[AusNOG] Femtocells

[Matt S]

Femtocells as sold by carriers are whitelist based - you have to add phone numbers allowed to use the cell - if you didn't want a phone to use your femtocell you could just not whitelist it. I'm pretty sure the Femtocells are also fully managed by the carrier (at least in the case of AT&T, Vodafone AU/NZ).

Vodafone NZ unmeter microcell data iirc - I don't see why Optus couldn't do the same thing.

To James - have you considered just getting insurance with a third party? I have my iPhone insured with protecsure for $150/yr covering accidental damage, loss, theft etc.

Sent from my iPhone

On 14/04/2011, at 9:10, "Narelle" <<mailto:narellec at gmail.com>narellec at gmail.com<mailto:narellec at gmail.com>> wrote:


Having looked at this previously, I'd say it is a really useful way of solving a number of issues, from the operator's point of view: local coverage problems (let's face it, no matter how good your network is there are always those building shadows and gullies that defy radio penetration), base station saturation (more users/usage than a nodeB can withstand), and backhaul capacity. In the latter case, the network operator even has the benefit of the customer paying for the backhaul, so what's not to like about that!

On the down side, the management of interference becomes more problematic, but if the service provider can retain management capability on the femtocell, then the output power should be adaptable to manage the cell boundary issues. That does take time, and attention, and these things also cost. I expect there are some automatic adaptation capabilities, but I haven't looked at specific capability and effectiveness of it lately.

The other issue is with billing - if the operator runs both the consumer/SME broadband service and the cellular service, that doesn't mean the two are on the same billing or metering systems, and it will be very easy to double count the usage. For voice, it can be mere 8kbps streams (compressed), but there is talk now of high definition voice services being releases, and that could easily be 1Mbps streams, either way, with the sort of plans I imagine most people on this list have, it will be a drop in the bucket.

The catch, however, with suck it and see, is that one cannot configure one's handset not to use the femtocell if you find the usage too much. But really, voice calls are two tenths of a proverbial stuff all compared with data usage.

QoS may or may not be enabled, either on your home broadband, and highly unlikely to be across the network, but I can't really imagine it will be much worse, if at all worse, than mobile services generally, even in areas with great coverage.

One would expect that bundles on home internet plans will emerge, and either discounting or metering changes will be integrated into the system then. The link you gave below implies that already for the service provider in question.


Cheers


Narelle


On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 8:56 AM, Tony <<mailto:td_miles at yahoo.com><mailto:td_miles at yahoo.com>td_miles at yahoo.com<mailto:td_miles at yahoo.com>> wrote:

=====
The Optus 3G Home Zone works on any broadband provider’s network, however Optus recommends a download speed of at least 1 Mbps and upload of at least 256 kbps for “best performance”. So if your home internet connection gets throttled your femtocell is also crippled. The data used is not unmetered - even for Optus broadband customers - so you could be looking at excess data charges on your home internet bill. Optus estimates a femtocell will chew through about 1 GB per month. It seems stingy that Optus broadband cable customers don’t have unmetered usage, although the trial is also designed to allow Optus to evaluate various billing scenarios so that may change.
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It also has this link to the Optus website:
<http://www.optus.com.au/home/mobile-phones/homezone/><http://www.optus.com.au/home/mobile-phones/homezone/>http://www.optus.com.au/home/mobile-phones/homezone/
which includes a list of Optus outlets to contact that might know something about it.




--


Narelle
<mailto:narellec at gmail.com><mailto:narellec at gmail.com>narellec at gmail.com<mailto:narellec at gmail.com>
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