Femtocell joint venture between OnePhone and E-Plus, OnePhone Germany will open a second office on 1 April in Hamburg.
The office complements OnePhone Germany’s head office in Erkrath close to Duesseldorf.
The provider opens the office in Hamburg to fulfill increasing demand from companies in the North of Germany for OnePhone’s services.
SK Telecom has announced that it will establish 1,000 data femtocell zones this year and will expand it to 10,000 by next year.
According to the company, different from Wi-Fi, the data femtocell is designed to work well in small areas like a home, school and workplaces, and support up to about 20 network users. A data femtocell is especially well-suited for high-traffic and crowded small areas that require mobility. In contrast, Wi-Fi is better utilized for large-scale traffic flow at a fixed spot.
SK Telecom added that with its use of the 3G network, a data femtocell is more secure than Wi-Fi and supports handover for seamless connectivity. At a femtocell zone, the data transmission speed is over double that of a regular 3G network because only the selected users will use the data service.
Verizon has launched a 3G version of its Network Extender, a Femtocell that allows home mobile-phone users to take credit of the home broadband connection.
According to the Verizon spokesman, Verizon is pricing the new network extender at $249.99, the same as the older model, and will support up to six Verizon Wireless customers. Since the extender is a 3G model, users can also download data over the connection.
Femtocells provide the equivalent of a small, local cell-phone tower for home use, that’s especially effective for users who live in areas of weak or non-existent signal.
According to Verizon, users don’t have to adjust their plan to take advantage of the extender, which is about the size of a traditional router. But the users will be charged minutes for their calls, in accordance with their existing plan.
The router will be manufactured by Samsung, the manufacturer which produced Verizon’s first network extender.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: By unveiling its commercial femtocell services in the country, Vodafone Spain has claimed to be the first mobile network operator to do that. The telco launched the service in partnership with Chinese vendor Huawei. The service has been launched under the brand name of Voz y Datos Premium Oficina Vodafone’ and aims at corporate customers.
According to the telco, the 25,000 companies which are currently utilizing its Oficina Vodafone services will be able to take advantage of the new product. Femtocells will be sold by Vodafone for EUR15 (USD18.33) per month, and the device will support a total of 32 devices, with four able to connect to it simultaneously.
In order to utilize the service, the customers will also be required to have, or sign up for, Vodafone’s business ADSL service.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A number of game-changing challenges have been faced by the mobile operators as handset vendors corner the market for applications. Explosion in data usage is one of the challenges. Operators could not cope up with huge increases in data traffic and as waves of new smartphones and tablets appear, the situation is only going to get worse.
Data-transmission bottlenecks could be clear with the use of technology such as Wi-Fi and femtocells, as well as network improvements like fiber backhaul and the rollout of WiMax and LTE (Long-Term Evolution). Addressing the problem directly is the need of the hour for the operators.
Need for new pricing schemes that address heavy users of mobile data has also been underlined by AT&T in the U.S., KDDI in Japan and Vodafone in Europe.
Controls, limits and payment parameters will result in the increase in the subscription rate. Some heavy users might be disappointed because they won’t be able to do what they used to, or will have to pay more for what they used to get. The changes will probably benefit normal users, for example, by people who download music all day.
According to Alcatel-Lucent’s CEO Ben Verwaayen, operators should rethink the notion of just charging for capacity and data and most people don’t understand what a gigabyte of data allowance means, instead, operators should look at charging extra for services.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an aim to improve the quality of wireless connectivity in homes and offices, trials of femtocell technology has been launched by Qatar Telecom (Qtel). The trial will be carried out on a limited basis in several business premises as well as private residencies using femtocells.
This will act as low power indoor wireless access points, directly connected to Qtel’s broadband network. It has been anticipated by the operator that by providing enhanced signal strength, the femtocell technology will improve 3G mobile internet access within buildings.
Besides the quality of mobile voice calls will also be improved, 60% of which are made indoors in Qatar.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 4G†might be used by some operators and vendors for their LTE and WiMAX services but its real specifications under the 3GPP umbrella will be published in March 2011 under Release 10.
LTE Advanced will be included in Release 10 of the 3GPP specifications which along with the next evolution of WiMAX will be submitted as a contender for a 4G standard under the ITU’s IMT-Advanced programme.
According to Adrian Scrase, vice president of international partnerships at 3GPP, R9 includes around 50 new features, such as LTE standards for femtocells and specifications for self-organizing networks, which will be crucial for femtocell deployment.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In a bid to increase its uptake, femtocell offering has been rebranded and its cost has been cut by British mobile network operator Vodafone UK. The cellco will market the devices under the Sure Signal moniker. Vodafone is the first operator to commercially launch femtocell in Europe under the Vodafone Access Gateway banner, in June 2009.
Indoor base stations cost has been cut to GBP50 (USD81.89) from the original GBP160 price point. According to Guy Laurence, CEO of Vodafone UK, no other network in the UK can ensure a great mobile phone signal in the home, because the Sure Signal is unique to Vodafone.
The sure signal device of Vodafone is compatible with all 3G handsets, plugs straight into any home or office broadband line with a download speed of at least 1Mbps, improving 3G coverage indoors.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The name of the femtocell product will be changed and the prices will be reduced by Vodafone UK in a renewed bid to attract consumers to its indoor coverage proposition.
On price plans of £25 or more, Vodafone Sure Signal will be available at a fixed price of £50 while for price plans below £25, Vodafone has priced the Sagem-made Sure Signal at £120, or £5 per month for 24 months.
The femtocell will also be made available by Vodafone to small business customers at the same prices minus VAT. Originally launched in 2009, Vodafone Sure Signal was treated as the Vodafone Access Gateway, with a price tag of £160.
