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Femtocells in China
Femto Forum held its first event in China on 15 October 2009.
Working
closely with partners the Beijing Internet Institute and Avren Events,
the first China Femtocell Symposium was a resounding success, with over
450 attendees including representatives of all the major operators.
The
conference opened with a very supportive address from the
Director-General of the Bureau of Radio Regulation of the Ministry of
Industry & Information Technology, identifying the opportunities
for femtocells to deliver great 3G services within existing spectrum.
Rising demand
The
event made clear that conditions for femtocell success in China are
very much in place, including rising fixed and mobile broadband demand,
evolving 3G networks coverage and regulatory support.
It seems that the market is very much poised for rapid evolution and Femto Forum will be supporting these deployments actively.
New members
The membership of the Forum has continued to grow over the past
quarter, adding a number of telecoms giants such as Cable & Wireless
and Qualcomm.
Illustrating a wider consumer electronics industry
interest in the potential for femtocells and related services, market
leaders Sony Corporation, Sumitomo and Toshiba recently joined.
The
total membership now stands at 119, including 55 operators that
account for over 1.4 billion mobile users. The wide range of
input and opinions provided by the membership is
helping to drive the industry forward apace.
Also in this issue:
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Progress on standards & interoperability
 Our recent announcement of the world’s first comprehensive UMTS Femtocell Plugfest signals
that the market is edging ever closer to mass deployments of standardised UMTS
femtocells. A proven standard will give operators and consumers greater choice
and widen the market for vendors. Here we look at the critical developments and
how these leave the state of femtocell standardisaton.
Back in April the Forum announced, in
cooperation with 3GPP and the Broadband Forum, that in just 12 months an
agreement on a femtocell standard covering network architecture; radio and
interference; femto/management/provisioning and security had been reached. Now,
a mere 6 months later, widespread vendor support for a comprehensive
interoperability testing program has been achieved.
The Plugfest will kick off in March 2010 with
ETSI coordinating tests to demonstrate the effectiveness
of the 3GPP’s Iuh interface as defined in Release 8. Equipment being tested includes femtocell
network gateways, security gateways, femtocell access points and chipsets from
key vendors. The speed with which the new standard is coming together is little
short of remarkable. Few expected that femtocells could be included in release
8 and fewer still would have believed that interoperability tests could be
organised in less than a year. Typically it takes around 3 years between
agreement of a standard and the first interoperability tests. It is testament
to the desire for standardised femtocells from operators and the commitment
from vendors that the process is being carried out so quickly.
Beyond the world of 3GPP, the collaboration
between the Femto Forum and the WiMAX Forum on a WiMAX femtocell standard
continues to progress positively. Meanwhile, our members are busily working
within 3GPP2 to support their advanced work on a CDMA femtocell standard.
Upcoming events
Click HERE for more
information and member discount rates
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