"...Orange and T-Mobile and [now] Rogers Wireless are driving the UMA market and do not plan to slow down their deployments; in fact, they see the slowdown as an opportunity to lure more FMC subscribers," wrote Stéphane Téral, principal analyst with Infonetics Research, in his latest report.

The report, FMC and Femtocell Equipment, Phones, and Subscribers, forecasts through 2013. Téral writes that the firm "expects the FMC and femtocell equipment markets to thrive during the current economic downturn for a number of reasons."

Report highlights include:

• Combined, sales of FMC network element equipment and femtocell equipment are expected to grow at a healthy rate through the economic downturn and really take off in 2011, reaching nearly $8 billion worldwide by 2013.
• Worldwide UMA network controller (UNC) revenue is forecast to grow at a 44% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2008 to 2013.
• The number of seamless FMC subscribers jumped 413% to 8.6 million worldwide in 2008 and is forecast to grow nearly 10-fold to 82 million by 2013.