Combined, sales of FMC network element equipment and femtocell equipment are forecast to grow to $7.4 billion worldwide by 2013, according to an Infonetics fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and femtocell report published last week. The report also stated the number of 2G/3G femtocells is expected to increase five-fold from 2009 to 2010.

"So far, we have found no evidence of the economic downturn having a major impact on the pace of FMC rollouts, and it has had only a mild effect on the femtocell space. In the first half of 2009, we saw unabated UMA rollouts at T-Mobile USA, Orange, and Rogers Wireless in Canada, with Turk Telekom joining the bandwagon more recently," noted Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure at Infonetics Research and co-author of the report.

A full synopsis of the report is available at Infonetics.com.