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Monday, 02 July 2007 |
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More firms collaborate on miniature cell site development…
Industry collaboration on the development of the miniature cell site technology dubbed femtocells is moving into top gear. At the forefront of the charge is developer of intelligent femto access points Ubiquisys. This company in recent days has announced deals with NETGEAR Inc to incorporate its femtocell technology into the latter’s residential gateway, and with Softbank Group to participate in a femtocell demonstration for the Japanese market. Ubiquisys, which is one of the founding members of the Femto Forum launched today (as is NETGEAR), says the gateway product will be available for operator testing by Q4 2007, with commercial availability slated for early 2008. The Softbank demo, which follows the Japanese group’s acquisition of a license for wireless spectrum from the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, is being shown to the media today. Also involved with that activity – which launches ‘…a comprehensive programme using femtocells’ - is VoIP infrastructure specialist Sonus Networks.
Separately, it is reported that Alcatel Lucent is working with Sagem Communications to develop 3G femtocell technology. Some Lucent technology developed for CDMA may be relevant here.
And in other femtocell news, supplier of femtocell, picocell and macrocell reference designs for WiMAX and HSPA picoChip (another Femtocell Forum founding member) announced that it had secured US$27mn of new investment in fourth round funding. Highland Capital Partners led the financing round together with undisclosed key strategic investors. Existing investors include Atlas Venture, Pond Venture Partners, Scottish Equity Partners, Rothschild, Intel and AT&T. This is picoChip’s largest round to date, bringing total company funding to US$70.5mn.
John Williamson
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