The success of femtocell deployments will depend on the quality of services offered with the hardware, industry experts predict.

ABI Research urged femtocell providers to direct their attention towards the development of services.

Such an approach will be critical in differentiating from competitive solutions such as Dual-Mode Wi-Fi, and in ensuring profitability for carriers, according to the analyst firm.

Stuart Carlaw, vice president at ABI Research, said: "With a conservative uptake of innovative services enabled by femtocell solutions, it could take as much as five years before carriers go into the black following the trials on femtocell solutions.

"It is important to put this into context: nearly 75 per cent of consumers in developments buy the solutions of more than two services.

"It is apparent that creating services beyond the go-to-market, cheap voice strategy will be crucial. And this will enable marketers to push the femtocell beyond the early adopters."

Carlaw pointed out that a service bundle encompassing a comprehensive set of wrap-around services, and which links devices into a connected home network, will be a clear differentiator for providers.

Moreover, it is imperative that service providers capitalise on web 2.0 services by embracing service concepts such as 'cache and carry' where rich media files are swapped within the femtocell.

A recent report from ABI Research found that femtocell average selling prices have far less bearing on cost than the ongoing support and marketing needs that will be essential to making any launch successful.