Picocell And Femtocell MarketSize and Trends

Picocells, femtocell, and microcells are type of small cells. Microcell is a type of cell in mobile phone network, which uses less power base station (antenna). Picocells are installed and maintained by the network operators and covers less space such as in offices, shopping malls, and others. Femtocells are installed by the user with less involvement by the network operator. As compared to the macrocell base stations, less signals are transmitted by femtocell and picocell small cells. Small cells are used to provide adequate capacity and good coverage area as compared to the macrocells. Macrocells uses wide area high power base station, which covers large space in urban areas. Additionally, high adoption of these cells by end user as well as enterprises is expected to drive growth of the picocell and femtocell market.

Factors driving growth of the picocell and femtocell market

Less power consumption is the major factor, which is expected to drive growth of the picocell and femtocell market. Femtocell consume less power for the transmission of the signal as compared to the macrocell transmission networks. Femtocells consumes less than 7W power and helps in increasing energy efficiency. Macrocells use more energy for signal transmission. The small transmission power of femtocell networks leads to less battery drain in the devices. Thus, mobile operators prefer femtocell to offer better services such as long-term evaluation (LTE) technology and 5G technology to their subscribers. For instance, in January 2018 Nokia Corporation launched first MulteFire small cell that provides enterprises and industries to use global unlicensed spectrum for high-capacity, secure, and high-coverage long-term evaluation (LTE) networks.

Moreover, telecom industries are inclining towards millimeter wave solution, which is expected to drive growth of the picocell and femtocell market. This millimeter wave technology transmits information or signal in the form of radio waves with the wavelength of range 1mm-10 mm. Moreover, there is increasing usage of wave millimeter for backhaul of small cells such as picocell and femtocell. The millimeter solution works on various types of bands such as unlicensed E-band and licensed E-band. Thus, the suppliers of millimeter are adding millimeter wave gear in their products.

However, high deployment cost of picocell and femtocell is the major factor that is expected to hinder growth of the picocell and femtocell market. Small cell networks such as picocell and femtocell require high installation cost and this is expected to hinder growth of the market over the forecast period.