Shipments of femtocell basestations will more than triple this year, rising from last year’s 571,000 units to 1.9 million units during 2010, according to iSuppli Corp. in its “Operating Systems: The New Faces Of Wireless” report. The company forecasts phenomenal femtocell growth with unit shipments reaching 7.2 million next year, up 289% from this year. By 2013, iSuppli forecasts that a whopping 39.6 million units will be shipped (see the figure).

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“Throughout the wireless supply chain, companies are busy mobilizing to provide solutions for wireless femtocells, which resemble Wi-Fi routers in appearance,” said Francis Sideco, iSuppli’s principal analyst for wireless research.

“Taking into account developments across the wireless communications ecosystem, iSuppli expects 2010 to be the year in which femtocell units become a key ingredient in the foundation for future radio access topologies,” added Jagdish Rebello, iSuppli’s senior director and analyst.

Juniper Research believes demand for improved 3G reception will be drive the continued growth of the number of femtocell subscribers. That number will increase to more than 15 million globally during 2012. In its “3G Femtocells And Beyond: Opportunities & Services In The Home 2009-2014” study, the company says that standalone femtocell units will take off by 2011-2012, though they will be more integrated and larger in value by 2014. The study says that the top three global regions for femtocell subscribers will be Western Europe, North America, and the Far East and China, with revenues from femtocell sales gaining traction by next year.

According to iSuppli, femtocells will grow from 571,000 units in 2009 to 39.549 million units in 2013.
Select figure to enlarge.

ABI Research offers similarly rosy forecasts. It says that by 2014, 40 million femtocells will be shipped into the market as vendors begin to offer lower-cost and higher-value femtocell products. ABI conducted a survey that found that even though interest in femtocells is greater overseas than in the U.S., the potential for large a U.S. market is high for customer-premises equipment (CPE) vendors. The survey found that 30% of American consumers are very interested in femtocell technology and another 20% would not mind having a femtocell, although the majority is not quite aware of what the technology does.