Japanese operator SoftBank Mobile has made the decision to offer femtocell services for free, a move that may finally give this promising but underperforming market the kickstart it needs for success. A statement from Google-backed Ubiquisys, supplier to SoftBank of the home base station technology, notes that the operator plans to offer femtocells for free “along with free ADSL connections for residential, retail and small office based customers.” The statement claims that “the offer represents a groundbreaking change in the business model for small cells and demand has proven to be strong with significant initial orders already in production.” In addition, the femtocells will be set to open access mode, enabling access to all SoftBank users whilst offloading traffic from SoftBank’s mobile network and freeing up its network capacity.

SoftBank appears to be attempting to make premium indoor mobile coverage a standard offering. Criticism of existing femtocell offerings from the likes of AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and Vodafone, among others, is that the consumer has been expected to pay for use of the femtocell.