On the pricing of femtocell services

Abstract

The femtocell is an enabling technology to handle exponentially increasing wireless data traffic. In this paper, we study economic aspects of femtocell deployment with a game theoretic model between a provider and users. The provider provides differentiated service of macro only, or macro plus femto services and users select one, whichever maximizes their net-utilities. Femto users also decide whether to share their femto APs with other users given economic incentive. We answer the optimal pricing of providers and the optimal incentives.