AT&T Mobility to sell $100 femtocells

AT&T Mobility to sell $100 femtocells

According to a report from research and banking firm ThinkPanmure, AT&T Mobility plans to sell up to 7 million femtocells from ip.access Ltd., a picocell and femtocell infrastructure vendor based in Cambridge, United Kingdom.
According to ThinkPanmure, AT&T signed a contract with the firm for up to $500 million in femtocells over the course of five years, and will sell the devices for as little as $100 each.

A spokeswoman for AT&T did not comment on the report specifically; however, she said the nation's largest carrier is examining the potential benefits of femtocells through lab tests, and plans to conduct a femtocell trial "later this year."

Representatives from ip.access were not immediately available to comment on ThinkPanmure's report.
Femtocell technology has caused a notable stir in the wireless industry. Femtocells essentially are tiny base stations that can be sold to individual phone users. Femtocells can be installed in homes or offices, and transmit cellphone traffic through a high-speed Internet connection. Femtocells work much like Wi-Fi hotspots, except they power transmissions over a wireless carrier's licensed spectrum.

Thus, femtocells raise a number of potentially troublesome issues for users and carriers, including the management of radio interference between a cell tower and a femtocell; radio interference between different femtocells, such as in an apartment building; and roaming between femtocells.

Nonetheless, femtocells could solve one of the biggest headaches wireless carriers face: indoor coverage. The installation of a femtocell in a home or office would eliminate the need for a carrier to cover that same space, and offloads the cost of the equipment onto the user.

And a number of carriers have embraced the technology. Sprint Nextel Corp. was the first out of the femtocell gate in the United States; the carrier in September introduced its Airave femtocell from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. for $50 along with a monthly fee. The product allows users to make unlimited calls over their femtocell connection.
When the Airave launched, it was only available in Denver and Indianapolis. The carrier expanded distribution to Nashville in October.

T-Mobile USA Inc., though, is taking a slightly different tack. The carrier last year introduced a dual-mode calling service that allows users with GSM/Wi-Fi phones to place calls over their Wi-Fi network for free.

Although AT&T would not comment on its UMA plans, Current Analysis analyst Peter Jarich said that if the carrier placed UMA software on its iPhone "they'd probably see a great uptake and they could eventually leverage the core network kit to support femtocell network integrations as well."

ThinkPanmure said GSM operators will roll out femtocells on a broad scale by next year.