SK Telecom over in Korea, one of the most advanced wireless countries in the world when you speak to Tomi Ahonen, has recently announced how they intend to increase their wireless network capacity. This article in the Korea Herald mentions capacity upgrades via six sector cell site compared to the 3 sector sites mostly used today, using Wi-Fi in areas where people requiring Internet access are mostly stationary, as well as femto cells and LTE. In other words, further capacity increases will mainly be achieved by further shrinking cell sizes on the macro layer and by building a very small cell grid with femtos and Wi-Fi to cover demand in very busy areas.
This makes me wonder at which point network operators will not charge you for a femto anymore but actually reduce the price of a DSL/mobile bundle when a subscriber puts a femto in place connected to his DSL line for general use!? 5 years from now, or maybe 10? I'll link back to this post when we are there 🙂
I believe that DDI in Japan had 100% six-sector sites even before the KDD-DDI merger 10 years ago, and Sprint and MetroPCS in the USA have had six-sector sites in service for years as well. Also, one of AT&T’s earliest tricks to offload iPhone traffic was to permit iPhone users free access to AT&T’s Wi-Fi net.