Motorola has begun testing its 3G femtocell technology with "a major European operator".

Joe Cozzolino, corporate vice president and general manager at Motorola Home & Networks Mobility EMEA, said that recent tests mean that the firm now offers a full range of femtocell customer premises equipment and 3G devices.

Motorola has also developed a core network concentrator, systems integration services and a customer premises equipment management offering dubbed the Motorola Netopia Broadband Server.

Femtocells enable operators to provide higher quality and higher performance wireless voice and real-time data services to customers inside their homes.

They also enable a lower cost of delivery for wireless traffic when compared to the macrocell network.

The benefits of femtocells for 3G consumers include seamless communications as they roam from inside to outside their homes, reduced 'in-home' call charges, improved indoor coverage and consolidated billing.

"In Europe, 30 to 40 per cent of the cellular traffic is generated from inside the home," said Vincent Poulbere, a principal analyst at Ovum.

"Femtocells provide a more efficient way for operators to manage traffic generated indoors, compared to the outdoor macrocells of the public cellular infrastructure.

"In Western Europe, we forecast that 12 million femtocells will be deployed in 2010 rising to 17 million in 2011."