There's an articulate and interesting article on picocells and the UK's new low-power GSM licences over at The Register.
Unfortunately, the author appears to have overlooked the announcement of Teleware's launch of Private Mobile Networks (PMN) a month ago....
... and also the minor fact that it's not just Opal/CPW that has an MVNO available to roam onto, so of course does BT.
I'd also disagree strongly that "O2 has a headstart" as the type of usage case posited - home femtocell/gateway at <£100 + Be's DSL + roaming onto macro network - is unlikely to be a feasible commercial offering before 2008 at the earliest. At the moment, there's still no real-world major tests of standalone femtocells, and I'm not aware of any having been announced that are integrated with a DSL/WiFi gateway.
Dean Bubley's Disruptive Wireless: Thought-leading wireless industry analysis
I did know that Teleware launched their service, but they still suffer from having to issue their own SIMs, so roaming on to a UK network suffers from traditional roaming charges. Of course it can be used for private networks, but their use is more limiting, also as they paid so much for their license they have a lot to recoup.
ReplyDeleteBT are in a stronger position and they have the clout to "force" Vodafone to allow use with their MVNO even though they are a competitor - just because they are an MVNO it doesn't guarantee them access to Vodafone's network - they still require Vodafone's co-operation.
Opal/CPW are in the same position, except they are already making enemies with the mobile networks (i.e. Orange and Vodafone) - they'd still have to persuade O2 to allow them access to their network to utilise the low power GSM in such a way hand-off etc was transparent.
O2 could utilise their guard band license with existing kit, but for fill-in now, I agree the in-home etc use will take longer.
Steve