For his part, Kim thinks that it's only a matter of time before carriers come up with the right pricing and sales pitch to entice more users to purchase femtocells. Noting that from carriers such as Japan's NTT DoCoMo have shown that 70% of mobile traffic comes from users located in buildings, he says that femtocells will become imperative for carriers looking to have fast and reliable outdoor networks. After all, if carriers can offload the majority of their indoor mobile traffic through femtocells, it will leave them considerably more bandwidth to serve customers consuming voice and data services outdoors.

"Operators are still investigating the best pricing strategies and plans for femtocells," he says. "Vodafone UK is one of the most aggressive and has had great success according to industry sources recently. AT&T is also investigating various pricing models ranging from free to monthly charges."

Eventually, Kim says that carriers may have to consider more heavily subsidizing femtocells to their users, especially as they start to face limits in the efficiency increases that additional spectrum can provide them. However, he thinks it will be up to the carriers to come up with the best pricing models in order to make the sale.

"Initially, we think [subsidizing femtocell use] makes sense for the heaviest users," he says. "But as we have noted… the operators are still exploring the best pricing strategies for this new service."

in Network World's Anti-Malware section.