Airvana Blog

Airvana Presenting at Broadband Traffic Management Conference

Join Airvana tomorrow during the Broadband Traffic Management Conference! 

Taking place June 21-22, 2011 at the Hotel Marlowe in Boston, MA.  Michael McFarland, Airvana’s senior director of marketing and product management, will present the session entitled ‘Femtocells as a Coping Tool for the Mobile Broadband Explosion’ at 4:45pm on June 22^nd.  

This session, presented on behalf of the Femto Forum, will address how femtocells enable operators to reduce network cost while improving the user’s experience.  Specifically, Mr. McFarland will explain how femtocells can help operators cope with the explosion of data and signaling traffic, how femtocells and WiFi can be complimentary, and the role of femtocells in 4G networks. 

With over 15 years of experience in the communications industry, Mr. McFarland currently leads marketing and product management for Airvana’s CDMA femtocell solutions. 

For further information about the North America Broadband Traffic Management Conference, please see http://www.broadbandtrafficevent.com/america/home.

Airvana at Mobile World Congress 2011

This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) was a busy one for Airvana.  Overall the show attendance was up – over 60,000 according to the GSMA people.  This uptick probably results from the economy’s mild rebound from the economic downturn that had dampened attendance in the previous two years.

Airvana took the occasion of MWC to announce our LTE femtocell strategy, which emphasizes the need to support multi-mode 3G+LTE femtocells.  In his speech at the Femto Forum’s Femtozone, Airvana VP of Marketing and Sales Amit Jain pointed out that, despite the move to LTE, 3G devices will dominate for the next five years at least, and therefore femtocells will need to support all the subscribers’ services, not just LTE data.  During the Femto Forum press conference, Director of Product Marketing Josh Adelson (me) was quoted in the Show Daily saying that “3G is going to be around for probably as long as most of our careers.” Amit’s presentation, including the device penetration market data, plus Josh Adelson’s presentation on the Femto Forum Business Case Model, can both be downloaded here. 

A crowded Fira, Mobile World Congress 2011

The other foundation of our MWC LTE announcement is our relationship with Freescale, and in particular our selection of their newly-announced QorIQ Qonverge base-station-on-chip silicon platform.   This platform not only gives us the ability to support multiple air interfaces in a single femtocell, it also gives us the flexibility to scale from small consumer units to larger systems for enterprises and public spaces.

We also held a number of product customer and partner meetings based on our announcements, show activities and ongoing business.  Thanks to all who visited us.  Next it’s on to Orlando for CTIA.

The FemtoZone at CES: Impressions from Year 2

The Femto Forum’s Femtozone at CES 2010 effectively marked femtocells’ “coming out” to a mass market audience.  The Femtozone returned for CES 2011 and as a member company representative I had the chance to work in the booth.  At CES you meet a wide variety of people, mostly from outside the mobile communications industry, so it’s a good barometer of the wider perceptions of femtocells and where they fit.

A year ago, the overwhelmingly most asked question was “what is a femtocell?”  This year, we still hear that, but markedly less.  Many people entering the booth already know about femtocells, and a not insignificant number already have them. They came to the booth to find out what is new, or when a 4G model will available.  And yes, even a few complained of femtocell problems – to be expected with over 350,000 now installed in the U.S. alone.

Femto Forum Chairman Simon Saunders instructs a skeptical but willing apprentice Andy Germano (FF Vice-Chair) on the benefits of the five bar lifestyle.

The Femto vs. Wi-Fi religious wars seem to have ended peacefully.  More people are more aware of the fact that while these two technologies overlap, they are not perfect substitutes for each other.

In a move reminiscent of last year’s femtoJack announcement, Picochip announced a reference design for a femtocell in a USB form factor, to take advantage of the USB slots that are becoming more and more prevalent in home routers and gateways.  However unlike the femtoJack, Picochip’s module stands a chance of actually coming to market, as it would use a standard service bought through one’s mobile operator.

Commercial femtocells on display in the FemtoZone.  At lower right is the Sprint AIRAVE unit made by Airvana.

Speaking of business models, there is a lot of talk of that as well.  I spoke with people in the booth exploring MVNO models, use in office buildings, and legalities of deploying outside the operator’s geography.

The underlying implication is that femtocells are now an accepted product category and the discourse has moved on to normal business: market strategies and what will the next product releases have in store.

See Airvana At 4G World

Next week the industry assembles for 4G World in Chicago.  Airvana will be there in cooperation with two key industry organizations, the CDMA Development Group (CDG) and the Femto Forum.

On Monday October 18, Qualcomm is hosting a special track “LTE and 3G: The Next Leap Forward”.  Airvana’s Director of Product Management Mike McFarland will take part in the 2:30PM panel discussion What’s Next for 3G CDMA? alongside panelists from Qualcomm, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, ZTE and the CDG.  The focus of this panel will be the roadmap for CDMA operators moving to LTE including new revisions of EV-DO plus of course femtocells.

On Tuesday October 19, the Femto Forum will host a Femtocell Track.  Here, Mike will participate in the 4:00PM panel Femtocell Deployment Options, along with representatives from picoChip, Continuous Computing, ip.access and Senza Fili Consulting.  Mike will share observations from Airvana’s commercial 3G CDMA deployments in the U.S. and Japan.

Sprint’s Home Cell-Tower Giveaway May Pressure Rivals - BusinessWeek

By Greg Bensinger

via www.businessweek.com

Here is an interesting article with implication that operators may start using femtocells to compete for subscribers.

Airvana's Femtocell Market Focus

Over the past several years Airvana has invested aggressively to develop femtocells for CDMA and UMTS.  We are seeing the fruits of that investment with both Sprint and KDDI now deploying Airvana CDMA femtocells. Those deployments have been received positively, as the early reviews attest.   Femtocells will continue to play a strong and increasingly important role for mobile operators around the world, both within existing network architectures and in new LTE deployments.

Going forward, Airvana is choosing to concentrate our investments and roadmap on femtocells and femtocell management systems for CDMA, LTE and combined CDMA+LTE solutions. We will be discontinuing our HubBub UMTS products, but the technology and experience gained through our UMTS product development will be applied to future CDMA and LTE solutions.  By focusing now on CDMA operators—including their transition to LTE—we believe we can deliver the best possible solutions and therefore have the most positive impact on the femtocell market as a whole.

CDMA operators currently serve 546 million subscribers in 120 countries and these numbers are growing.  This market drove Airvana’s initial growth to be a $150M+ provider of macro radio access network solutions.   CDMA operators were the first to offer femtocells. We believe we offer the best CDMA femtocell solutions for this market, and two of the world’s four largest CDMA operators have already adopted our solution.

As the worldwide mobile industry moves steadily to adopt LTE, the LTE femtocell solutions we develop—combined with the commercially-ready UMTS assets that we have developed—will be relevant in all markets, including those that currently operate with UMTS.

We remain excited about the future prospects for femtocells; by sharpening our own focus as a vendor we hope to maximize our contribution to the continued growth of the market.

KDDI Promoting Femtocells

Japanese mobile operator KDDI recently launched their au Femtocell service. Now they are promoting the femtocell in their retail stores. A brochure (below) being placed in the shops describes the femtocell solution and promises to improve subscribers' in-home coverage within 48 hours.

 

Airvana Femtocells Seen at Wireless Japan

Airvana's femtocell was featured prominently this week in KDDI's booth at Expo Comm Wireless Japan.

From left to right, au Hikari Home Gateway, Airvana Femtocell, handsets.

 
Here is a trade show graphic showing a) 10m coverage in a small house, b) stable coverage with no interference, and c)EV-DO Rev A at 3.1 Mbps download speed.

Here is a KDDI staff member providing femtocell literature to the customers in the crowded booth.


This marks Airvana's public debut in Japan's femtocell market.  Thanks to Airvana's Japan team for their alert reporting, and of course to our friends at KDDI and Hitachi.