTE femtocell field trials

@small_cells: Current speaker : Jie Zhang - Ranplan "small cell deployment in heterogeneous networks"

@small_cells: Fascinating coverage mapping slides from Jie Zhang - graphically illustrating coverage benefits of small cell deployment

@small_cells: "Intelligent Cell Optimisation (ICO) shows where small cells should be located"

@disruptivedean: After listening to comments at #SCWS2012 , I think that some forms of carrier WiFi will make sense outdoors. But indoor proposition trickier

@small_cells: it seems European homes are better at blocking mobile signals that US homes...

@small_cells: "providing better coverage throughout the entire home gets the whole family on the operator's plan"

@small_cells: "does it work? does it really offer long lasting value to the subscriber and operator"

@small_cells: current speaker is "Michiel Lotter, VP of Engineering Nextivity Inc.

@small_cells: "95% of customers who installed cel-fi remained with operator (as opposed to churning away)"

@small_cells: "50% of mobile users worldwide don't have access to broadband, meaning femtos are not an option"

@small_cells: Next speaker: Andy Germano Vice Chairman Small cell Forum

@small_cells: "why small cell service? 5 bar indoor coverage"

@small_cells: "small cells allow for application sweetspot"

@small_cells: "small cells can help deliver the intelligent home"

@small_cells: "small cell networks can help deliver location based services"

@small_cells: "small cells enable shopping 2.0"

@small_cells: "8 different demos of small cell enabled apps going on at recent small cell forum"

@small_cells: "consumers want small cell services and are willing to pay"

@Alejandro_Avren: Sunrise Switzerland now on the main stage, presenting their project status on their femtocell deployment

@small_cells: "Sunrise is under pressure to constantly add capacity, enhance the user experience, & keep a lid on total cost of ownership"

@Alejandro_Avren: Sunrise: 16 time data usage increase expected by 2017, doubling every year until 2014!!

@small_cells: "avoid problems- avoid low price users eating up too much capacity : maximise utilisation of spectrum : deploy smart wi-fi offload

@small_cells: "the congested 3g cell rate is increasing whereas the footprint of the congested cells remains the same"

@small_cells: "demanding environmental factors in Switzerland will favour the use of small cells"

@small_cells: "Sunrise will continue to use the femto and is ready for wide-spread deployment"

@small_cells: "main purpose: to deliver cost efficient object special coverage to compliment macro base station portfolio"

@small_cells: Sunrise will "continue to use femto as a retention and business enabler tool"

@small_cells: "fair use policies reduce levels of data use growth temporarily but they cannot reverse the skyrocketing demand for mobile data"

@small_cells: "small cells vendors need to support SON for HetNet as well as an effective small cells management"

@small_cells: next speaker: Jean-Christophe Nanan, RF systems engineer at Freescale - small cells call for scaleable architecture

@small_cells: Final speaker is Joseph Byre Analyst at the Linley Group

@small_cells: "Mobile bandwidth is increasing"

@small_cells: UK is depressingly blue on a map showing LTE enabled areas in red :0(

@small_cells: "funding for bandwidth increases and alternatives is decreasing, pressuring OEMs and Chip Cos."

@small_cells: "ARPU rising only 3%"

@small_cells: "Base station costs falling from $40K"

@small_cells: "Moore's Law enables cost reduction but heats up competition among chip companies"

@small_cells: "to defend or capture share, chip companies are rushing in to supply base station processors"

@small_cells: "the opportunity for system vendors is an opportunity for chip factors"

@small_cells: "markets tend to ramp later than expected but ramps tend to be bigger than forecast"

@small_cells: "market drivers for femtocells are problematical"

@small_cells: "shipment growth has only just begun - enough data to define a trend?"

@small_cells: "vague plans by major operators to deploy"

@small_cells: "causes for concern - technology dynamics: ..."

@thinksmallcell: NEC's outdoor metrocell. Looks pretty solid and durable to me. Believed to be Ubiquisys technology inside.

Day 3 Roundups

• ABI Research: Small Cells World Summit 2012 - Day 3

FINAL Roundups

• Think Small Cell: Small Cell World Summit Report June 2012
• Small Cells World Summit Official Blog
• Rethink Wireless: Small cells grow up as carriers look to HetNet
• Alcatel-Lucent's Wilson Street: Metrocell and femtocell demos at #SCWS2012
• Alcatel-Lucent's Wilson Street: Small cells break down the walls – why Softbank and A1 use femtocells in public
• Alcatel-Lucent's Wilson Street: The metrocell challenge lies Beyond the Box
• Light Reading: Small Cell Network Planning Poses Problems
• Alcatel-Lucent's Wilson Street: Femtocells: pile them high, and sell them cheap? Or keep them for the most valuable customers?

Thanks to all those who tweeted and made this article possible. Credit to the following people

@lesanto = Glenn Le Santo
@stewartbaines = Stewart Baines
@thinksmallcell = David Chambers
@Ubiquisys = Keith Day
@LisaGCisco = Lisa Garza
@bmbarnowski = Barney Barnowski
@Alejandro_Avren = Alejandro Piñero
@MarkBLHenry = Mark Henry
@disruptivedean = Dean Bubley
@SmallCell_Forum = Small Cell Forum
@danieldotfox = Daniel Fox
@vodafoneNZ = Vodafone New Zealand
@dmavrakis = Dimitris Mavrakis
@small_cells = Small Cells
@Lance_Hiley = Lance Hiley
@joelpagot = Joel Pagot
@markc_reed = Mark Reed
@MarcianoGilbert = Gilbert Marciano
@theshipster = Steve Shipley

If you enjoyed reading this why dont you let me know by clicking the 'Very Useful' checkbox below this post.

Some Pictures from 'The Future of Wireless International Conference' #FWIC

Here are some of the pics from 'The Future of Wireless International Conference' held in Cambridge. Most of the pics are from me using my old BB but some of the pics are crowdsourced from twitter from other attendees.

1. The Marquee where exhibition was held

2. Impressive Small-cells from Picochip

3. Freescale

4. Antenova

5. Qualcomm
Qualcomm was showing their Augmented Reality demo (see this). Finally got to play the game after seeing it on Youtube for such a long time.

6. Steepest Ascent.
I have to agree that WindFi is a really good name.

7. Aeroflex

8. A presentation where Ed-Candy from '3' is speaking

9. Omnisense

10. Arkessa

11. From presentations via Tweets

12. This is the impressive hall of St. John's college in Cambridge (via Nabeel Mardi)

Second hand report from the Femtocell World Summit 2011 (#FWS11)

Here is a summary from the Femtocells World Summit 2011 that I have compiled from different blogs and twitter. I was unable to be there, due to the expense, location and timing of this event it simply wasn’t feasible for me to attend. I am also disappointed that the organisers are not more welcoming of bloggers and do not understand how valuable our participation can be for the summit. Peronally, I would have taken a few pics of the exhibition, as I have done in the past, as it would have provided a better idea about the event to people in different parts of the world. Anyway, summay as follows:

DAY 1 began with Simon Saunders from the Femto Forum. Some of his points:

• 60% of consumers are interested in femtocells now Another interesting statistic was that there are now more 3G femtocells in the world than there are 3G macrocells, which again agrees with data stating that 60% of operators think small cells are more important than macrocells in the success of LTE.

According to the Ubiquisys blog: Simon’s thoughts are best summed up with a sort of rallying cry he came up with: “Our cells are small but our goals are not”!

This was followed by, Thilo Kirchinger, Principal Product Manager forVodafone Group. He discussed Vodafone’s operational stance on femtocells and small cells, and during which confirmed that Vodafone would indeed be launching LTE femtocells.

• Thilo also spoke about how he sees femtocells integrating and being used by people in home environments. For example, instructions for home femtocells should be as simple, with as little technical information as possible, limiting potential confusion for the end user, while voice communications is still the biggest draw for this kind of residential femtocell (despite the fact that people tend to use a lot of data for things like app browsing when at home).

• There are now 9 Vodafone subsidiaries with commercial femtocell service – almost a third of the total – and more are to follow shortly.

• Research showed that some 34% of the UK either have insufficient or unsatisfactory indoor mobile coverage and Wi-Fi only partly solves the issue.

• In summary, he'd like to see accelerated standardization of the Iu-h interface, for the femtocell supplier ecosystem to start engaging with the Connected Home industry and for femtocell costs to reduce further.

• David Chambers of thinkfemtocell.com asked how operators, such as Vodafone, with strong brands of being the best mobile network and coverage could reconcile asking customers to pay for a box to fix poor coverage problems. Thilo felt that femtocells were complementary (especially for growing indoor use) and by offering both (ie great outdoor macrocell coverage plus great indoor femtocell service) it gave them competitive advantage. Another question related to 3rd party broadband internet – he reported that this hadn't been a problem, especially where customers conduct a speed test as part of the pre-sales process.

Telecom Italia’s Ferruccio Antonelli took the third slot of the day with a presentation focusing on the company’s commercial trial and proposed launch of femtocells in Italy.

• Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM to the locals), has always been a bit of a trendsetter in the mobile industry and is one to watch. They have the highest penetration rate and smartphone takeup of any European country. They will launch femtocell services next month (the precise date is commercially withheld), with Alcatel-Lucent providing two sizes of femtocell (seems very similar to Vodafone products).

• It won't be mandatory to use Telecom Italia broadband – any third party wireline/cable broadband can be used. While the pricing also can't be revealed, their billing system will be flexible enough to offer different prices when customers are using their "femtozone" at home.

• It sounds like it’s been a time of experimentation in Italy for femtocells thus far, but signs are looking good, with Ferruccio stating that femtocells will see launch in the second half of 2011. There was also some discussion on Twitter stemming from Telecom Italia’s idea of a ‘femtozone’ tariff or simply keeping pricing the same.

• A major issue for their implementation was the regulatory requirement to know if the femtocell has been moved (so that emergency services go to the right address) – this is checked by ensuring that at least one external macrocell ID is the same as when the unit was first installed and/or that the Telecom Italia broadband IP address matches.

• Unusually, TIM want to have SIM cards to authenticate their femtocells – so for example faulty femtocells can be replaced and by swapping the SIM card would automatically reconfigure for that customer.

Some insights from South Korea was provided by Samson Tae-Yong Kim from SK Telecom, whose presentation focused on using femtocells for data offload.

• Of particular note was the disparity raised by Kim in terms of data usage between different types of phone. For example, some smartphone users are consuming as much as 1 gig of data on an ‘all-you-can-eat’ plan in the same amount of time that it would take a feature phone user to consume 10 megs. It’s also worth mentioning at this point that 20% of mobile phone users in South Korea have smartphones, and this number is sure to grow.

• South Korea Telecom (SKT) plan to deploy some 10,000 public hotspots before the end of the year, many equipped with both Wi-Fi and cellular. They've previously used a lot of repeaters to ensure excellent (voice) coverage, but now need to bring in heavy additional capacity and higher speeds.

Alcatel Lucent: Steve Kemp looked at how data usage is now ballooning – indeed, that we are now “nearing the practical limits of information theory” –

• This is a generation that is watching 2 billion Facebook videos a month and 2 billion YouTube videos a day.

• Alcatel-Lucent expects mobile traffic growth to be in the order of 30x in the next five years.

• Just look at the iPad – users consumer twice as much data (and signalling) as the average iPhone user.

• What’s the problem? Signal to noise. As Claude Shannon at Bell Labs in 1948 theorized, a network is limited intrinsically by the noise generated by the media and the users. As you get more users, it degrades the overall capacity of the network.

• LTE, despite being more spectrally efficient than 3G, has a theoretical capacity limit, under Shannon’s Law, of 3.5 mbps per hertz.

• The answer to this inescapable fact is to make the cell size smaller so that spectrum is more efficiently used. And use beam forming to focus spectrum where you need it, away from interference

• Kemp then moved onto the business case for femtocells. You need initially to improve customer retention because keeping customers is a whole lot easier than gaining new ones.

• Femtocells result in a 60% downlink improvement, and a 26% uplink improvement. With lower latency, customers are happier with their voice calls at home and churn less. You can build a business case for home femtocells on this alone.

• Metro femtocells have even more compelling business case. The more traffic is offloaded onto small cells, the users on macro cell also see a service improvement.

• Steve also raised a point that kept reappearing through the morning: iPads (and tablets in general) are far more data hungry than iPhones/smartphones, which is certainly food for thought when considering the sudden surge in popularity of these devices.

• Alcatel-Lucent also announced their femtocell application developer kit, which is based on the recently published Femto Forum femtocell API specification. Already 23 developers have signed up to use it, with the first application to be made available by Telecom Italia when they launch.

As the morning progressed, it was the turn of Nigel Toon, CEO at Picochip, to present his thoughts and findings on the impact of femtocells on network performance and capacity.

• Nigel noted that voice communication is still one of the most important reasons why people select a carrier. Nigel also raised the point that no one really knows by how much mobile data traffic usage is expanding (or due to expand), with various different proposals raised during day one of FWS 2011 alone.

• Mobile data traffic exploding – you guess by how much. Is it 30x, 50x or even 1000x ?

• Problem is carriers capex can’t grow at 1000x

• Currently carriers spend, on average, 20% of their revenues on capex. And the cumulative amount of capex is increasing 8% year on year).

• Need to serve customers more efficiently and at a lower cost.

• Today a user in the middle of macrocell might only experience 40kbps. Tomorrow, with femtocells, the user can enjoy 8mbps while increasing the performance (less crowing on the macro) to 170 kbps.

• The key to low cost deployment is self-organizing, self-configuring, interference management and remote management.

• Picochip reaffirmed the issue of replacing repeaters with additional capacity, suggesting that rationing wasn't the right answer for customers who have grown to love data access. The web will only increase reliance on data connectivity and network operators will need to respond by building out a new network layer to meet demand.

Nitin Bhas from Juniper Research discussed the principals of mobile data offload and onload, where ‘offload’ means data migration from mobile to fixed, and ‘onload’ vice-versa. The spectre of tablets such as the iPad and smartphones being data hogs was once again raised during Nitin’s presentation, as was the important of the ‘offload’ of data due to this very reason.Mobile data traffic from smart phones, tablets and other devices to grow to 14,211 petabytes by 2015. This will be equivalent to 18 billion video downloads. By 2016, 63% of this will be offloaded to Wifi or femto.

Bill Chang, chief planning and strategy officer, UMobile explained that UMobile is a new challenger in Malaysia, challenging three well entrenched incumbents Digi (leader in price), Maxis (leader in products) and Celcom (leader in coverage.)

• Malaysia has 120% penetration, expected to rise to 150% within 5 years. 28 m population.

• 70% of market revenues come from 8% coverage area. Highly urbanised. So when UMobile launched in 2007, made sense to target where 70% of the revenue was coming from.

• Currently has 1200 node Bs and roaming onto 2G partner network.

• Price is in decline in Malaysia, ARPUS are falling for voice. The market has reached revenue saturation.

• Operators need data centric growth and they need it to be low costs business case. Makes sense to use femtocells. (In Malaysia, smartphones make up 65% of new phone sales)

• Umobile has limited capex, so trialling femtos with Alcatel-Lucent. Using home and hotspot femtos.

• Plan to launch femtos commercially. Will improve indoor coverage, data offload, reducing roaming costs (because they have to pay their 2G partner) and bundled services.

• Malaysian govt has target of 75% BB penetration by 2016.

• “Its a no brainer for us to give away femtos for free”

• However their strategy is somewhat hampered by a local regulation (tax) of around US$600 per cellsite – not really significant for macrocells, but a serious problem for thousands of femtocells.

• Continuous Computing launched their "Femtotality" software product. No longer limited to just the protocol stacks, they've invested an additional 150 man years in their application layer (I believe this figure includes an acquisition, otherwise their 200 staff would have been working a lot of overtime) and now offer SON (Self Optimisation), remote management and configuration features too.

• NTT DoCoMo was able to restore cellular service after the earthquake/tsunami in just 6 weeks after 4,900 cellsites were put out of service in the Tohoku region alone - femtocells were part of the solution. They plan to switch off their 2G service next year and have already launched LTE. They intend to deploy LTE femtocells as soon as possible.

• Finally, Broadcom’s Shlomo Gadot gave a provocative presentation where he outlined a compelling vision for femtocell technology. He sees no reason why Wi-Fi hardware should be cheaper than femto in future, and named integration as a key trend. Following this trend, Shlomo gave more details of the forthcoming integrated WiFi/Femto/ADSL residential gateway, the first of its kind, announced by Ubiquisys earlier that same day.

DAY 2

Dr Alan Law of Vodafone Group talking about femtocells beyond the home.

• Vodafone’s vision started with consumer cells, and great things are happening both at home and abroad with this arm of their femtocell operation. But where do you take femtocells when looking beyond residential?

• Vodafone has been trialling its enterprise and rural cells, and some interesting information emerged when Dr Law recounted some statistics from their rural and enterprise test deployments. The amount of dropped calls noticeably decreased when voice and data was offloaded onto the femtocell – which means better quality of service for Vodafone’s customers. There are still some challenging aspects to rural deployment such as IP transport and power locations, but on the whole results were positive.

• Vodafone’s enterprise femto trials have also been successful, with data services noticeably enhanced in enterprise environments when femtocells were brought into the mix. The company’s ‘Metrozone’ concept would provide extra network capacity for data offload in denser urban areas.

Next there was a fascinating presentation from Rick Vergin, CEO of Mosaic Telecoms. He represents a rural telco, and outlined the problems of serving customer who live predominately in farmland or forest. It is desperate to deploy femtocells to not just plug gaps, but create coverage for the first time. Cellular coverage is the chief concern: macrocells can provide coverage to population centers (towns over 200 people) and microcells can support where people gather regularly (schools, for instance). But thousands live outside this coverage area.

• First problem is geography: most of Mosaic’s customers live towns with 200 people up to a small city with 9000. But the 9000 square mile coverage area within its 3G license, comprises mostly farmland or forest – and potentially 100,000 people.

• Mosaic runs 3G in band IV, a relatively underused part of the spectrum from a global perspective. This has caused unprecedented problems with femtocell vendors, with Airvana, Technicolor and Arcadyan all contracted only to subsequently drop out one at a time. Finally, with the guidance of Nokia Siemens, Ubiquisys was selected.

• Farmland is not so bad, but forest is very challenging for the Mosaic’s 35 macro cell sites. CEO Rick Vergin lives 200m from a main road, and 2 miles from the nearest macro cell. On the road, he has line of site and 4 bar coverage, at home he barely has 1 bar coverage. Many of the potential customers in their licensed area have no coverage.

• The femtos will bring coverage to people with currently little or no coverage. Moscaic has no intention to use femtos to create ubiquitous coverage – that would be way too expensive. But what they can do is give subscribers coverage most of the time: at home, at school, at the cafe. It will only be on the journeys between that they may have no bars.

• The rural customers of Mosaic will also benefit from LTE because it will be used to backhaul the femto traffic and also provide broadband access for the first time (remember many of these properties will be far away from an exchange and may not use satellite or microwave. Mosaic will use the 750MHz LTE for residential broadband access, and bundle VoIP and femto/cellular with it. (750MHz is much more spectrally efficient than its 1700/2100 MHz 3G spectrum).

• This is a great case study for not just the 1000 rural US telco but for any operator that either operates in the rural segment or has universal access obligations.

Peter Agnew of Colt Telecom took to the stage to present his views on what it takes to overcome the barriers to launching a femtocell service through fixed and mobile collaboration. If that sounds like a bit of a mouthful, all will become clearer in a minute!

• Colt Telecom is a large pan-european fixed line operator, working in 21 countries with organisations such as major banks. Peter proposed that in working together with a fixed line operator such as Colt, mobile operators will have an ally in femtocell deployment, aiding connectivity, quality of service and increasing the mobile operator’s access to enterprises.

• In essence, what Peter and Colt are proposing is ‘femto-as-a-service’ (‘FaaS’), which was met with some figurative nods of approval on Twitter. Peter finished his presentation by noting that for something like FaaS to work, self-organising network technology would almost certainly need to play a role in such a deployment.

• It’s an important development for operators wanting to take their first steps in femto, which often starts with the low-risk bit low-volume enterprise route. This solution is the first to remove the barrier of high up-front gateway and integration costs, and the subsequent reliance on volume in the business case.

• Another approach, and its not one that COLT said it would necessarily be offering, is to provide in-building installs (as long as there is not radio planning). It makes sense for a business telco with experience of firewalls, LANs and so on to assist both enterprise and mobile operator in this area.

• In dense metropolitan areas, most subscribers are sitting within an office. It makes sense to bring coverage closer to these users, and not charge the enterprise for this (either for the access points or in-building cabling). It improves the coverage of the enterprise subscribers and for everyone else in the macro – both are sufficient incentives for the mobile operator to foot the bill.

• However, more bandwidth available means more consumed. COLT asks, do mobile operators have the fixed-line infrastructure and core-network to cope with the increase in backhaul requirement?

• Cisco’s Mark Grayson, spoke about mobile offload architectures. One of Mark’s main points that resonated with the Twitter audience following the #FWS11 hashtag was that the cost for networks is dealing with the non-uniform peaks in mobile internet demand.

• In their previous experience with large sporting events like the Superbowl, Cisco noted that the volume of traffic leaving the stadium was greater than the volume entering – all thanks to social media services such as Facebook, YouTube, etc. with people sharing content, something that Intel’s Steve Price raised later on.

• Mark suggested that the move to small cells will require a change in mindset, and put forward a suggestion for using converged Wi-Fi/femto architectures for macro offload of indoor traffic – and he also noted that cellular small cells would need to prove themselves at the high densities already deployed with WiFi.

Ubiquisys’ CTO and Founder Will Franks, with a presentation on the next generation of small cells.

• Will started things off with a brief discussion on the evolution and naming of small cells, describing how things have progressed from early residential femtos, all the way to some of the especially advanced outdoor and rural models.

• The building blocks for the next generation of intelligent small cells, Will stated, are 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi. This, combined with the continuous adaptive behaviour offered by our self-organising network technology, helps Ubiquisys small cells to form part of the recently discussed ‘Edge Cloud’ – something also raised in Intel’s presentation.

• Will went on to describe how small cell hotpots will be deployed in the real world, and broke down small cell technology into layers. Starting with the hardware platform (featuring Texas Instruments’ simultaneous dual-mode 3G/LTE), through continuous self organization and self organizing networks, and on to edge cloud computing platforms (Intel) and cloud control systems.

• Ubiquisys reported that Softbank Japan have been able to deploy rural femtocells in just 3 days using satellite backhaul. Their "self optimising femto grid" even works for clusters of rural femtocells at 2km range.

Competitive operator Network Norway, thinks it has the answer for small businesses in Norway.

• Combine mobile centrex with femtocells. Norway is a country that was at the leading edge of fixed-mobile substitution.

• According to Network Norway, 64% of all calls originate on a mobile and 79% of call minutes terminate on a mobile. This is a very mobile friendly country and, believed Network Norway, businesses would be very receptive to mobile centrex.

• The problem is buildings: all that concrete, glass and basements make ditching the desk phone an impossibility unless you can bring the mobile network indoors. DAS (distributed antennae systems) are too expensive for most small businesses. Femtocells are not.

• Network Norway launched a small business femtocells to make their Mobile Centrex service more compelling. The mobile PaBX service offers hunt groups, stats on attendant function, private number plans, conferencing etc.

• What is interesting to me is that they have built smartphone apps (for Ovi, iPhone and Android) which allows users to set up conferences and see presence/availability in contacts (which comes from femtocells).

• In other nomenclature, this is called “collaboration”. Or even unified communications, if you use the IM, email and SMS functions on your smart phone.

• So benefits for small businesses: flexible communications, collaboration, guaranteed coverage in the office, seamless experience, no capex.

The last presentation day 2 featured Steve Price of Intel, with a look at how to ‘differentiate the small cell user experience with an intelligent, application enabling architecture’.

• The internet and mobile internet are both growing rapidly, with the “Gigabit Generation” particular fixated on social networking, which now has a considerable impact on network traffic at large. Service providers are now presented with a great opportunity, Steve said, as they can now take advantage of the fact that they are directly involved in the process.

• The next step is to make sure that intelligence is present throughout the network – and just as important is its location. These intelligent services ensure that the user will be getting a better experience in the end.

• The two key trends identified by Intel were cloud RAN, with China Mobile named as an example, and edge cloud, where the Intel-Ubiquisys collaboration was given as a prime example.

Femtocell Industry Awards 2011

• Individual Contribution: Tom Lismer

• Residential Femtocell Access Point Design and Technology Innovation: Picochip

• Non-residential femtocell access point design and technology innovation: Alcatel-Lucent

• Femtocell Network element design and technology innovation: ip.access

• Femtocell Application: New service or technology: Alcatel-Lucent

• Progress in commercial deployment: Huawei

• Commercial deployment – Marketing Campaign: Vodafone

• Commercial Deployment – technical implementation: Vodafone

• Contribution to Femtocell Standards: Nokia Siemens Networks

• Enabling Technology: Texas Instrument

• Social Vision: NEC

• Judges Choice: Rakon

Complete Details on Femto Forum Website here.

DAY 3

Surprisingly there wasnt much coverage from Day 3. My observation is that by the third day, the people get really tired and its just the analysts who are still around learning, discussing and participating as much as they can. The only summary I found is from the Think Femtocell blog. Here are few interesting points:

• The femto vendor community seems to be frustrated by the slow rollout of Femtos by the network. The technology has been proven and from what I see, if a network is rolling out Femtos, they are getting good reviews and reception from the user community, even though they may have to shell out a few bucks.

• Verizon reported tremendous success when using their femtocell (the Verizon Wireless Extender) to reduce churn. They've also successfully offloaded heavy users from their macro network in Chicago, by sending them a free femtocell – both improving speeds for those high users as well as releasing capacity on the macro network for others to benefit from. Their femtocell solution works well and they're very happy with it. You still can't buy a femtocell in a Verizon store because It doesn't fit with their corporate branding of having the best network.

• In contrast, Vodafone don't seem to have suffered any loss of brand image by promoting Sure Signal – their network brand remains strong and is arguably strengthened by saying they are the only one who can truly guarantee full service indoors anywhere (assuming there is a DSL line to connect with). Vodafone Ireland jokingly apologised for the lower approval figure than Vodafone Greece during their femtocell trials - only 96% (against 98% in Greece) would recommend them to their friends and family. They explained how they had carefully crafted their marketing message to celebrate the positive aspects of their customer's individual homes (thick woods, stone buildings, basement flats etc.) and how simple it was for them to have 5 bar coverage.

• Comcast have built out a lot of Wi-Fi hotspot capacity in addition to their wireline/cable services. They believe in the long term, the usage mix of traffic on wireless will be a similar profile to wireline today – say 50% entertainment (including video), 20% web surfing; a total of 13GB/month. Comcast has deployed some 5000 WiFi hotspots so far, and plan to build out 100K over the coming years.

Wi-Fi has some new features coming – the new HotSpot 2.0, which Comcast will be trialling later this year. Greater use of the 5GHz spectrum will help reduce congestion in high traffic areas. Sports stadiums seem to be the biggest challenge – many users wanting to watch video at the same time, with others trying to use Mi-Fi (cellular to Wi-Fi adaptors) at the same time/in the same spectrum.

• Contela explained how they use femtocells in Korea to offload data traffic. Unusually, the system deals with voice and data traffic differently – switching voice calls to the normal macro network while handling as much data traffic as possible through femtocells and Wi-Fi.

• TOT, Thailand, a relatively new entrant to mobile explained how they can install femtocells at public payphone booths as a quick way to find sites with backhaul connectivity (using DSL) and power. Getting the height of the unit is important – it needs to be slightly out of reach. They also showed their disaster recovery solution – which uses femtocells + satellite backhaul and can be rapidly deployed. In these situations, providing a fixed/wireline phone service isn't useful – most people now have all their phone numbers held in their mobile phone and not written down. Mesh backhaul, linking clusters of femtocells to each other using wireless and aggregating the backhaul to a few egress points, is also a useful option – a maximum of 5 "hops" using a so-called spine and rib architecture matches urban street layouts.

• Stuart Carlaw from ABI Research. Growing number of employees have more than one phone they use in the office (one corporate + one personal). Both phones have mixed voice/data use. After some retrenchment in 2009, voice has continued to grow and is now 779 minutes average for corporate users. Video and picture messaging are being used by enterprise users (on their corporate liable phone) more than ever before. The growing demands of employees are giving their IT departments a major headache, for which enterprise femtocells will be a major part of the solution.

• The Femtocell Application developers toolkit from Alcatel-Lucent isn't locked into their solution. Applications developed and tested using their SDK should also work with any other femtocell system that also conforms to the Femtocell Application API.

• There were a number of operators present at the conference who are clearly there in an active capacity. Most were pretty tight lipped about their plans, but all seem to acknowledge that femtocells will play some part in the story.

Some Final thoughts from the Ubiquisys Blog.

• The latest Informa femtocell market status report, produced for the Femto Forum this week, confirms the strong growth trend with nine new commercial launches in the past quarter alone.

• Both operators and vendors alike were talking about femto technology being used in public-space small-cell hotspots to provide a capacity boost in high demand areas. At least half of the presentations touched on this topic in one way or another. Is it because the growth in data demand is beginning to be felt? Or is it that the low opex and backhaul costs of femto are making a strong business case? In any case, many of the questions about public space small cells were mentioned, such as interoperability with the macro layer and how the necessary high density deployment of small cells will be achieved. The questions were mentioned, but solutions were not – a sure sign of innovative work in progress.

• Colt Telecom unveiled femtocell infrastructure as a service. Because many operators want to make their first femto launch into a low-risk segment, they often opt for SME (small business) rather than consumer segments. Yet the lower volumes in SME can damage the business case, because the upfront costs of the core gateway and systems integration are shared between fewer customers. By offering an incremental managed service cost, fixed line provider Colt might just have made it easier for mobile operators to start femto services.

• Broadcom unveiled a fully integrated femto residential gateway, Texas Instruments won an award for their powerful new 3G/LTE SoC, and Intel presented a future powered by compute platforms in both cloud RAN and edge cloud environments.

• There was a degree of consensus that LTE will be seen first in small cell hotspots, the same hotspots that need to deal with a deluge of 3G data demand over the next few years. Several speakers mentioned that this calls for small cells that can run 3G and LTE simultaneously, like those new SoCs from TI.

• A few years ago you would have seen quite a few femto vs. Wi-Fi presentations, but no more, which is quite a relief to us, as we have been behind combined femto-Wi-Fi devices since 2008. There was much discussion of harmonisation in home and business environments. In public spaces, the idea of tri-mode small cells replacing Wi-Fi hotspots was raised. These would maintain the Wi-Fi capability, but add 3G and LTE cellular, opening the possibility of using cellular’s invisible “login” to replace Wi-Fi’s usual usernames and passwords.

Sources:

Pics Source - Ubiquisys Blog

Report compiled from:

• Ubiquisys Blog

• Think Femtocell Blog

• Wilson Street Blog