 Convergence & VoIPNetwork World's Convergence & VoIP Newsletter, 10/03/07Femtocell enables carriers to offer FMC alternativesBy Steve Taylor and Larry HettickSprint earlier this month announced a service that lets users make and receive unlimited calls at home using any Sprint mobile phone. The service called Airave, is being trialed in selected areas of Denver and Indianapolis, and uses femtocell technology. A femtocell, also referred to as a home base station, connects mobile phones to a wireline broadband network, providing enhanced in-home wireless coverage. It also offers the carrier a cost advantage because it uses the Internet for low-cost backhaul to the public phone network. Sprint’s Airave will use a $49 femtocell access point provided by Samsung and unlike some other fixed-mobile solutions that require a dual-mode phone, the service is compatible with any Sprint mobile phone. The service is priced at $15 per month for individuals and $30 per month for families, in addition to the customer's regular wireless voice plan. When callers leave home, their calls are automatically transferred back to Sprint’s mobile network.
Sprint plans to make Airave available later this year to other customers in Denver, Indianapolis and Nashville and to customers nationwide in 2008, according to the company’s announcement. Unlike T-Mobile’s HotSpot @Home, a Wi-Fi based alternative which can connect to a T-Mobile home base or any T-Mobile hot spots, the unlimited minutes using the Airave device are limited to the customer’s home calling area. But the femtocell can offer better in-building coverage than a public cell site and it solves a problem for some mobile users because it puts the technical equivalent of a personal cell site inside the home. And for users who are considering wireless substitution or VoIP for their current land-line phone, the Sprint solution offers a better price than VoIP and an inexpensive in-home unlimited calling plan for a mobile service. For existing Sprint customers, choosing an Airave service won’t extend their mobile service contract term. And, while targeted to consumers, this fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) could potentially be used by small businesses. Our analysis: We find it ironic that Sprint and T-Mobile, the third and fourth largest mobile service providers behind AT&T and Verizon are the innovators in FMC alternatives. But we don’t find it surprising that the two larger carriers are dragging their feet on an FMC solution since AT&T and Verizon both have a substantial wireline investment to protect. And we wait with anticipation for enterprise-grade FMC solution using femtocells since they may solve some of the voice over Wi-Fi transmission quality issues associated with Wi-Fi connections. And despite all the cool ways to connect voice calls, some issues remain. For example, how can caller locations be identified for E-911 services when users roam between a femtocell, Wi-Fi, and cellular network? We’ll cover that next time.
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| Contact the author: Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to Webtorials, the premier site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and market research. Taylor can be reached at taylor@webtorials.com Larry Hettick is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in voice and data. He is Vice President for Telecom Services and Infrastructure at Current Analysis, the leading competitive response solutions company. He can be reached at lhettick@currentanalysis.com ARCHIVEArchive of the Convergence & VoIP Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007 |
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