Techno-economic analysis of femtocell deployment in long-term evolution networks

In this article, we evaluate the economic gains of a joint deployment of femtocells and macrocells for the provision of long-term evolution mobile broadband services in urban environments. Frequency bands of 2.6 GHz and 900 MHz are analyzed and different parameters related to the business model are considered for a 30% market share operator. Results show important benefits for the case where the service is based on a closed subscriber group access to the femtocells, which the operator does not subsidy: up to 74% for small bandwidth (5 MHz). A business model approach based on open subscriber group access to the femtocell can also be interesting for the operator, although in this case, wholesale subscriber loop costs and femtocells cost are taken into account; thus, savings slightly decrease compared to the previous case. In addition, initial savings are reduced in 8-20% if the operator's existing sites are reused.