Above shows the picoChip ultra-low-cost HSDPA-ready 3G picocell basestation demonstrator.

Europe : Marketing, Business Development and Technical leaders from across the Wireless Basestation value-chain came together to consider the implications of the maturing market for wireless infrastructure products at the conference "The Commodity Basestation: When, How and Who Wins?" held at the end of last month in Bath, UK. The quality of speakers and presentations at this focussed event received widespread praise from the conference delegates. A regular e-newsletter and follow-up event, "The Basestation Conference: Meeting the $/Mbit Challenge" April 26-28 2005, are now being planned.

The economic pressures on the industry were revealed in a number of presentations. Leading industry analyst Eiji Aono of Credit Suisse First Boston forecast that UMTS basestation shipments would peak at higher volumes but significantly lower total revenues than the peak for GSM systems. He commented: "Pricing pressure will cap revenue opportunities, and vendors need to develop business models to cope with this."

Another analyst Brett Simpson of Arete Research predicted that a typical "macrocell" UMTS basestation would need to achieve costs below Euro15K within 3 years to match falling market prices. Alan Carr of PA Consulting predicted that, in the longer term, HSDPA picocell basestations could achieve costs below $1000, less than the cost of some "carrier-grade" WiFi Access points.

As if to emphasise the point, picoChip launched their PC8212 "ultra-low cost" HSDPA picocell reference design at the conference which, the company claims, can already achieve such aggressive cost points.

The intensifying cost pressures are driving ever-greater interest in modular approaches to building basestations. Vesa Tykkylainen, Vice President of Nokia Network Technology Modules pointed out that, according to industry sources, average R&D costs as a percentage of sales for the major Wireless Infrastructure OEMs have risen by a third to 17% over the past 4 years. "This level of R&D spending is unsustainable in the long term," he stated, adding that "horizontal" modular approaches were essential to reduce development and manufacturing costs.

Leaders from the two industry modular standards - Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) and Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) - provided their visions for the industry at the conference. Werner Korte, Senior Vice President in Siemens Mobile Networks Radio Access business who presented the CPRI vision commented later: "This was an excellent event which focussed on the business issues as the driver for technical solutions. It has been very valuable."

Leading companies including Motorola, Lucent, Nokia, 3, Intel, Powerwave, Andrew, Xilinx, Analog Devices, LSI Logic and Hughes Software Systems presented at the conference. Speakers from Intel, Alvarion and Airspan gave their insights on how new broadband wireless technologies, notably WiMax, can change the economics of picocell and microcell deployment.