‘FemtoZone’ set to take centre stage at Mobile World Congress 2010 as femtocells prepare for the mass market

The femtozone will feature public presentations, from leading operators, vendors, analysts and other industry bodies, as well as public demos of femtocell applications in action. The Femto Forum will also chair the official MWC femtocell track and hold a media breakfast briefing on the state of the market featuring operators and vendors

London, UK – The Femto Forum, the independent industry association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, today announced that it will be hosting the femtozone at Mobile World Congress 2010 (15-18 February 2010). The femtozone will serve as a one-stop-shop for all visitors interested in learning about the latest developments in the femtocell industry. The event takes place as the femtocell market experiences growth around the world with 10 operators now offering services across three continents and further deployments expected shortly.

The femtozone (in a new location in hall 1, stand G19) will feature a daily schedule of public presentations from operators, vendors, analysts and other industry bodies on the major opportunities and challenges facing the femtocell market. This will include an exclusive presentation from independent analysts, Signals Research Group, which has conducted extensive research into the operator business case using real world statistics from the Femto Forum’s operator members. Other presentations will cover a variety of topics that impact operators, device vendors, component suppliers and femtocell application developers. The femtozone will also showcase a wide variety of femtocell products and feature public demonstrations of devices and applications in action.

The Femto Forum will also be holding a media breakfast briefing on the state of the femtocell market at 9am on Tuesday 16th February. Additionally, the Femto Forum’s Chairman, Simon Saunders, will be chairing the official Mobile World Congress femtocell track entitled, ‘Opportunities and Challenges Facing the Next Evolution of Femtocells’, taking place from 2pm-3.30pm on Tuesday 16th February. Finally, there will also be a panel session entitled, ‘Femtocell Network Management Challenges’, taking place as part of the Business Services Symposium at 4.40pm on Monday 15th February.

“With the technical and business challenges overcome, 2010 is set to be the year when femtocells start to become a mass market consumer technology. Services are now live across three continents and operators are beginning to heavily promote their offerings,” said Professor Simon Saunders, Chairman of The Femto Forum. “Mobile World Congress is going to be the key event where operators and vendors come together to share the lessons learnt in the first deployments and work together to take femtocells to the masses. The femtozone is the perfect venue for show attendees to learn about, discuss and contribute to this exciting technology.”

More information on the femtozone, including the speaking program, is available here

About The Femto Forum
Femtocells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum to connect standard mobile devices to a mobile operator’s network using a residential DSL, cable modem or other broadband backhaul connection. The Femto Forum (www.femtoforum.org) was established in 2007 to promote the wide-scale adoption of femtocells. The Forum supports and drives the adoption of industry standards and common architectures to enable the widespread adoption and deployment of femtocells by operators around the world. It directs and implements a multi-faceted program to raise the profile, drive technology development and deployment and promote the potential of femto solutions among industry stakeholders, journalists, analysts, regulators, special interest groups, standards bodies and consumers.