Who Wins The Femtocell Race? Cable, Wireless or Google
Cable Subscribers and (Femtocell Option)
- Comcast - 25 million (Sprint / Clearwire Wimax femtocell)
- AT&T U-Verse - 20 million (AT&T microcell)
- Time Warner - 15 million (Sprint / Clearwire Wimax femtocell)
- Verizon Fios - 15 million (Airave femtocell)
- Cox - 6 million (Sprint / Clearwire Wimax femtocell)
- Cablevision - 5 million (Sprint / Clearwire Wimax femtocell)
- Charter - 5 million (Sprint / Clearwire Wimax femtocell)
- Bright House - 2 million (Sprint / Clearwire Wimax femtocell)
- Verizon - 89 million (Airave)
- AT&T - 82 million (AT&T Microcell)
- Sprint - 48 million (Clearwire)
- T-Mobile - 34 million (HotSpot@Home UMA / Wifi)
- Tracfone - 13 million (None)
- MetroPCS - 6 million (None)
- US Cellular - 6 million (None)
- Virgin Mobile - 5 million (None)
- Cricket - 5 million (None)
Over the last few years carriers have focused on the technical challenges of integrating femtocells into their mobile networks, but they must not overlook the importance of successfully marketing femtocells within the industry and amongst their consumer base. They have somewhat developed a common terminology but they need to have coordinated branding / marketing strategy to justify usage cases in order to drive femtocell adoption. To be successful, operators will need to develop compelling value propositions aimed at the most appropriate regions who have poor in-building coverage (see our maps). Enhanced indoor cell phone signals and reduced call charges for voice calls made in the home may not be enough to persuade mobile users to adopt femtocell technology, especially in light of alternatives based on UMA / WiFi. For femtocells to be successful, the industry will need to have a smart, targeted, and find differentiated way to market the technology. If they don't do it soon Google will soon take a leadership and educate their rapidly growing customer base how to make VoIP calls on their ad supported Android phones.
We Deadcellzones.com would like to play a an industry role educating and marketing directly to consumers on how to fix coverage problems in the home. Please contact us with questions and feel free to leave your comments and feedback below.