Femtocell market set to double in 2012, Airvana expands lead

LONDON, ENGLAND: Infonetics Research released excerpts from its third quarter (3Q11) 2G/3G/4G Femtocell Equipment market share, market size, and forecast report, which tracks femtocells by market segment and technology.

“This year the femtocell market will scale up significantly and break out into clearer market segments: consumer, enterprise, and rural and metro public space femtocells. As price points continue to come down, we expect to see global femtocell revenue nearly double this year while unit shipments grow at nearly 140 percent compared to 2011,” predicts Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave, mobile offload and mobile broadband devices at Infonetics Research.

Market stats
* Worldwide revenue from 2G and 3G femtocells used in consumer, enterprise and public spaces grew 9 percent sequentially in the third quarter of 2011, with 2G femtocell revenue declining and 3G femtocell revenue ramping.
* Year over year (3Q10 to 3Q11), global femtocell revenue is up 37 percent.
* W-CDMA/HSPA femtocells accounted for 72% of all femtocells shipped in 3Q11
4G LTE femtocells are expected to start shipping in late 2012.
* Femtocell market leader Airvana is the first to break through the $25 million quarterly revenue threshold, expanding its revenue market share lead significantly.
* The Cisco/ip.access partnership maintains its lead in terms of femtocell unit share, and increased its quarterly femtocell revenue to its second-highest level to date, but did not gain revenue market share as other players also posted notable gains, including Huawei and NEC/Ubiquisys.
* A growing number of operators are offering free femtocells to their consumer subscribers, including SFR France, Softbank in Japan, and Cosmote in Greece.