2008 is a big year for the development of Femtocell technology. There are trials taking place all around the world (including those launched late last year by Sprint here in the U.S.) which are designed to work out the kinks of this technology in order to allow it to move forward. Most companies seem to believe that the key is in developing the best product. However, a new research report says that the femtocell products themselves may matter a lot less than the service plans established to support the use of those products.

This may make sense given that a major barrier to femtocell technology thus far has been the difficulty to customers of installing the system in the home. A benefit to phone companies is that femtocell technology should ultimately reduce their costs because it reduces the drain that providing coverage places on their networks. This could mean that they can invest money into providing quality customer service or in offering femtocell products at a lower cost. Despite this, experts believe that it will take at least five years of market development for phone companies to make a profit off of this new technology.