Vodafone group are one the largest global operators, and their recent strategy has included investing heavily in 3G coverage in developed markets. They have been amongst the first to deploy HSPA, which offers higher data rates which increase with each new release. Their data tariff plans are not the cheapest, but are used by many businesses. They were also the first European network to launch a femtocell commercial service in July 2009, which was rebranded and relaunched as Vodafone Sure Signal in January 2010.

Femtocell History at Vodafone

The company has been researching and evaluating femtocells from the beginning. Their technical director in 2007, Michael Walker, gave a lecture which included aspects of femtocells to the IET (Institute of Electronics and Technology) which was recorded and is available online.

Vodafone Group were reported to have issued an RFQ to vendors in June 2007, and trials were being carried out in Spain using Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei equipment during 2008.

Newspaper reports that Vodafone Portugal was also trialling the technology (January 2009). These trials are also confirmed on the Vodafone website , which highlights potential privacy concerns (i.e. your operator would know when you're at home) and their policy towards this.

(Vodafone also owns and operates wireline DSL broadband services in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Germany and several other European countries).

Vodafone's website also displays a statement about femtocells in their corporate responsibility section , highlighting the benefits (including low RF radiation levels and reduced need for more outdoor masts).

This global player has launched commercial service in the UK in 2009 (initially called Vodafone Access Gateway), which was later rebranded and relaunched in January 2010 using the name SureSignal. Femtocell service was then launched in other subsiduaries around the globe and has also been used for residential, enterprise and metro-femto applications in many countries.

Speaking to TechRadar in early 2011, their CTO Jeni Mundy, explained that a wide range of trials and options are being actively evaluated for public and outdoor use.

History of Vodafone UK Femtocell Service - Vodafone Access Gateway

Announced commercial availability of femtocells in their UK network from 1st July 2009, with a product named "Vodafone Access Gateway". This used the Alcatel-Lucent femtocell solution (with access point provided by Sagem, based on a picoChip chipset). Access is controlled through a white list of up to 30 permitted users, which can be updated on request by calling customer care.

The initial launch offered several pricing options:

- bundled with a more basic 3g phone (Ericsson C510) + femtocell + some minutes/texts for £15/month
- bundled with high end phone (HTC magic, similar to Android) + femtocell + 600 minutes/text for £30/month
- femtocell only for £5/month
- femtocell only for one-off price of £160

The product was initially targetted at the consumer market especially for coverage issues, and will be used by customer retention teams (i.e. offered to customers leaving due to poor coverage). This is the first large network operator to launch a full 3G UMTS based femtocell.

The product launch also featured on the BBC news

Read how I got on with buying, installing and making my first call on the Vodafone Access Gateway.

Vodafone UK SureSignal

In January 2010, Vodafone relaunched and renamed the product Vodafone Sure Signal, using the same hardware and systems. The issue of updating customer "white lists" of permitted users was resolved by introducing an online self-service webpage, with updates actioned almost immediately. A more extensive nationwide marketing campaign was conducted including promotions on billboards, radio and press - such as the billboard below.

The price was reduced to £50, with some high spending subscribers reporting that they had received one free of charge. The article reports a survey which identified that 18% of mobile users regularly find themselves outside coverage when at work or at home.

We interviewed Vodafone UK's senior product marketing manager responsible for SureSignal, Lee McDougall.

A billboard advert is shown on the left.

Since then, it is claimed that Vodafone has shipped and installed more femtocells than its own outdoor basestations.

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