US consumer survey suggests 50pc of mobile subscribers interested in femtocells

LONDON, UK: Femtocells, the mini-base stations intended to improve poor cellular coverage and capacity indoors, have been getting something of a bad rap lately. Although Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T have femtocell services on offer, none have put their weight behind marketing femtocells aggressively.

However the results of a recent online survey of 1000 consumers in the United States suggest that operators are losing out on a significant portion of the market due to their lack of initiative in marketing femtocells or educating consumers on a mass-market scale.

“Close to 25 percent of respondents to our survey were ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ interested in using a femtocell,” reports principal analyst Aditya Kaul.

“Consistent with last year’s survey results, this shows that interest remains high. A further 31 percent were ‘somewhat’ interested. So even in the absence of real marketing by carriers, more than 50 percent of respondents seem interested in the idea. This significant finding shows that more aggressive marketing and consumer education campaigns by carriers should be able to produce positive outcomes for the market.”

However some operators are already experimenting with bundled packages that could alleviate consumers’ price concerns.

The survey’s results also suggest that attitudes to femtocells are to some degree related to age, with younger respondents more open to the idea of femtocells than older ones. Says Kaul, “The age bias, with younger consumers more enthusiastic about femtocells, underscores the fact that carriers need to focus on the younger demographic when selling femtocell services.”