Exclusive Interviews

In 2011 we spoke exclusively to Camillo Carlini, Home Network and Handset Engineering, Telecom Italia about the potential of femotocell applications, and how they can easily be monetised.

Look out for more exclusive insights from our 2012 speakers - coming soon!

What is the role of applications in monetising femtocells?

With applications, femtocells’ value proposition goes well beyond providing coverage, and enriches the customer’s user-experience by creating a full service environment.
 
The Femtocell recognizes the customer as soon as he/she enters home, and enhances mobile devices’ capabilities and supported services. In public spaces, mobile phones and devices are aware of where they are, and can receive relevant information and ask the customers for context related actions.

Operators can easily monetise femto-enhanced applications and services, given that they directly control the switch on/switch off of Applications capabilities on femtocells; customers interested in a particular service can subscribe to it on top of their femtocell contract; the operator can then bill the customer an additional fee for that particular Application.

What are some examples of femtocell applications that could make an immediate impact on people’s lives?

When you are at work, the femtocell can make you aware of who is at home, such as your children or family members, and when you return you can automatically receive messages left for you, as well as automatically switch the air conditioning on. In essence, your mobile phone is synchronized with new media server content and your home.

Additionally, your mobile phone itself is aware of being at home, and can present you with different interfaces and apps, more suitable for the home rather than the office.

Another possible application for femtocells is mobile payments. For example, when a customer uses underground transportation, femtocell applications can help the metro recognise you at the station entrance and allow you to use the service, having already paid the ticket previously.

Femtocells can also be used in museums. When standing in front of an artwork, the museum’s femtocell apps will be able to identify the piece in front of you, and deliver you all the pertinent information and content directly into your mobile. In a shopping mall, femtocell applications will present you with real-time alerts of price changes and special offers based on your tastes and preferences.

Femtocells, applications and convenient servers, are able to deliver a customer-centric experience to mobile users, tailoring their personal device’s behaviour and reactions based on their needs and preferences!
 
How can we attract the developing community to build femtocell applications?

We are providing all the necessary enablers:  some standard APIs have already been defined (by the Femto Forum and GSMA), and many others will come. Moreover, SDKs for the most common devices are about to be released.
 
The developing community is fully engaged with smartphone apps, and now we are providing the tools to create and distribute apps enhanced with femtocell capabilities for the home, the office or wherever people are, through the universal femto context awareness.

What role has the Femto Forum played in defining specifications for femto-enhanced apps?

Femto Forum has made a really huge and rapid effort to define standard APIs, the building blocks of apps. The Forum, as usual, has achieved consensus among Femto industry players and released the “R1” APIs specifications. Many other APIs are going to be defined and shared in future releases.

What is the motivation and value for Telecom Italia to give a keynote presentation at the Femtocells World Summit in 2011?

Regarding FemtoEnhanced Apps, Telecom Italia is pleased to present its initiatives to enable, develop and test them, in order to show its pioneering role and involve other developers and players.

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About Camillo Carlini - Telecom Italia

Camillo Carlini is a researcher at TILab, the Innovation and Engineering Department of Telecom Italia, Italy’s leading ICT enterprise. He is active in many experimental and deployment projects related to new services for the Digital Home and the Connected Enterprise. He is an expert in Fixed- Mobile Convergence solutions and has been following the evolution of femtocell technology from the start. He is also active through collaborations with some Italian universities.

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> Camillo is spoke at Femtocells World Summit 2011 on Wednesday 22 June - view the 2011 agenda