Femtocells: Great for carriers but new challenges for network planning

On Friday, Paul Taylor published a column in the Financial Times extolling the value of femtocells.  While Taylor focuses mostly on the benefits femtocells bring consumers (e.g., better cell coverage at home and in the office, removal of the last real stumbling block to cutting your wireline connection), I was struck by the benefits to the wireless carriers.  The chief benefit has to be dramatically expanding your network coverage and capacity at no real expense.  In the U.S., Sprint Nextel is charging customers around $50 for a femtocell (roughly 10% of the real cost) and then $30 a month for the service.  I’m not quite sure what the service charge is for since the femtocell routes your wireless call over the broadband Internet connection you have already paid for.  Carriers get better network coverage and the customers pick up the backhaul tab.  Brilliant.

This got me thinking about how femtocells add another layer (or layers) of complexity to network resource planning.  For example, how does the integration of femtocells impact network planning and network evolution decisions (e.g., when should you build a full cell site and when should you push femtocell adoption)?  When you are relying on your customers’ broadband connections for backhaul, how do you handle third-party outages that your customers blame on you?  At what density can femtocells really contribute to your overall infrastructure?  Add in the ongoing femtocell standards debate and it should be an interesting couple of years for femtocells and those responsible for planning their deployment.