Femtocells + Plugfests = ???

Last month, while many of us were in Las Vegas for CTIA, some lucky folks were over in France for the Femto Forum’s first Plugfest testing Iuh and security implementations. To be specific, they were in Sophia Antipolis. To be even more specific, they were at the Grand Hotel Mercure Sophia Country Club. To be super-specific, they were at coordinates N 43° 37' 13.48'' E 7° 3' 34.97''.

But, I digress.

Per the Forum, more than 20 companies showed up to run interoperability testing between femtocells, femtocell gateways and security gateways. While this might seem like business as usual for any market with new standards to test, the importance cannot be downplayed. Why? The Iuh standard was driven by operators as a way to ensure that they have access to a broad set of femtocell suppliers that work with a given femtocell gateway. In an ideal world it is the first step in moving toward a future where operators can add new femtocell vendors into their deployments without pre-integrating them into their chosen femtocell gateway — a so-called “plug-and-play” model.

Against this backdrop the participation of so many vendors in the Plugfest was encouraging. This was, after all, why the Femto Forum made a point of heralding their involvement and the fact that they came together so quickly following the completion of the 3GPP’s standard for femtocell network integration. Yet if we’re being honest (imagine that with my best Simon Cowell impression), we have to admit the problems that went along with the Plugfest … if only because so much is riding on it in the long turn.

• Over-promising. Establishing interoperability between diverse femtocells, femtocell gateways and security gateways is undeniably critical for building the operator vision of a plug-and-play business model, where new femtocell vendors and models can be added in without a second thought. Even with the Femto Forum’s first Plugfest in the history books, we’re still a long way from that vision becoming a reality. Vendors across the femtocell ecosystem tell us they expect commercial Iuh implementations will take place within the next 12 months. At the same time, few think full plug-and-play interoperability between Iuh compliant gateways and femtocells is less than a year away. 30% see it taking more than two years! The danger here isn’t confusing the vendor community; vendors know how long it will be until they can support this level of functionality and will be ready to support operators with pre-integrated solutions until then. However, if would-be femtocell operators see the Plugfest (and Plugfest marketing) as a sign that simplified provisioning is on the immediate horizon, they’re being set up for disappointment.
• Who was actually there? Plugfest participation is undeniably important for vendors. It signals that the vendor is committed to operator demands for standards and that their standards implementations are mature enough to test against. This explains why so many vendors were highlighted in the Femto Forum’s Plugfest announcement; every vendor selling femtocell solutions (or components of solutions) wants to be associated with the cutting edge of market development. Unfortunately, “participation” means very little. Again, the Femto Forum’s noted 22 firms as being “involved” in the world’s first femtocell Plugfest. Does this mean that they were all necessarily present from the beginning until the end of the testing? No. Does this mean that they all tested against one another? No. Does this mean that they all participated equally, testing all of the same things? No. Even more than the notion that Plugfest promises are long-term prospects, the ambiguity of who actually was an active participant truly risks misleading operators.
• What was actually accomplished? Plugfests typically don’t allow vendors to announce their success coming out of the tests. Were vendors free to claim success, those who were afraid of failure wouldn’t show up. Unfortunately, without any indication of how the tests went, it’s unclear where the market stands and what was gained from the Plugfest. In the case of the Femto Forum’s tests, we’re left to wonder, “Are we any closer to seeing commercial Iuh deployments a reality?” Operators are left to wonder, “Are some vendors closer to executing on Iuh than others?” In the final analysis, this hurts the market, doing little to paint the forward progress.

We honestly cannot deny the value inherent in Plugfests. We wouldn’t dare argue that the Femto Forum’s first Plugfest wasn’t successful in moving the industry forward or that policies around keeping silent on the results aren’t a necessity. Yet at a time when the femtocell industry still needs a credibility boost and a solid indication of where it’s headed, Plugfests are clearly less than ideal as marketing tools for vendors or as a yardstick for the broader industry.