Femtocell Trials to Start in Singapore

Posted Fri, 9 May 2008 05:26:36 EDT by Hwai Lin Khor

Singapore will have its first taste of femtocell this mid May following the announcement from its No. 2 mobile operator, StarHub. 200 of its existing cable broadband customers will test the technology over a six-month period to assess its ability to improve residential wireless coverage and consequently drives data services adoption. The trials would be an assessment to the effectiveness of the technology in Singapore dense city and buy time for the carrier to develop suitable business models, as well as engage the right femtocell vendors; before it commits itself to something major.

 

Singapore mobile market is highly competitive with mobile penetration exceeding 100%. SingTel, StarHub and M1 are already offering HSDPA services, while StarHub is also the country’s first operator to operate HSUPA.  Due to its small land mass, nationwide 3G service coverage is already complete. Almost 80% of Singapore population lives on high rise buildings. Skyscrapers, in some extend, attenuate cellular signals but it is often not difficult for one to obtain connectivity from the nearest macro cells. Hence, the main driver for femtocell in Singapore would be capacity.

 

Operators go on cut-throat competitions with one another to offer value-added 3G services with attractive pricing schemes to manage churn and gain better revenue. This drives the demand for more capacity. Moreover, StarHub and SingTel are full-service carriers that also offer triple play bundles with fixed-line, mobile, and TV. Hence, femtocell fits well into their portfolios as existing broadband subscribers can readily put femtocell into use without further installations; while operators can still deliver mobile value added services to subscribers at home. TV and multimedia contents from both cable TV and IPTV services can be delivered to subscribers’ handsets with guaranteed bandwidth and possibility of dual direction interactivities. These arguments substantiate the move for both operators to explore femtocell.  Nonetheless, issues like uncertainties in the immature technology, service price plans, equipment cost and maintenance, vendors’ credibility and so forth need be scrutinized; which makes this StarHub trial an important milestone for femtocell.