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Forum LinkedIn group
The Forum is pleased to announce its own
linkedIn group for everyone interested in the development and
deployment of femtocells. The group provides an opportunity to connect
with people in the industry, share ideas and get the latest news
updates.
Holdin' out for a heroDisruptive Analysis's
Dean Bubley's 2010 predictions hit the nail on the head as far as
femtocells are concerned: 'Consumer femtocells - ignore the impatient
critics expecting overnight adoption, the momentum is building slowly
but steadily. The need for extra capacity, offload and the ability to
use them as services platforms is inexorable. I'm expecting decent-size
deployments in 2010 - although ignore anyone suggesting it's an
alternative to WiFi.' Couldn't have put it better ourselves, Dean.
Also in this issue:
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San Diego summary...San
Diego last month played host to Avren's Femtocell Americas event and
the Femto Forum's plenary - both saw a hive of activity.
Avren's
event was especially interesting as the US is a particularly competitive
market for femtocells with the three largest operators all offering
services. In fact, operators were very much the order of the day with a
dozen representatives from all three continents making presentations -
reflecting the fact that North America, Europe and Asia all now have
numerous commercial deployments. The operator presentations focused on
everything from 4G and enterprise femtocells to the latest in
applications and the secrets to making launches a success.
Unsurprisingly, given the US is such a hotbed of femtocell activity,
the show was packed out and the live demonstrations proved to be a big
draw. Notably, one of the live demonstrations featured a
femtocell-aware handset application working with three different
vendors' devices. The collaborative effort was aligned with the Femto
Forum's Services Special Interest Group (SIG), which aims to make it
simpler for developers to build and deploy new femtocell applications
using standardised Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
The
Femto Forum's plenary saw major progress on a number of fronts.
Detailed preparations were made for the femtocell Plugfest which is to
take place in March 2010. The interest in these interoperability tests
has been overwhelming and the event is now officially full .
The Plugfest will demonstrate how effectively the new UMTS femtocell
standard facilitates the interoperability of products from different
vendors.
With the 3GPP release 8 standard about to undergo
tests, the plenary also saw major activity supporting release 9 which
is set to be completed in Q2 2010. Forum members have been making
detailed contributions to ensure that the revised standard will enable
optimal use of femtocells. At the same time, significant attention was
paid to the femtocell standards within 3GPP2. The forum has been
advising on enterprise femtocells as well as the long-term vision for
the technology. With the progress being made by 3GPP2 and indeed the
WiMAX Forum, the industry is on track to have standards in every
industry body completed in the first half of 2010.
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