Demand for improved 3G reception will be a principal driving force behind the growth of femtocells in the next few years, with subscribers exceeding 15 million globally during 2012. According to Juniper Research, femtocells began as standalone units but will become integrated into the home wireless routers in future, to form a “multi function mix and match” home network services gateway.
Juniper’s report author, Howard Wilcox, said: “Surprisingly for some people, surveys such as that by Orange in March show that most mobile usage actually takes place from our homes. Poor indoor signal strength and slow web access are quite common problems faced by users. Femtocells offer an attractive solution – both for users and network operators who themselves can achieve economies through data traffic offload.”
The research company identified Western Europe, North America and the Far East & China to be the top three regions for femtocell subscribers in 2014. Moreover, they said that revenues from new, advanced femtocell services will gain traction as soon as 2011…
More information about the study titled “3G Femtocells and Beyond: Opportunities & Service Scenarios in the Home 2009-2014” is available from Juniper’s website.