Femtocells will generate revenue of nearly $5m in 2008 from device shipments in the Asia-Pacific region, industry watchers predict.

ABI Research director Stuart Carlaw said: "While $5m is a relatively modest sum in global terms, it is important to remember that it is generated from a market that barely exists, and as such it represents quite satisfactory early growth."

ABI believes that regulatory "complications" may play a roll in regional femtocell rollouts.

"Softbank still needs to get regulatory approval before it can roll out femtocell service commercially. So its timeline for mid-2008 may slip," said ABI analyst Hwai Lin Khor.

The South Korean government has yet to finish its fixed-mobile convergence policy, and ABI believes that commercial femtocell services will not be introduced in the country until 2009.

Femtocell prospects in India and China are heavily dependent on 3G licence development.

In-building wireless for enterprise markets in the Asia-Pacific region was a $1.5bn industry in 2007, the majority coming from distributed antenna system deployments.