Sprint Femtocell Growth Up 240% in One Year


Sprint (NYSE:S) now counts 600,000 femtocells on its network in 2012 according to this Fierce Wireless article. This is a big jump from the 250,000 femtocells Sprint said it had deployed as of March of 2011. Sprint also it plans to update its Airave femtocell product to support CDMA services over its 800 MHz network and to enable the products to better work together to coordinate coverage.  The updates would be available sometime in 2012.

What is a Sprint femtocell and how much does it cost? Femtocells are essentially mini cellular base stations that users can install in their house or workplace for voice and data coverage, and can route the resulting cellular traffic through a standard wireline Internet connection.  The device made by Samsung costs around $99.99 and carriers a $5 monthly fee.

What does the growth of femtocell usage say about carrier macro networks and WiFi alternatives?  It says that carrier macro networks are still very congested and that most people are still using their cell phone and smart phones to access data at home and in the office.  Will consumers finally learn to use WiFi whenever possible?  T-Mobile allows customers to make WiFi phone calls and it works great.

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