Anonymous

Bristol

marketing

It is true that femtocells aren't a solution for everyone, but then not many things are.

You raise a number of points, but to touch on a couple:

Operators in different countries have different motivations.

In America, voice coverage is patchy, so a service that lets you use your cellphone at home has a lot of value, bioth for user & the carrier: this is whyt Sprint has launched their Airave.

In Europe & Asia, voice coverage is good, so it is more about data. Contrary to your assumption, that does mean the biggest driver is for 3G femtocells.

Finally, you say "why would I pay?". Well, mostly likely the carrier will subsidise. (Would you pay full price for a mobile? Not many people do).

The carrier benefits from improived use, reduced cost (offloading their network), and as data starts to fill up network it is cheaper to offer femtocells than to build new macrocells.