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Femtocells: Europeans clueless on mobile access tech
'Is that a hygiene product?'

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Monday 23 June 2008

Most people in Europe are still blissfully unaware of what a femtocell is. However, once the potential benefits of the home base station tech are explained a significant chunk want one, a survey has found.

For the benefit of the three-quarters of Europeans surveyed who can't tell the difference between a femtocell and a refreshing wet wipe, femtocells are small home base stations which make use of fixed-line broadband connections to boost mobile reception indoors.

Femtocells are also the great hope of mobile operators as - provided they gain mass market adoption - they could enable operators to reliably serve rich 3G services such as video to consumers at home, without having to invest big bucks ramping up the density of their networks by erecting more real base stations.

Despite femtocells' current low profile on the consumer radar, the survey - conducted by ABI Research for mobile operator Motorola - found significant appetite for the tech once the great unwashed are told about 'key benefits', such as increased mobile coverage in the home, improved call quality and lower cost voice calls at home.

More than 40 per cent of Europeans said they 'definitely or probably' plan to make a purchase in the next 12 months.

Poland was the most femtocell-friendly nation, according to the survey, with two-thirds (67 per cent) planning to purchase a femtocell service in the next 12 months, followed by Spain (62 per cent) and Italy (61 per cent). In the other three nations surveyed, the tech seized the imagination of around a third of consumers: France (34 per cent), the UK (34 per cent), and Germany (33 per cent).

The research, which polled more than 1,800 mobile and web users in the six countries, also found more than half (54 per cent) of respondents would like to be able to buy their femtocell from their existing broadband vendor, indicating they may see it as an extension of their fat pipe service.

In addition, there is clear consumer desire for a service that works straight out of the box, avoiding complicated set up procedures. Bundled comms services including a femtocell were popular too, with more than a third of respondents showing interest - good news for integrated operators with both mobile and broadband offerings.

More information on femtocells can be found in the silicon.com Cheat Sheet.

In related news, femtocell maker ip.access has announced it has developed a 3G home-routing tech which connects third-gen phones into a home network via its Oyster 3G femtocell.

The company said this does away with the need for a wi-fi-enabled device, enabling the 3G handset to connect directly to a home network and be used for apps such as streaming video from a home media server to the phone.