Are femtocells dead on arrival? | Telecompetitor

Femtocells are one of those products that, at least conceptually, look to have disruptive traits. The idea of putting a mini ‘cell tower’ in individual homes and businesses, greatly boosting indoor wireless coverage, certainly could be seen as accelerating ‘cord cutting’ behavior – perhaps in a game changing way. But not so fast.

ABI Research is cutting its forecast on femtocell shipments. ABI now says 55% fewer, from 790,000 units to 350,000 units, will ship in 2009. They also expect 2010 to slowdown. “We expect that deployments in 2010 will pick up but will be slower than expected – our data suggests about a 40% reduction on previous estimates.” Hardly a hyper accelerating trend...