ip.access showcased its femtocells recently in the capital. So what are
your plans for the Indian market?
We see a lot of potential in India, initially for our 2G picocells, and also
future opportunities for 3G picocells and femtocells. With rapid subscriber
growth in India, 2G picocells is the most cost-effective way for mobile
operators to solve network capacity and coverage problems for business customers
and indoor public spaces.
How do you plan to impress the operators so that they look at femtocells
as an attractive alternative?
Operators in India today are looking at 2G picocells for business customers.
There is an immediate business case, not to say urgent need, for this type of
solution. 3G picocells for business customers will follow on naturally. The
telecom pundits are questioning the value of consumer femtocells in India,
citing low penetration of residential broadband (a requirement for femtocells to
backhaul traffic). It might take a while for broadband penetration in India to
make 3G femtocells an attractive proposition for operators, but we are confident
that this will happen in times to come.
What kind of lucrative price offering do you plan for the Indian operators
for deploying femtocells?
2G picocells are a mature product with a strong business case. We don't see
price as a barrier to deployment. Femtocells are just being introduced into
developed markets, and prices will fall as the volumes ramp up.
 |
Mark
Pittick
VP, sales and marketing, ip.access |
Femtocells have got a poor response from India as voice has been a big
driver of the market. Will 3G services attract femtocell investments in India?
We are focusing on 2G picocells initially, which fits with the current market
demand for voice services. However, we believe 3G will be popular in India in
the future. Since data services require a much better signal quality than voice,
3G picocells and femtocells become even more important for 3G than they are in
2G. We see a lot of opportunity for 3G picocells and femtocells when the 3G
market takes off in India.
Telecom majors like Vodafone have already started testing 3G repeaters?
So, does it hint at a gradual death of femtocells?
Not at all. Repeaters can be useful in boosting signal quality in areas where
the signal is present already, but they cannot solve network capacity problems.
In fact they make the situation even worse. Femtocells and picocells add
capacity to the network, as well as provide improved signal quality. Many
operators are replacing their old repeater technology with picocells.
Heena Jhingan
heenaj@cybermedia.co.in
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