Global telecoms giant, Alcatel- Lucent, seems to be consolidating its leading position in the rapidly expanding Femto / small cell market with this month’s deal to deploy the technology across Telefonica’s Spanish operation.

To paraphrase an old saying: “Cometh the hour, cometh the technology” and it seems as though Alcatel’s offering has arrived just in time to help head off the perfect storm of soaring data traffic that is threatening to engulf existing mobile infrastructure. There simply aren’t enough traditional base stations to cope with forecast traffic demands and, if mobile operators are to maintain the quality of reception for their customers, then rolling out small cells would appear to a solution which is destined to rapidly gain traction.

The idea of using small base stations connected to broadband as a way of improving mobile reception in residential and smaller office environments is by no means new. The technology has been around for years. The reason it hasn’t been rolled out before is all down to the cost of the microchips it requires. Recent advances have enabled the chips to be manufactured much more cheaply so that it is now economical for dwellings and small offices to take advantage of what Femtocells have to offer.

Typically they have a range of about 10 metres and, apart from the fact that they enable mobile devices to pick up a signal which might previously have been physically impossible, they provide operators with an inexpensive and quick way of boosting capacity. Building a traditional mast not only costs much more but it can take a long while to get through planning and there is usually rent to pay at the end of the process.

In the case of Femtocells, many consumers are happy to pay most or all of the cost themselves just to get an improved reception throughout their property. No wonder Berg Insight estimate that current installations totalling some 2 million will surge to 12 million by 2014.