This large Chinese vendor offers a wide range of telecom infrastructure covering all major technologies and including radio and core network components. They had over 20% global market share of mobile infrastructure in 2010, with strong growth in developing markets.

For several years, they offered a complete end-to-end femtocell solution using almost entirely their own in-house products. In 2012, they withdrew from residential femtocell applications, and concentrated their efforts on public access small cells to complement their macrocell sites. These AtomCell products are positioned to work seamlessly with the GigaCell macrocells as part of a comprehensive HetNet network.

Femtocell History

They demonstrated a prototype 3G femtocell which included fast HSPA data at Expo Comm Wireless Japan in July 2007.

They participated in trials in Europe and Asia (specifically including SK Telecom in South Korea). Press reports suggest trials by Telefonica, Orange and JSC Ukrtelecom(Ukraine).

Femtocell Product Information

Detailed technical information is sparse, but it is understood that Huawei provide a complete solution including their own femto-gateway. An Iu interface based architecture is used but not SIP/IMS. Huawei already have an 3G RNC product, and already offer IP backhaul for their standard Node B. Huawei have been active in the femtocell standards community, and so are likely to develop a solution which conforms to the agreed Iu-h standard, but have not yet announced test results or availability.

The product shown on the right is Huawei's Media Centre, which incorporates a femtocell.

Their femtocell products have very similar specifications to other femtocells, with residential units supporting 4 simultaneous voice or data sessions and larger enterprise femtocells supporting 16 concurrent calls. A more attractive set of physical designs shown below left was launched in 2009, which won the iF design award.  Little information about the technical specification is publicly disclosed on the internet.

Texas Instruments claimed Huawei as one of the vendors who based their femtocell on TI's DSP chip.

Huawei position femtocells as one of the three solutions for indoor coverage, the others being DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems) and ePico (their higher capacity/larger indoor picocell solution). While their website suggests that femtocells belong only for residential use, their higher capacity femtocell products have been trialled for enterprise use.

Femtocell Deployments

Starhub publicised a six month trial in Singapore involving both Huawei and ZTE femtocells in May 2008. This went fully commercial in November 2008 , with only Huawei femtocells mentioned in the press.

In November 2009, China Unicom soft launched their "3G Inn" femtocell service using Huawei femtocells.

Mobilkom Austria announced a trial of 35 femtocells in November 2008. This included two models, a standard domestic version supporting four simultaneous users and a larger enterprise version which could handle up to 16 simultaneous calls. This has not been announced as moving to full commercial operation.

Huawei Company website (indoor coverage)

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