We're changing our name! Recognising that Femtocell technology is no longer limited to the home, the industry has been using the term Small Cells to encompass Femtocells, Picocells and Metrocells. Since we have already been covering this wider scope, we've decided to rename the website into ThinkSmallCell. You'll continue to find the same high quality articles, information and insight on our website - just don't be surprised when the new name appears.

Picochip is to be bought by Mindspeed for around $50million. While the press release has been widely circulated, there has been relatively little deeper analysis of the deal and the issues surrounding it. Here are some further views, backed up by investor briefings and a call with a Picochip executive.

ABI Research, one of the leading analyst proponents of femtocells, issued a somewhat despondent end of year summary for 2011, noting that the growing number of live commercial femtocell operators wasn't translating into the large number of shipments they had forecast a year or more ago. Their latest market size estimates provide some insight into the size and shape of the femtocell industry today.

With the passing of another year, it’s time to reflect back on the achievements of the last 12 months and consider what awaits us next year. As usual, we compare progress with our predictions from this time last year and make some bold assertions of what’s to come.

Qualcomm have published a research paper comparing LTE femtocells operating in close co-ordination with the macrocell network (a so-called HetNet or Heterogeneous Network) and secondly macrocells augmented by uncontrolled Wi-Fi. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, the results favoured the operator controlled femtocell scenario. But for me the surprise was just how much more effective LTE was than Wi-Fi, showing a capacity gain of 920% from just 4 LTE femtocells. The question is - does this present the full picture?

The cable TV companies have been in the news a lot recently, with some significant decisions announced that change or reconfirm industry direction. The past week has seen major announcements from Comcast, Time Warner and Cox communications as they release spectrum and wireless network assets. Meanwhile Sprint made some major changes at Clearwire (which they own 50% share of), while Verizon is well placed to take advantage of closer ties with the cable companies. Sprint plans to use Clearwire as part of their LTE solution - we ask if this is the most cost effective approach and consider the implications. 

Manish Singh, CTO of Radisys, shares his industry views on the emerging consensus for small cells to solve the data capacity issue, discusses how different vendors are approaching product development and reveals a surprising aspect of the format and purpose of the first dual-mode 3G/LTE femtocells.