Bill Hogg, AT&T SVP for Network Planning and Engineering, presented at last month's Small Cell Americas conference. We reported some of the highlights in our event report, but thought that this keynote justified more coverage. With AT&T aiming to deploy 40,000 non-residential Small Cells before the end of next year, many of its tried and trusted methods will need to change. He explained where Small Cell solutions do and don't fit as well as some of the radical changes being implemented throughout the country.

 

 

SFR France, part of the Vodafone group, launched their domestic femtocell service last week with a blaze of publicity. For a one-off price of 199 Euros (about $300) you can buy a femtocell with no ongoing charges, but no discounted rates or other financial rewards.

You don’t have to search extensively to find strong blog comments and feedback about poor mobile network coverage. For example , AT&T Wireless have come in for a huge amount of invective from their customers, with feedback ranging from unhappy to outrageous. Having paid for their cellphone service, customers expect to have full service everywhere. They don’t want to pay extra for coverage in their local area (although they may also actively oppose any new cellsites in their neighbourhood).

Although Vodafone have launched their femtocell ahead of schedule, we found that they had done their homework by training sales staff, customer care and preparing a website page.  As with any accelerated launch, there have been some rough edges. There are undoubtedly some learning points for other operators here.