Vodafone Greece launches femtocell service

23 July 2010
Posted in News Analysis

Stays with Vodafone Access Gateway

Vodafone Greece has started commercial service of its residential 3G femtocell service. The service, which uses the Vodafone Access Gateway brand, rather than Sure Signal, is being provided for free or with a discount to postpaid subscribers. Vodafone prepay users or postpaid subs that are not eligible for a discount will be looking at a €150 fee.

The launch means Vodafone now has commerical femtocell services in four countries - Greece, Qatar, Spain and the UK. Vodafone Greece joins the UK in launching a residential product. The Spanish service is an enterprise offering and femtocells are providing metro coverage in Qatar.

Although other operators have expressed scepticism about the business case for residential femtocell, Vodafone is more bullish. Making it available for free also shows that Voda thinks it is not just Japan (where SoftBank is doing the same thing) that can support such a model.