A couple of weeks ago at a conference in Thailand, Yoshihito Shimazaki, Deputy Division Head of the Mobile Solution Division at SoftBank Mobile in Japan, presented a revolutionary new satellite femtocell solution for rural coverage.
The traditional method to provide coverage in remote areas involves constructing a landline for backhaul, but this can take up to one year in Japan’s challenging terrain. Working together with satellite provider IPSTAR, SoftBank has developed a solution that uses outdoor femtocells which share a satellite connection for backhaul. The deployment time is reduced from one year to just a few days, and the cost is eight times lower.
SoftBank has conducted extensive field trials during 2010, and has tuned the solution to optimise stability and voice quality, to the extent that the user experience matches that of a traditional base station.
You can see highlights of the presentation below, together with a photo of one of the deployed outdoor femtocells.
