If femtocells make sense for 3G, surely the concept applies to LTE. Maybe it’s a question of timing.
Lots of points to think about. Off the top of my head:
* What handsets apps are likely to require more than, say, 3 Mbit/s given the screen size, processor, implications for battery life, etc?
* What apps would require a “private race track” ? – data back-ups, adding videos/music to phone, I guess
* What sort of channel widths are you talking about for LTE femto? Is it TDD or FDD? Which frequency?
* Has anyone got the stomach to invest in LTE femto development right now? – Not sure. Existing players need to see 3G pan out first
* Are there inherent advantages to the LTE radio over 3G and WiFi? (e.g. for battery life, active/idle transitions, latency, QOS, etc)
* How will the more generic “small cell” market evolve?
* Loads more stuff I can’t think of right now
VZW CTO talked about LTE Femtos at last year’s C-Scape. See here.
I tend to agree that the appeal of LTE femtocells will be somewhat limited unless residential broadband speeds can keep up (although there are some places where this is already the case). However, if the femtocell is used as a means of connecting your mobile device into your home network, then backhaul is not required and the full speed of the LTE air interface can be used. For example, UPnP over LTE could be used to access your home music and video collections from the mobile device. To extend the freeway analogy, the home network is the equivalent of having a private racing circuit.