Femtocells critical for mobile triple-play, In-Stat says

MUNICH, Germany — Market researcher In-Stat regards the deployment of femtocells as critical for the mobile triple-play market. According to the analysts, subscriber figures will explode over years to come.

While the wireless market in the industrialized world is approaching saturation and carriers do not have the possibility to offer differentiating features, triple-play mobile services would be a possibility to regain the initiative. However, this type of service presently faces signal coverage and capacity issues, In-Stat finds in a study.

Nevertheless, if mobile operators succeed in solving this problem, they can expect rising subscriber numbers and, thus, higher profits. An adequate technology is presently at the starting blocks. "Femtocells are a practical, near-term cure for these problems, with not practical limitation", explained In-Stat analyst Allen Nogee. And what is even better: "Femtocell is unlikely to be superseded by another technology in the foreseeable future."

According to the market research, the installed femtocell base is expected to grow to 40.6 million from virtually zero within the next four years. The number of users will reach more than 100 million within five years, the analysts believe.

The pricing scheme for femtocell devices as well as for services will be a major challenge for the short term and likely require operator subsidization, In-Stat writes.