China Unicom calls their femtocell service “3G Inn”

Reuters report in this story (Chinese original version) that China Unicom’s website offers this new service called “3G Inn”.

It combines fixed broadband access with 3G UMTS sevice in the home to provide excellent data and voice service.
A 2Mbit/s broadband speed is required to use it.

Pricing is based on a regular monthly fee for a contract period.

The product is aimed at domestic users.

It appears to be a standalone femtocell rather than a combined unit with DSL broadband or other capabilities.

Not known yet

Full commercial details – initial/monthly pricing, minimum contract terms, whether available on prepaid only.

Femtocell performance – max. speed, number of concurrent users (likely to be 4)

Photo or other product description.

Selected product vendor

(If any readers have additional information, please add to the comment section below or email us directly through our contact form).

Likely suppliers

Conjecture on my part would suggest that potential vendors of the femtocell solution would include Alcatel-Lucent (who also supplied Vodafone) or Huawei. Perhaps a less well known local Chinese manufacturer might be involved, but I wouldn’t expect them to be used for the initial launch period – better to use a company with extensive trial experience in other operators.

Timely

China Unicom have the exclusive national license to operate GSM and 3G UMTS, the most common 2G and 3G mobile phone technologies in the world.

They launched their 3G UMTS network nationwide only a month ago, and so will still have some way to go before there is extensive and comprehensive 3G coverage.

Unicom also introduced the Apple iPhone for sale nationwide on October. Although there are already many iPhone users in China (grey imports running on 2G), only China Unicom can offer the full 3G service and capability. It is estimated this will double their monthly increase in new subscribers to 1.8M.

This approach allows Unicom to rapidly accelerate excellent coverage inside homes where 3G does not penetrate easily, compensating for fewer outdoor cellsites.

Competitive Advantage

China Unicom does not have the size or scale of its primary competitor China Mobile yet. China Mobile dominates the 2G GSM market, with over 500M  subscribers compared to some 140M on Unicom. China Mobile has already invested heavily in their 3G network, which uses the unusual TDS-CDMA technology as yet only adopted inside China.

Nationwide rollout of TDS-CDMA continues quickly by China Mobile, with some 60,000 cellsites planned for upgrade before end 2009 (that's an awful lot). However, takeup has been very poor - latest official figures were 1.3M by end August 2009. Strong efforts are being made to introduce a wider range of TDS-CDMA handsets and increase subsidies for end customers. Unable to offer an Apple iPhone, China Mobile is developing the "oPhone" which seems to be based on the Google Android open source platform. The target is for 80M 3G TDS-CDMA subscribers by end 2011.

There are several TDS-CDMA femtocells being developed, but no information about whether China Mobile would launch one commercially.

The iconic Apple iPhone continues to be a global success, with it accounting for a growing market share. Apple’s quarterly results last week emphasized how successful their business is – they just can’t make enough of the devices – with profits far exceeding industry analyst expectations. It is rumoured that their component suppliers are unable to support other customers, with Apple taking all of their output to meet demand.

A different approach to launch announcements at conferences

This "stealth marketing" is quite a contrast to Vodafone’s launch in Europe, with a high profile and unexpected announcement made at the start of Femtocell World Summit which stole the limelight from their competitors.

Instead, China Unicom withdrew their speaker from the China Femtocell Symposium held only a few days earlier. I’ve not seen any formal press coverage outside this Reuters report.

As with other femtocell launches,  after the initial commercial availability in limited areas it may take some months  before becoming available nationwide. Operators need to gain confidence from running the service commercially, iron out any technical glitches (including with their back office systems) and tune the commercial packaging/pricing to local market demand.

The Magnificent Seven

China Unicom follows operators in the US (3), UK, Japan and Singapore to become the 7^th commercially available femtocell service.

Do share any further insight into this commercial launch. My Chinese language ability is sadly lacking!

Comments (7)

Zach said:

	Tech Geek That is amazing news for both China Unicom and femtocell technology. China is a huge market and the first femto deployment will surely generate great advantage for the operator that does it!
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November 04, 2009
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Yongjie said:

	... Product vendor include Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens.
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November 09, 2009
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Simon Saunders said:

	Actually there's now an eighth operator.... See the newly launched Femto Forum state of the market report on our website
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November 17, 2009
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ThinkFemtocell said:

	... Hi Simon. I'm pleased to note that NTT DoCoMo launch tomorrow (18th Nov), which will add another to the list following China Unicom as you suggest.
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November 17, 2009
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Pavel Skorodumov said:

	Selected product vendor David, Huawei is the main vendor as far as I know, Alu is in trial in some provinces of China. As for Nokia I haven't heard about their Femto yet...May be Yongjie know better.
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November 19, 2009 | url
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ThinkFemtocell said:

	China Unicom femtocell vendor Pavel. Thanks for this information about vendors. It wouldn't be a surprise for Huawei to be the prime vendor in China. ALU also have a strong presence. Nokia don't make a femtocell themselves, they make a femto gateway and resell Airvana and also interwork with other independent femtocell vendors. Any more insights always welcome (can be anonymous if you prefer)...
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November 19, 2009
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Shuang said:

	... I don't think China Unicom's femtocell will have a big market, the AP is so expensive for Chinese, also we already have WiFi
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November 30, 2009
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