Pico cells and portable base stations get further boost with FMC

The benefits of FMC have for some time been widely proclaimed by telcos in helping to reduce capex while also utilizing less spectrum. It offers a service and technology agnostic solution, ideal for bringing in NGN. Bundling of DSL and broadband on mobile is also an advantage of FMC. Besides all this, mobiles are the most convenient mode of communication today, and FMC allows anywhere connectivity with a stronger network-all from a single portable device.

Vikas Bansal, director, carrier sales, Cable&Wireless, India and South Asia at an exclusive briefing to CyberMedia said, “Network fluctuation is a nagging problem with mobiles which effects the quality of communication. Thus, we at Cable&Wireless had launched FMC one and a half years ago in our offices in the UK, wherein the mobile phone acts like a desk phone with an internal network. This helped to deal with the problem of lack of signal and call drops with the help of small, portable antennas being placed at strategic locations in the office, and the tower just on top of the individual building. Moreover, the same technology can be used for a private or public network and also at home.”

This technology can be deployed through picocells, femtocells or Wi-Fi. Though picocells that are smaller are preferred for enterprises, while femtocells are preferable for home networks. This presents a more viable alternative to having separate phones or IP-enabled network which requires special, expensive desk phones; the latter can be replaced with FMC. While picocells and femtocells can work on standard phones, Wi-Fi routing requires a special phone.

Speaking on the benefits of FMC at a recent conference, Deepak Mukherjee, GM, switching, mobile service, MTNL remarked, “Unification of services is the future trend. Thus, convergence of home to office and on the move connectivity is required; this is where converged and technology-independent services come in. Segregation of services needs a common database, and FMC is thus going to change the communication context.”

With 3G coming in, IP usage will increase and data services will be at a huge cost in the future. According to recent surveys, data has already overtaken voice. So free calls on the internal network with FMC present a substantial cost saving, besides the savings on maintenance. Also, FMC provides flexibility and integration as individual companies can deploy it, eliminating the need for a third party contract or toll bypass, as the private communication network is connected to public GSM network. Voicemail messaging and other features are also a possibility.

Bansal said, “Cable&Wireless has supported pico cells and deployed this in their offices with mobiles being given to all employees. Also, by deploying it in 1,500 stores in the UK, Cable&Wireless has been able to capture the fixed line revenue with an overwhelming response due to the huge reduction in costs. We believe that hotels can also deploy this technology, as it provides good signal. In India, we are in talks with BSNL for FMC introduction, which will pick up after the increase of spectrum and clearance of licensing issues. We believe the quality of this network will help in our survival in the cut-throat Indian market.”

With India seeing over 19 mn mobile subscriber additions on a monthly basis, FMC could well be a success; as clearly mobiles have taken over fixed phones as the primary line and as the most popular mode of communication.

berylm@cybermedia.co.in