A thought: HSPA/LTE in unlicenced spectrum? Ideal for femtos?
But there's some notable absences - unlicenced 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The ones that WiFi and Bluetooth and a million other gadgets use.
Sure, its unmanaged, congested, interference-prone.... but for short ranges, who cares? Like, for example, if you had a 2.4GHz HSPA femto at home which you could "roam" onto? (I'm assuming you wouldn't have your own SIM card & HLR).
Why would you want to do this? Different business models - lots of them. And a complete end to the need to put WiFi into phones as well, if you could have a single multi-band chip that supported private cellular as well as operator cellular.
Yes, I know it would have some horrible problems, and I certainly couldn't see the stuffy standards bodies daring to support something so lacking in QoS and control and operator involvement. But if cellular ever wants to stand a chance of competing in homes or enterprise networks, it needs to have an "owned" profile as well as a "service" profile.
Dean Bubley is the Founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm, and the author of the Disruptive Wireless blog. An analyst with over 14 years’ experience, he specialises in wireless, networking, and telecoms fields. His present focus is on wireless technology, especially the evolution of mobile device architecture & software, fixed-mobile convergence, IMS, SIP, wVoIP, shifts in service provider value chains, enterprise mobility, in-building technologies, wireless broadband, and the integration of cellular and WLAN. He was formerly an equity analyst, covering communications and software stocks with Granville Baird, the UK arm of US-based investment bank Robert W. Baird. Mr Bubley has extensive experience in both published analytical research and bespoke consultancy, and speaks regularly at industry conferences and vendor events. He holds a BA in Physics from Keble College, Oxford University.