Page 1
June 2009
Applications
Live at Femtocells World Summit
The industry is increasingly taking an interest in the possibilities
for femtocell-enabled applications. At this year’s Femtocell
World
Summit in London, the Forum and Avren Events will jointly
host a
free event featuring live demonstrations of the latest services.
FEMTOCELL APPLICATIONS Live will take place on Tuesday 23 June 2009,
from 6pm-8pm, and will demonstrate how femtocells can drive a new
generation of services. The mobile applications on show take advantage
of the ‘presence’ capabilities of femtocells and the ability to easily
connect mobile phone users to the home network and the web via a
high-speed cellular connection.
For example, when a consumer enters the home their phone can
automatically receive personalised reminders from family members,
upload their photos to their PC or download their favourite catch-up
TV/podcasts.
The aim of the event is to raise awareness among developers and the
media of the potential of femtocells to power innovative new mobile
applications and services. We are also eager to get feedback from
developers about what they need in order to use the features of
femtocells to evolve a powerful addition to the rapidly growing mobile
applications business.
|
Words from the chair
by Simon Saunders, Chair,
Femto Forum
The femtocell industry is currently in transition. With the major
challenges facing 3G femtocells largely overcome, the industry is now
directing its attention to a longer-term vision for the technology,
while addressing the factors to enable the industry to achieve its full
scale and potential beyond the initial service launches.
Much focus is now on next generation network deployments based around
femtocells. With the rollout of such networks on the horizon, there is
a clear opportunity for femtocells to be employed from the outset. This
will enable users to benefit from the best possible user experience
from day one, while allowing operators to deploy their new networks
more efficiently and cost effectively than ever before.
This explains why femtocells have already been included in the LTE
standard and are currently being incorporated into the WiMAX
specifications. More on that HERE.
At the same time we’ve also seen femtocell technology make major steps
beyond the home. The industry is primed for the first enterprise
femtocell deployments, building on the same economies of scale and
standards created for domestic femtocells. There is also increasing
operator interest in outdoor femtocells – a concept few could have
foreseen 12 months ago - which further illustrates just how quickly the
technologies and associated service opportunities are evolving.
The vendor community, cooperating in some cases with specialist
developers, has also started releasing specialized femtocell
applications. At a time when the popularity of mobile applications is
soaring, femtocells offer fascinating new possibilities which add a new
dimension to the consumer proposition. The world’s first cooperative
multi-vendor showcase of femtocell applications will be on show at the
Femtocells World Summit later this month. More on that HERE.
Yet with all this interest in the longer term future of femtocells, the
reality of the here and now hasn’t been neglected. Over the past few
months we’ve seen the last few obstacles to 3G femtocells overcome. The
world’s first femtocell standard was recently completed by 3GPP and the
Forum unveiled positive in-depth business case research combined with a
modeling tool which is proving to be a major hit with operators
planning deployments.
The scene is set for some more early 3G deployments this year, setting
the scene for increasing volumes during 2010.
|
