4G Femtos Set To Ship By Year’s End

In an updated quarterly report that tracks the growth of femtocell deployments and sales, Infonetics Research notes year-over-year (3Q10 to 3Q11) global femtocell revenue is up 37 percent, and femtocell maker Airvana is the first to break through the $25 million quarterly revenue threshold. 

“This year, the femtocell market will scale up significantly and break out into clearer market segments: consumer, enterprise, and rural and metro public space femtocells,” predicts Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave, mobile offload and mobile broadband devices at Infonetics Research. “As price points continue to come down, we expect to see global femtocell revenue nearly double this year, while unit shipments grow at nearly 140 percent compared with 2011.”

Here are a few more Infonetics findings:

>> Worldwide revenue from 2G and 3G femtocells used in consumer, enterprise and public spaces grew 9 percent sequentially in 3Q11, with 2G femtocell revenue declining and 3G femtocell revenue ramping.
>> W-CDMA/HSPA femtocells accounted for 72 percent of all femtocells shipped in 3Q11.
>> 4G LTE femtocells are expected to start shipping later this year.
>> The Cisco/ip.access partnership maintains its lead in terms of femtocell unit share, increasing its quarterly femtocell revenue to its second-highest level to date. However, it did not gain revenue market share because other players also posted notable gains, including Huawei and NEC/Ubiquisys.
>> A growing number of operators are offering free femtocells to their consumer subscribers, including SFR France, Softbank in Japan and Cosmote in Greece.