Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2007 - (Page 50)

50 FEMTOCELLS that are active now for a market that has yet to prove itself,” he said. TI thinks any significant volume for both its DSPs and analog parts in femtocells will not materialize until 2009, “and that is if all goes well with significant outstanding issues such as standardization and field trials,” said Josef Alt, business development manager for communications infrastructure products at TI Europe. “Cost is bound to be a big issue, and some of the ﬁgures I am hearing for femtocells, say $70, are just not realistic, not even when we get to big volumes in, say, 2012,” Alt said. More realistic numbers, he said, are between $150 and $200. Alt added that TI is working with customers on femtocell designs, “but we are looking very carefully at the business case, as are our big OEM customers, who we think Backing Materials Aluminum Copper Brass will have the advantage in the long run – the likes of Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel Lucent.” That sounds like an ominous warning to the early pioneers developing and supplying femtocells to network operators. Those pioneers include companies such as Ubiquisys Ltd., ip.access, 2Wire, Airvana Inc. (recently acquired 3-Way Networks), RadioFrame Networks Inc. and Tatara Systems, which already have the likes of NEC, Samsung, Motorola ZTE Corp. and Huawei to contend with, in addition to the ones mentioned by Alt, as well as likely contenders from the consumer space such as Netgear Inc. Ubiquisys, for one, is not sitting on its laurels. The Swindon, Englandbased group has been one of those setting the agenda, but Will Franks, CTO, admits “it is not a foregone conclusion this market will succeed.” “Wi-Fi dual mode continues to evolve and grow and we – that is, the femtocell ecosystem – probably have a two year window to make our mark, ensure we come up with standard interfaces, and, above all, avoid fragmentation,” said Franks. Carriers are key For now, the ball is very much in the court of the carriers, and they are at last beginning to make positive noises about the technology. Most observers believe the ﬁrst to commit to a commercial network will be Japanese group Softbank, which has been conducting proof-of-concept tests and trials with equipment from Motorola, ip.access, Ubiquisys and others. Operators known to be looking at the opportunity include Orange/ France Telecom and Telefonica/O2. “We have been talking with equipment suppliers for a while now, but feel femtocells are not mature enough yet and have limited features and will not ready for a mass market until at least late 2008,” said Bruno Dachary, 3G Consumer Launch Director at Orange/ France Telecom. “It is strange to hear people talking about femtocells as a consumer product similar to say a Wi-Fi router. This is not right… these are operator products as they use spectrum owned and managed by operators, and we will rent them to users to retain control,” said Dachary. Benefits Improved Heat Sinking Dimensional Stability Easier Component Mounting Improved RF Grounding Less Assembly Process Time and Better Yields When thermal efficiency is critical, choosing a metal-backed board design can provide improved thermal disbursement capabilities for high power applications. The thick metal ground plane can provide a rigid, flat base for component attachment increasing the reliability and durability of your product. At MCN, our 25 plus years of microwave experience has led to the development of proprietary processes to meet your design requirements for high precision performance. An in-house technical support team at MCN will work with you from material selection, design for manufacturing through the assembly process to provide the best solution and value for your board level requirements. Other Capabilities: · PTFE Hybrid & Metal Core Multilayers · Precision Laser Cutting · Conductive Epoxy Attachment 105 E. Jarretsville Road · PO Box 453 Forest Hill, MD 21050 Tel: 410/879-6553 · Fax: 410/638-7356 www.modularcomp.com Microwave Engineering Europe ● October 2007 ● www.mwee.com 048-050_MWEE.indd 50 21/09/07 13:45:25 http://www.modularcomp.com http://www.modularcomp.com http://www.mwee.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2007

Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2007 Contents Comment News CMOS RF: Si-On-Sapphire Goes Mainstream Cover Feature: New Data Protection Concept for UHF RFID Tags CMOS RF: RF Design Team Touts CMOS Spin for 3G PAs Wireless HID – Are You Following the Standard to Another “Average” Product Development? Phase Optimisation of the RF Front-End Direct Synthesis of UWB-WiMedia Signal Generation 4G Chips to Target 700 MHz Applications Femtocells Mobilize to Fight Wi-Fi in the Home Products Product Feature: AXIEM Pioneers the Future of EM Technology Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - October 2007

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