Issue 1

Small Cell Market Status

February 2013

22
Contents
3 3 4
Executive summary

3 Definitions
Purpose of this Document Market developments
Small-cell deployments and commitments Market firsts Market forecasts

4 4 4 6 6 6 8 9

Case study: NTT DoCoMo

Consumer femtocell deployments Dual-mode HSPA/LTE femtocell

A message from the Chairman Small Cell Forum activity update

10 Contact

Copyright 2013 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication are protected by international copyright laws, database rights and other intellectual property rights. The owner of these rights is Informa UK Ltd, our affiliates or other third party licensors. All product and company names and logos contained within or appearing on this publication are the trademarks, service marks or trading names of their respective owners, including Informa UK Ltd and Small Cell Forum Limited. This publication may be freely circulated by Small Cell Forum and its members; however, it may not be commercially exploited without the prior permission of Informa UK Ltd. Whilst reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the information and content of this publication was correct as at the date of first publication, neither Informa UK Ltd nor any person engaged or employed by Informa UK Ltd accepts any liability for any errors, omissions or other inaccuracies. Readers should independently verify any facts and figures as no liability can be accepted in this regard - readers assume full responsibility and risk accordingly for their use of such information and content. Any views and/or opinions expressed in this publication by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Informa UK Ltd.

2013 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. www.informatandm.com

33
Purpose of this Document
The Market Status Report provides regular updates on the status of small-cell market development as it pertains to service providers and small-cell ecosystem manufacturers, and also covers standards and regulatory aspects. Informa Telecoms & Media is researching and producing this report on behalf of the Small Cell Forum. The news and analysis is based largely on news items submitted through the Forum by members and analyst houses, supplemented by research we have conducted through publicly available websites and sources. The Small Cell Market Status Report has evolved in line with the evolution of the Small Cell Forum. Although initially covering femtocells alone, this Market Status Report currently covers the entire market, including public-area small cells. Editorial control remains with Informa Telecoms & Media (see also copyright and acknowledgement sections at the end of the newsletter). Suggestions for contributions may be submitted to the contact details at the end of this report.

Executive summary
Several operators have reiterated their support for public area small cells. AT&T announced that it will deploy 40,000 units by 2015, while Vodafone UK and Verizon are expected to start deploying in 2013. Other operators, including fixed, have announced coverage-driven small cell trials. December last year marked the first launch of a dual mode 3G/LTE femtocell by NTT DoCoMo which allows CS fallback and will be used to promote the migration from 3G to LTE. Orange France has also launched consumer femtocells, diversifying its small cell offerings. The small-cell market is growing at a rapid pace: The largest deployments have already reached 1 million active cells. Initial metrocell deployments are taking place while all the operators in several markets now offer femtocells. Both SKT and KT have launched LTE small cells for public access in South Korea. Virgin Media UK has announced plans to offer a Small Cell as a Service (SCaaS) and has completed extensive trials in the UK. Colt Telecom, Cloudberry Mobile and Clearsky are also offering similar services. According to Informa Telecoms & Medias estimates, the small cell market will generate US$22

billion during 2016, 73% of which will be driven by public area small cells. The number of small cells deployed overtook the total number of macrocells between October and November 2012 and consumer femtocells overtook macrocells during February 2013. The femtocell market now includes several deployments that reach well into hundreds of thousand units, including Vodafone, Softbank and SFR. Sprints deployment reached 1 million units as of October 2012 and analysts estimate that AT&Ts deployment has reached similar numbers. As of February 2013, there are 46 commercial services and a total of 60 deployment commitments. The Small Cell Forum has grown to include 68 mobile operators, representing 3 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, across multiple wireless technologies (WiMAX, UMTS and CDMA) and accounting for 46% of total mobile subscribers worldwide, plus 70 vendors, illustrating that the femtocell ecosystem is experiencing healthy growth.

Definitions
In this report, small cells are defined as wireless infrastructure equipment that operate in licensed bands, which include: Femtocells: Primarily deployed in consumer and enterprise environments Picocells: Deployed in indoor public areas (airports, train stations, shopping areas)

2013 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. www.informatandm.com

44
Microcells: Usually deployed in urban areas or in cases where the footprint of a macrocell is not necessary Metrocells: Deployed in urban areas to alleviate capacity bottlenecks. However, this list is not exhaustive and should only be used as a generic guideline to identify the nature of small cells. Small cells are described by their intelligent nature and borrow the characteristics that define consumer femtocells, including auto-configuration, environment sense, SON and many other intelligent characteristics not found in existing indoor technologies, including repeaters, picocells and Distributed Antennas (DAS). In a way, small cells are described by being intelligent rather than being just a small version of macrocells (where intelligence may still reside in the mobile core network). as a competitive advantage and their competitors are launching small cells to address consumer demand.
Fig. 1: Femtocell deployment segmentation according to target group
Target group Consumer Enterprise Consumer and Enterprise Public Rural
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

Number of deployments 26 6 8 5 1

Examples Vodafone UK, AT&T, Cosmote T-Mobile UK, Network Norway, Orange France Vodafone NZ, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Vodafone Qatar, SK Telecom, TOT Thailand Softbank (using satellite backhaul)

Market developments
The small-cell market is experiencing a flurry of activity, including mobile operators launching small cells and continuing to deploy picocells and microcells while vendors develop metrocell technologies for capacity offload. Several operators have now reported deployments with 100s of thousands of femtocells including: Sprint (US) has reported over 1 million units during October 2012 and estimates indicate that it had deployed more than 1 million during end-2012. Both Softbank and SFR have reported more than 100K units. Vodafone has reported femtocell registered users in the hundreds of thousands in the UK. Although AT&T has not reported its numbers directly, analyst estimates also put them near the 1 million mark.

As of February 2013, nine of the top 10 mobile operator groups (by revenue) are offering femtocell services, including AT&T, China Mobile, France Telecom/Orange, Telefonica, T-Mobile/ Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone among others. Small Cell Forum members include both Tier-1 and Tier-2 operators, which indicates that the business case for femtocells is not unique to the larger operators. A major trend is to offer free femtocells: Softbank, SFR and Vodafone and Cosmote (both in Greece) now offer FAPs for free. SFRs example is interesting as customers do not need to fulfill ARPU requirements to qualify for a free femtocell.

Market firsts
The small-cell market has been active since 2007, when Sprint launched consumer femtocell services to improve its customers experience. Since then, several operators have pioneered new services and in new market segments and are accelerating the evolution of the small-cell market (see fig. 2). As the market is expecting the launch of the first public small cells, it is important to identify these early adopters.

Small-cell deployments and commitments

As the number of small-cell deployments continues to increase, several operators have now launched for both consumer, enterprise markets and in public areas for coverage and capacity enhancements (see fig. 1). Several of these markets are now subject to competition, where operators have identified small cells

Market forecasts
Informa Telecoms & Media expects the small market to experience significant growth over the next few years. Informas forecasts for small-cell revenues (February 2013) indicate that public-area small cells will generate the lions share of total revenues, which amount to US$22bn during 2016 (see fig. 3).

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Fig. 2: Small-cell industry rsts
Service or technology First launch First enterprise launch First public safety launch First standardized launch First LTE femtocell First million deployed First location-based service First dual-mode 3G/LTE Operator Sprint Wireless (US) Verizon Wireless (US) TOT (Thailand) Mosaic (US) SK Telecom (South Korea) Sprint Wireless (US) Vodafone (Greece) NTT DoCoMo (Japan) Date September 2007 January 2009 March 2011 February 2012 June 2012 October 2012 (estimate) December 2012 December 2012

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

Fig. 3: Global, small-cell revenue forecasts, by category, 2012-2016

Consumer 25 Revenue (US$ bil.) 20 15 10 5 0 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Enterprise Public area

microcells and picocells, 4G mini eNodeBs, and 3G and 4G public access femtocells. The company also expects global small-cell revenue to grow at a 73% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during the five years from 2011 to 2016. (Infonetics, September 2012) DellOro Group published a new forecast claiming that the small-cell market will almost quadruple by 2016, which will have an impact on macro revenues. (DellOro Group, September 2012) Juniper Research published a new report claiming that small cells will account for a steadily increasing proportion of offloaded data over the forecast period (2012-2016), reaching over 12% by 2016. North America and Western Europe will account for over 75% of global mobile data offloaded throughout the five-year period. (Juniper Research, June 2012) Infonetics published a new report claiming that, during 2016, 3 million small cells will be shipped and the market will be worth about US$2.1 billion. Infonetics also expects public-space femtocells to make up more than 50% of all small cells shipped in 2012 and 2013; 3G small cells will account for 63% of global small-cell shipments, with 4G small cells kicking off and ramping up rapidly to make up 37%. (Infonetics, March 2012). Mobile Experts published a new forecast claiming that 70 million small cells will be shipped by 2017, including femtocells deployed by mobile operators and picocells used for high-capacity urban networks. LTE small cells are a major part of the forecast growth over the next five years, with more than twothirds of small cells deployed in 2017 devoted to LTE-FDD or TD-LTE. (Mobile Experts, February 2012)

Note: Figures refer to year-end Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

In addition, many industry analysts who cover a number of aspects of the small-cell ecosystem have begun to track and forecast the progress of the small-cell market. The list that follows provides a summary of publicly-announced statements, sorted by reverse chronological order and with some information about each announcement: Infonetics predicts that a quarter of total traffic will be carried over small cells (microcells, picocells and public area femtocells) during 2016. Infonetics also launched a survey: 86% of surveyed operators are planning to backhaul small-cell traffic to nearby macro-cell sites. (Infonetics, January 2013) A new report by Mobile Experts anticipates a shipment volume of roughly 8 million small cells during 2017. In addition, Mobile Experts predicts that half the small cells will incorporate Wi-Fi by 2016. (Mobile Experts, November 2012) Infonetics published a new report claiming that the number of small-cell units sold is forecast to grow nearly 40-fold from 2011 to 2016, including 3G

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Case study: NTT DoCoMo
NTT DoCoMo is the mobile arm of the incumbent operator NTT and is the leader in the Japanese mobile market. NTT DoCoMo offers a variety of services, including UMTS, i-mode and, most recently, LTE. The operator holds almost 50% market share in the highly competitive Japanese market and is considered a global innovator for technologies and business models. The Japanese market is one of the most advanced and competitive environments in the global landscape where 2G has already been switched off in favor of 3G and now LTE. It is not surprising that smartphone penetration is expected to reach 50% during 2013, making the Japanese subscriber base one of the most data-aware in the global market. As with most Japanese mobile operators, NTT DoCoMo has employed a variety of technologies to improve indoor reception in a very dense urban environment with a high population concentration: boosters, repeaters, DAS and, most recently, small cells.
Source: NTT DoCoMo

experience in the home and small office/home office (SoHo) environments. This has been successful so far,
Fig. 1: NTT DoCoMo's dual-mode HSPA/LTE femtocell

and an added benefit of the femtocell deployment is that traffic is offloaded from the congested macrocell when users are indoors.

Consumer femtocell deployments

In November 2009, NTT DoCoMo became the first operator in Japan to launch consumer femtocells with WCDMA/HSPA connectivity and allowing simultaneous use for a maximum of four subscribers. The femtocell allows download speeds of up to 14Mbps (HSDPA) in the 2.1GHz spectrum band. In such a dense urban environment, it is natural that NTT DoCoMos femtocell efforts have been coveragedriven and continue to be offered for the same reason now. NTT DoCoMo had already invested in indoor 3G coverage before femtocells and considers the technology as complementary to its existing indoor solutions (mainly DAS). The operator is now deploying LTE and it is expected that the new technology will have priority over 3G. NTT DoCoMo reports that femtocells have been valuable in areas where DAS are not cost effective. Despite the wide deployment of DAS in public areas and large buildings in Japan, it is not ideal to extend these in smaller environments, as the high capex requirement for DAS usually does not provide a positive business case. Therefore, NTT DoCoMo has chosen small cells in this case, femtocells to augment the user

Dual-mode HSPA/LTE femtocell

Although NTT DoCoMo has been a pioneer in the Japanese market when launching consumer femtocells, it is now a global leader by offering dual-mode WCDMA/ LTE femtocells which will be used for enhancing LTE coverage. The new unit was launched during December 2012 and is being considered as network equipment. In other words, NTT DoCoMo is expected to deploy a unit when a customer does not have adequate LTE coverage. The femtocell unit is not much different from a typical 3G femtocell (see fig. 1). The femtocell allows up to seven simultaneous users for LTE and four for WCDMA. It requires a opticalfiber connection for backhaul. Although operators that have deployed 3G femtocells do not place similar requirements for backhaul, an LTE small cell has higher requirements in order to operate effectively. Having xDSL backhaul for the LTE femtocell would create a bottleneck and possibly degrade the user experience, potentially giving the femtocell service a worse performance compared with the macrocell network. The LTE femtocell can help NTT DoCoMo achieve a faster migration from 3G to LTE, a strategic objective.

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However, achieving a high percentage of national coverage for LTE is challenging and LTE femtocells can help accelerate the migration to LTE without the costly option of DAS for the home and small-business environments. NTT DoCoMo also claims that the LTE femtocell is to be used for enhancing coverage only, although offload is expected to happen naturally as the femtocell deployment progresses. A peculiarity with this LTE small-cell deployment is the necessity of a 3G module for voice. As VoLTE is not yet mature, NTT DoCoMo has chosen CS Fallback for LTE voice which uses the WCDMA network through the femtocell. By doing so, both data and voice services are catered for, but remain future-proof when VoLTE handsets are mature. Moreover, the dual-mode femtocell can provide a better user experience for 3G subscribers and can remain in the same environment when these subscribers upgrade to LTE.

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A message from the Chairman
The small-cell industry is set to shift up a gear in 2013 as small cells spill out of homes on to the streets, shopping centers and enterprises. However, at the same time it faces a critical challenge. While big operators in developed markets are rolling out the technology, how do we help smaller and more conservative operators in all different markets get on board too? While analyst predictions for small-cell shipments and revenues vary, they all have one thing in common rapid growth. Informas latest prediction that the market will grow rapidly to hit US$22 billion in 2016 with the lions share coming from new public access small cells continues this trend. Over the last three months, major operators like AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone have all talked up impending metrocell rollouts showing that the appetite for small cells beyond the home is clear. These developments reinforce an Informa survey from December last year which found that 98% of operators think small cells are essential to the future of their networks. However, to date, the 46 operators to have rolled out the latest small-cell technology are largely big, innovative operators in developed markets. If the small-cell industry wants to meet its most truly transformative potential, it needs to be adopted by hundreds more. These include smaller and conservative operators in developed markets that have waited for the market and technology to prove itself, as well as the vast numbers of operators in developing markets. To help speed deployments, the Small Cell Forum has just launched a Release programme that provides operators with everything they need to know to profitably roll out small cells with minimal risk. Weve published Release One, which provides substantial technical and business case support to operators that have waited to deploy residential small cells until the market and technology were proven while also publishing new cutting-edge documentation to assist operators planning enterprise, metro and rural rollouts. Release One provides all the business case and technical detail, including recommended equipment specifications for RFPs, together with best practice from the operators which have successfully deployed femtocells in scale. It also contains cutting-edge information aimed at assisting new enterprise, metro and rural deployments, including two major new white papers which prove that backhaul will not hold back public-access deployments and that rural small cells can be profitably rolled out in both developed and developing markets. Forthcoming releases over the next 12 months will contain major updates on enterprise small cells and metrocells. These will include lessons from the deployments currently taking place as well as evolving approaches and standards. Subsequent releases will continue the theme of guiding rollouts with major updates to rural and multi-technology small cells that intelligently integrate 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi. If youd like to check out the Release programme then please visit our dedicated site scf.io. Let us know what you think.

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Small Cell Forum activity update
The Small Cell Forum announced Small Cell Release One. This is the first deliverable in its Release programme, which helps operators by providing all the information they need to successfully launch the technology in one easily digestible package. The theme of Release One is the Home, providing the complete body of work that operators will need to know in order to deploy residential femtocells. Release One also contains significant advanced work on future releases, including enterprise, metro, and rural small cells.

2013 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. www.informatandm.com

10
ABOUT THE SMALL CELL FORUM
The Small Cell Forum (www.smallcellforum.org), supports the wide-scale adoption of small cells. Small cells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum, are operator-managed and feature edge-based intelligence. They provide improved cellular coverage, capacity and applications for homes and enterprises as well as metropolitan and rural public spaces. They include technologies variously described as femtocells, picocells, microcells and metrocells. The Forum has in excess of 140 members including 68 operators representing more than 3 billion mobile subscribers 46 per cent of the global total as well as telecoms hardware and software vendors, content providers and innovative start-ups. www.smallcellforum.org info@smallcellforum.org The Small Cell Forum P O Box 23 Dursley GL11 5WA UK

ABOUT INFORMA TELECOMS & MEDIA Informa Telecoms & Media is the leading provider of business intelligence and strategic marketing solutions to global telecoms and media markets. Driven by constant first-hand contact with the industry, our 65 analysts and researchers produce a range of intelligence services including news and analytical products, in-depth market reports and datasets focused on technology, strategy and content. Informa Telecoms & Media Editor Dimitris Mavrakis, Principal Analyst dimitris.mavrakis@informa.com www.informatandm.com Informa Telecoms & Media Head Office Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street London W1T 3JH UK

Acknowledgment
Informa Telecoms & Media acknowledges with thanks the news items and contributions submitted by Small Cell Forum members and Analyst Houses through the intermediary of the Small Cell Forum.

2013 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. www.informatandm.com

Issue 1

Small Cell Market Status

Appendix February 2013

22
Contents
3 4 4 9 9 9 9 12 13
Purpose of this Document Operator activities Small-cell deployments Pricing models Competitive landscape Small Cell Forum members Ecosystem industry support Standards development Regulatory developments

14 Contact

Copyright 2013 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication are protected by international copyright laws, database rights and other intellectual property rights. The owner of these rights is Informa UK Ltd, our affiliates or other third party licensors. All product and company names and logos contained within or appearing on this publication are the trademarks, service marks or trading names of their respective owners, including Informa UK Ltd and Small Cell Forum Limited. This publication may be freely circulated by Small Cell Forum and its members; however, it may not be commercially exploited without the prior permission of Informa UK Ltd. Whilst reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the information and content of this publication was correct as at the date of first publication, neither Informa UK Ltd nor any person engaged or employed by Informa UK Ltd accepts any liability for any errors, omissions or other inaccuracies. Readers should independently verify any facts and figures as no liability can be accepted in this regard - readers assume full responsibility and risk accordingly for their use of such information and content. Any views and/or opinions expressed in this publication by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Informa UK Ltd.

2013 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. www.informatandm.com

33
Purpose of this Document
The Market Status report provides regular updates on the status of small-cell market development as it pertains to service providers and small-cell ecosystem manufacturers, and also covers standards and regulatory aspects. Informa Telecoms & Media is researching and producing this report on behalf of the Small Cell Forum. The news and analysis is based largely on news items submitted through the Forum by members and analyst houses, supplemented by research conducted through publicly-available websites and sources. The Small Cell Market Status Report has evolved in line with the evolution of the Small Cell Forum. Although initially covering femtocells alone, this Market Status Report currently covers the entire market, including public-area small cells. Editorial control remains with Informa Telecoms & Media (see also copyright and acknowledgement sections at the end of the newsletter). Suggestions for contributions may be submitted to the contact details at the end of this report. This report acts as an Appendix to the main report and represents quantitative information about the small-cell market.

2013 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. www.informatandm.com

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Operator activities
Small-cell deployments
Fig. 1: Femtocell commercial deployments as of 4Q12 (47 in 25 countries)
Company
1

Country
US

Offering
Consumer and Enterprise: Airave

Example Pricing

Capabilities

Launch date
Sep-07

US$4.99 per month (US$10 for Up to six users unlimited calling, US$20 for family plans)

http://bit.ly/sprint_us 2 Singapore Consumer: Home Zone (UMTS) S$32.1 per month Up to four users Nov-08

http://bit.ly/starhub_singapore 3 US Consumer and Enterprise: Network Extender US$249.99 Up to three users Jan-09

http://bit.ly/verizon_us 4 UK Consumer: Sure Signal (UMTS/HSPA) Various options: 50 upfront; Free for >45 contracts Up to four users Jul-09 (Access Gateway: Rebranded Jan-10

http://bit.ly/vodafone_us 5 US Consumer: 3G MicroCell US$159 Up to four 3G users Sep-09

http://bit.ly/ATT_us 6 France Consumer: Home 3G (UMTS/HSPA) 199 upfront Up to four 3G users Nov-09

http://bit.ly/sfr_france 7 Japan Consumer: My Area (UMTS/HSPA) US$10 per month Up to four 3G users Nov-09

http://bit.ly/docomo_japan 8 China (Northern Consumer: 3G Inn (UMTS/ FAP cost: CNY1,200. Monthly Provinces) HSPA) fee: CNY10 Up to four 3G users Nov-09

http://bit.ly/china_mobile 9 Portugal Consumer: Sinal On (UMTS) e99.99 upfront. e7.80 monthly Up to four 3G users Dec-09

http://bit.ly/optimus_portugal 10 Singapore Consumer: CallZone (WCDMA) Access point: S$323Monthly charge: S$53.50 Up to four 3G users Jan-10

http://bit.ly/singtel_singapore 11 Spain Consumer: Voz y Datos Premium Ocina (WCDMA) e15 per month Up to four 3G users Jun-10

http://bit.ly/vodafone_spain 12 Japan Consumer: Femtocell service (WCDMA) Free of charge Up to four 3G users Jun-10

http://bit.ly/softbank_japan
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

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Fig. 1: Femtocell commercial deployments as of 4Q12 (47 in 25 countries)
Company
13

Country
Qatar

Offering
Public: Femtocell service in public areas (WCDMA)

Example Pricing
Metro coverage

Capabilities
Up to four 3G users

Launch date
Announced Jun-10

http://bit.ly/vodafone_qatar 14 Japan Consumer: au Femtocell (CDMA2000 1xEV-DO) Free of charge (in coverage deadspots) Up to four 3G users Jul-10

http://bit.ly/KDDI_japan 15 Greece Consumer: Vodafone Access Gateway Free of charge (> e40 monthly contract) e75 (<e40 monthly). e150 retail price Up to four 3G users Jul-10

http://bit.ly/vodafone_greece 16 Spain Consumer: Mi Cobertura Movil e9/month service charge. Requires 3MB DSL service from Movistar Up to four 3G users Aug-10

http://bit.ly/movistar_spain 17 UK Enterprise: Femtocell services for business customers Oct-10

http://bit.ly/t-mobile_UK 18 Moldova Consumer: Femtocell Unite Femtocell tariff add-ons: Unlimited 3G voice, network, Internet Up to four 3G users Nov-10

http://bit.ly/moldtelecom 19 South Korea Public: Femtocells for data ofoad Deployed in public areas Up to four 3G users Dec-10

http://bit.ly/sktelecom_kr 20 New Zealand Consumer and Enterprise: Sure Signal Home AP cost: NZ$349 Enterprise AP cost: NZ$1033.85 Home: Up to four users. Enterprise: Up to 16 users Jan-11

http://bit.ly/vodafone_nz 21 Ireland Consumer: Sure Signal e49 for Vodafone DSL customers, e99 for rest Up to four 3G users Feb-11

http://bit.ly/vodafone_ireland 22 Norway Enterprise: Full Dekning NOK99 Up to four 3G users Feb-11

http://bit.ly/network_norway 23 Thailand Public: Disaster areas: 2G femtocells deployed in disaster areas Mar-11

http://bit.ly/tot_thailand 24 Australia Consumer: Homezone Monthly fee of AU$5-10 (includes free calls) Up to four users Apr-11

http://bit.ly/optus_au 25 Australia Enterprise: Vodafone Expand Unknown Two models: Small (up to May-11 four users), Large (up to 16 users)

http://bit.ly/vodafone_au
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

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Fig. 1: Femtocell commercial deployments as of 4Q12 (47 in 25 countries)
Company
26

Country
Russia

Offering
Consumer: Minicells

Example Pricing
Free

Capabilities
Up to four users

Launch date
May-11

http://bit.ly/megafon_ru 27 Italy Consumer and Enteprise: Booster PrivatiBooster Consumer: e240 Enterprise: e780 Consumer/Enterprise: May-11 Up to 4/8 users

http://bit.ly/vodafone_it 28 Hungary Consumer and Enterprise: Mini Bzis Consumer: HUF165 Enterprise: HUF640 Consumer/ Enterprise: Up to 4/8 users May-11

http://bit.ly/vodafone_hg 29 France Consumer and Enterprise: Couverture Site Confort Free for consumer Enterprise Upfront fee: e1,400 monthly fee: e70 multi-FAP plans available Up to four users May-11

http://bit.ly/orange_fr 30 Romania Enterprise: Extra Signal Upfront fee: e500 Up to 16 users May-11

http://bit.ly/orange_ro 31 Russia Consumer: Reliable Access Unknown Up to four users May-11

http://bit.ly/mts_ru 32 Czech Republic Consumer: Private 3G Zone Upfront fee: CZK3,377 Up to four users Jul-11

http://bit.ly/vodafone_cz 33 Russia Enterprise Unknown Up to eight users Aug-11

http://bit.ly/beeline_ru 34 Netherlands Enterprise: Sinaal Plus Unknown Up to four users Oct-11

http://bit.ly/vodafone_nl 35 Greece Consumer: Perfect Signal Upfront cost: e90. Discounts for postpaid subscribers Up to four users Oct-11

http://bit.ly/cosmote_gr 36 Romania Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown

Presented by Vodafone during Base Station Conference, September 2011 37 Portugal Consumer: Sinal Max FAP cost: e149 Up to four users Jan-12

http://bit.ly/vodafone_PT 38 US Consumer: Homecell US$9.95 per month. FAP: US$199.95, US$99.95 or US$49.95 depending on contract length Up to four users Feb-12

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

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Fig. 1: Femtocell commercial deployments as of 4Q12 (47 in 25 countries)
Company
39

Country
France

Offering
Consumer: Freebox

Example Pricing
Bundled with STB

Capabilities
Unknown

Launch date
Feb-12

http://bit.ly/free_FR 40 UK Consumer: Home Signal Free for certain customers Up to four users Feb-12

http://bit.ly/three_UK 41 China Unknown Unknown Unknown May-12

http://bit.ly/CMCC_China 42 Bahrain Consumer: Zain Cell Free of charge Up to eight users May-12

http://bit.ly/Zain_Bahrain 43 UK Public area Open access Unknown Jun-12

http://bit.ly/UK_SCWS 44 France Unknown Unknown Unknown Jun-12

http://bit.ly/bouygues_FR 45 Germany Consumer and enteprise: Sure Signal Consumer: e1 upfront and e17.73 monthly. Enterprise: e285.48 upfront and e47.48 monthly Consumer: Up to 8 Aug-12 users Enteprise: Up to 28 users

http://bit.ly/vodafone_DE 46 Greece Public area: Free 3G hotspot Free data trafc in Flocafe cafeterias and Goody's fast-food restaurants Dec-12

http://www.vodafone.gr 47 UK Enterprise: Signal Box Variable pricing models, either upfront fee or monthly charge Up to 16 users

http://bit.ly/vodafone_DE
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

Fig. 2: Small-cell deployment commitments

Operator Country
US

Details
Intention to deploy an IMS-based femtocell network

United Arab Emirates

Intention to deploy a femtocell to improve coverage and capacity

Taiwan

Intention to deploy femtocells after regulatory approval. All three operators in Taiwan report that they will offer femtocell services with subsidies.

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

2013 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved. www.informatandm.com

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Fig. 2: Small-cell deployment commitments
Operator Country
Turkey

Details
Intention to deploy Iu-h femtocells, pending regulatory approval

United Arab Emirates

Intention to deploy femtocells during 2011 to bridge xed and mobile services

US

Intention to deploy femtocell services

UK

Intention to deploy femtocells for both consumer and enterprise segments, service listed as pre-launch

Kuwait

Intention to deploy femtocell services for consumer and enterprise customers

Israel

Intention to deploy femtocells

France

Bouygues CEO has claimed that femtocells will help the operator to improve the indoor coverage for LTE networks

South Korea

SK Telecom has developed LTE femtocells and is planning to deploy them for increasing coverage

US

Intention to deploy femtocells

Russia

Intention to deploy femtocells for enterprise customers during 1Q12

Norway

Intention to deploy 3G small cells throughout its footprint and potentially 4G small cells

US

Intention to deploy small cells for public areas following initial LTE deployment.

Spain

Intention to deploy consumer and enterprise femtocells.

Canada

Intention to deploy femtocells during 2012.

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

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Fig. 3 shows the increasing numbers of deployments and commitments.
Fig. 3: Femtocell service deployments and commitments, cumulative totals, 1Q10-3Q12
Deployments 80 70 Cumulative total 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Commitments

Fig. 5: Selection of pricing models for femtocell services

Market Consumer Pricing model Add-ons for unlimited calling Free femtocell Low upfront fee High upfront fee Monthly fee Enterprise High upfront fee Deployment examples MoldTelecom, Sprint, Optus Softbank, Vodafone (GR), SFR Vodafone (UK) Vodafone (Italy, Hungary), Verizon Sprint, Movistar, NTT DoCoMo All operators

Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

operators are active in assessing the business case of femtocells and applying it to their regional environment.
10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 1Q 13

4Q

Note: Figures refer to quarter-end Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

The majority of consumer femtocell services rely on a low upfront fee. On the other hand, enterprise deployments are subject to high costs (e.g., Orange France charges an upfront fee of 1,100 and a monthly fee of 70 for an enterprise femtocell) but these costs are justifiable since femtocells are installed by the operator and technicians perform on-site visits and surveys to select the best location for installing the femtocells. In addition, enterprise femtocells are bigger units compared with consumer units, which may also increase the cost considerably. Notable examples are Optus, Mold Telecom and Sprint, which are offering bundles that can be applied to their femtocell services to offer unlimited voice, data or messaging in return for a monthly fee.

Operators continue to identify a number of major user segments for femtocell and also some exciting service scenarios. In the past, all femtocell deployments were focused on consumer deployment, so it is significant to see that several operators have now specifically commercialized a femtocell service for enterprises. Everything Everywhere launched enterprise femtocells during January 2013 and Orange France has launched consumer femtocells in addition to its previous enterprise launch. From a regional perspective, the distribution of femtocell service deployments is expanding each year in all regions (see fig. 4). Tier-1 mobile operators have expressed the view that LTE and subsequent high-capacity air interfaces are most likely to be deployed through hierarchical cell structures, including femtocells. The publication of the 3GPP and WiMAX Forum standards for LTE and WiMAX femtocells, respectively, is a key enabling factor towards this.
Fig. 4: Commercial femtocell service launches by geography and technology, as at 4Q12
Regional view Asia Pacic EMEA Americas
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

Competitive landscape
Several markets across the globe are now subject to femtocell competition, where more than one mobile operator has launched femtocells (see fig. 6).

Small Cell Forum members

The operator members of the Small Cell Forum currently account for more than 3 billion mobile subscribers worldwide (46% of the global total) across multiple wireless technologies (WiMAX, UMTS and CDMA). Fig 7. lists the mobile operators that are members of the Small Cell Forum; for updated information on its members and their activities, please see the Small Cell Forum member listing.

UMTS femtocell launches 9 (8 FDD and 1 TDD) 34 2

CDMA femtocell launches 1 2

Pricing models
As the femtocell market evolves, a variety of pricing models for both consumer and enterprise markets have surfaced (see fig. 5), which illustrates that mobile

Ecosystem industry support

The small-cell ecosystem continues to grow in both breadth and depth as the femtocell market transitions

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Fig. 6: Femtocell competitive markets, 4Q12

4 3 2 1
Source: Informa Telecoms & Media

Fig. 7: Small Cell Forum mobile-operator members

Source: Small Cell Forum

from the early-adopter phase to early-market growth and a broader range of vendors developing technologies for small cells join this value chain. The small-cell ecosystem can be segmented by: End-to-end solution providers: Vendors that provide a complete femtocell solution which includes femtocell access points (FAPs), femto gateways, necessary middleware and other parts that complete a large-scale femtocell deployment. This segment includes NSN, ip.access, Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent. Small-cell access-point (FAP) providers: Vendors that offer FAPs directly to operators or through other partners. This segment includes Ubiquisys, ip.access, Airvana and Netgear.

Core-network providers: Vendors that focus on provisioning femtocells in the mobile core network. This segment includes Kineto Wireless and Spidercloud. Software and component providers: Vendors that focus on specific parts of the femtocell software stack or provide the necessary silicon to power FAPs. This segment includes Picochip, Percello, Continuous Computing, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. Others: These include test and certification houses, research institutes and other enablers that may focus indirectly on femtocell operations.

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Fig. 8: Small-cell ecosystem, 3Q12
End to end system providers

It is common for vendors to focus on more than a single market segment, especially the end-to-end providers that may offer specific parts of a femtocell deployment on a stand-alone basis.
Other enablers

Network elements

Products

There are 70 vendors in this ecosystem today focusing on products and services in the emerging femtocell marketplace. There are nine providers of end-to-end and system integration worldwide and 20 small-cell access-point providers covering most licensed spectrum types; their number is increasing rapidly as component manufacturers are introducing flexible reference platforms for femtocell access points. There are more than 20 equipment providers providing core network components and in excess of 23 component, software and tools vendors providing a healthy supply to various parts of the solution space (see figs. 8 and 9). All the major infrastructure vendors have now joined the Small Cell Forum and there are also several smaller companies targeting smaller, specialist segments, including test and certification, small-cell-specific silicon and core network components.

Components and software

End-to-end solution providers and system integrators

At present there are nine providers of end-to-end femtocell systems worldwide. Solution providers made good progress throughout 2009 to early 2011 assembling trial and initial market solutions. All solution providers have committed to supporting open standards, especially the 3GPP Iu-h interface standard that was ratified during 2009. Several Tier-1 vendors are in this segment, including NSN, Alcatel-Lucent, Spidercloud, ZTE and Cisco. The presence of these Tier-1 vendors is evidence of the perceived potential of the market.

Source: Small Cell Forum

Fig. 9: Segmentation of vendors in the small-cell ecosystem

25 20 15 10 5 0 End-to-end system providers Components and software Small-cell access points Network elements Other enablers

Small-cell access-point vendors

There are currently 20 small-cell access-point vendors and between them they have more than 50 available or announced product offerings. These access-point solutions vary in both technology and integration with other broadband access technologies. Stand-alone and integrated CPE have already entered the market. Small-cell vendors have provided a variety of intelligent algorithms for interference mitigation and this is a critical turning point for mobile operator acceptance. These vendors are also starting to expand their product lines to enterprise and larger-area small cells, representing a healthy competitive development in a key part of the ecosystem.

Source: Small Cell Forum

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No. vendors

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Core network providers
There are now more than 20 vendors that provide core-network components for small cells with several solutions covering security, provisioning and integration of the femtocell services into the existing mobile operator core network. The categories included in this section are security gateways, femtocell gateways (FNG or HNB-GW), convergence servers (e.g., MFIF) and HNB management. The Small Cell Forum guideline WT-262 is going to be issued as TR-262 from the Broadband Forum, making femtocell integration simpler in broadband networks.

3GPP2 femtocell standardization

The 3GPP2 formal publication of femtocell specifications was published during March 2010. The technical specifications of the new standard are: SIP/IMS is used in the core network to integrate femtocell services, allowing a variety of components from different vendors to interoperate. Enhanced System Selection is supported for improved handset battery life, faster femtocell and macrocell system acquisition, improved handoff between femtocell and macrocell and femto-zone awareness. Local and remote IP access is supported, allowing packet data traffic to be directly offloaded from femtocells to customers home networks, corporate intranets or to the public Internet. When mobile devices are operating outside the femtocell subsystem, the 3GPP2 specifications also include a remote-access capability to allow mobile devices to connect to the users IP network at home and exchange IP data with the home network via a secure remote tunnel. The 3GPP2 specifications provide a complete security architecture that allows CDMA2000 femtocell networks to support large numbers of femtocells via standard commercial IPsec/IKEv2-based security gateways. The 3GPP2 security architecture and protocols are compatible with the security architecture for 3GPP radio-technology-based femtocell devices. This architecture not only protects system operators core networks, but also provides highly secure authentication of FAP devices using secure certificate-based mechanisms and protocols that are widely deployed and validated for security, robustness, manageability and scalability.

Components, tools and software providers

An important factor contributing to rapid market development is a healthy ecosystem of component vendors, development and test-tool as well as protocol/ system software. Silicon providers are continuously evolving hardware platforms to enable small-cell vendors to offer access points that are more efficient and capable of higher capacity.

Standards development
The majority of industry standards have ratified femtocells in their activities, including 3GPP, 3GPP2 and WiMAX. Standardization activities are taking place to enhance the operation of femtocells in these networks.

3GPP femtocell standardization

3GPP Release 10 was frozen in March 2010 and its protocols were made stable during June 2011. Release 10 has introduced support for mobility enhancements for Home eNodeBs. The Stage 2 architecture for the enhancements was ratified in the RAN Plenary in December 2010; it introduced a new Iurh interface between the FAPs and supports soft and hard handover between femtocells. Other important additions to Release 10 include Self-Optimizing Networks (SON), Selective IP Traffic Offload (SIPTO) and Local IP Access (LIPA). Proposals to consider new functionality, including support of Cell_FACH for HNBs and inter-CSG handover for HeNBs, were removed from the Release 10 work item and are now likely to be considered during Release 11.

WiMAX Forum femtocell standardization

The WiMAX Forum and the Small Cell Forum announced the publication of the first WiMAX femtocell standard in June 2010. The specifications incorporate a security framework that allows WiMAX networks to support a large number of access points via standard commercial IPSec-based security gateways. This phase of specifications also contains simple SON capabilities to allow automatic

Broadband Forum standardization

The Small Cell Forum has worked with the Broadband Forum to standardize the inclusion of the ability to manage femtocell-based services; the Broadband Forum TR-196 Femto Access Point Service Data Model was published in April 2009. The Small Cell Forum announced the activity in this area in May with the publication of the Femtocell Services Release 1 API.

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configuration of large numbers of femtocells. Future revisions will further enhance the SON capabilities to standardize automatic interference management between femtocells and macro base stations. The standard also incorporates support for three usage models to support different deployment scenarios such as residential, enterprise and outdoor environments: The Open Model allows the femtocell to operate like a normal WiMAX base station by allowing anyone to use the service. The Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) Closed allows a limited number of pre-allocated subscribers to use the femtocell. The Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) Open extends the previous model to allow the subscribers to add users themselves. including improved access to mobile services and improved spectrum efficiency thereby making the technology a key part of LTE rollouts. A full paper of femtocell regulatory considerations is available on the Forums website here http://www.smallcellforum.org/ aboutsmallcells-regulatory-regulatory-activities. Cellular interference distinguishing between types of cellular boosters and femtocells: The second update focused on the controversy surrounding the issue of interference caused by the use of cellular signal boosters in the US. It highlighted that, because certain specially-designed signal boosters can be deployed without causing interference issues, the controversy concerns the use of improperly-designed signal boosters. However, it also highlighted the distinction between boosters and femtocells which provide the virtues of specially-designed signal boosters but with the added advantage that they also significantly improve network capacity. Femtocells can provide mobile services in areas where cell capacity is under major strain a situation which cell-boosting technology is fundamentally incapable of addressing. In addition, several national and international regulatory bodies have taken specific steps to clarify issues of policy and regulation relating to femtocells. For example, in the US, the FCC organized a forum on October 28, 2011 that focused on indoor deployments of small cells. The forum discussed the technologies available, the potential business models and the economic impact of small-cell deployments.

Regulatory developments
In April 2011, the Small Cell Forum issued the following short paper: Regulatory considerations for LTE deployments: The Forum issued a short statement for the benefit of regulators that may be considering specific regulatory requirements for femtocells using LTE technologies. It emphasized that femtocells are fully encompassed in the 3GPPs LTE standard and, as is the case with existing 3G femtocells, are fully managed by a licensed mobile operator via secure connections and management systems, allowing them to comply with relevant licensing conditions in the same fashion. It also highlighted the regulatory benefits of femtocells

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ABOUT THE SMALL CELL FORUM
The Small Cell Forum (www.smallcellforum.org), supports the wide-scale adoption of small cells. Small cells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum, are operator-managed and feature edge-based intelligence. They provide improved cellular coverage, capacity and applications for homes and enterprises as well as metropolitan and rural public spaces. They include technologies variously described as femtocells, picocells, microcells and metrocells. The Forum has in excess of 140 members including 68 operators representing more than 3 billion mobile subscribers 46 per cent of the global total as well as telecoms hardware and software vendors, content providers and innovative start-ups. www.smallcellforum.org info@smallcellforum.org The Small Cell Forum P O Box 23 Dursley GL11 5WA UK

ABOUT INFORMA TELECOMS & MEDIA Informa Telecoms & Media is the leading provider of business intelligence and strategic marketing solutions to global telecoms and media markets. Driven by constant first-hand contact with the industry, our 65 analysts and researchers produce a range of intelligence services including news and analytical products, in-depth market reports and datasets focused on technology, strategy and content. Informa Telecoms & Media Editor Dimitris Mavrakis, Principal Analyst dimitris.mavrakis@informa.com www.informatandm.com Informa Telecoms & Media Head Office Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street London W1T 3JH UK

Acknowledgment
Informa Telecoms & Media acknowledges with thanks the news items and contributions submitted by Small Cell Forum members and Analyst Houses through the intermediary of the Small Cell Forum.

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