Femtocell Industry Awards 2009

The Femto Forum, the independent industry association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, today announced the winners of the inaugural Femtocell Industry Awards. The awards recognise outstanding achievement within, and contributions to, the femtocell industry. The awards were presented at a gala dinner at the Femtocells World Summit in London last night.
The winners for the Femtocell Industry Awards 2009 are:
1. Award Category: Femtocell or femtocell network element design and technology innovation
Award Winner: ip.access Ltd - nano3G Enterprise Solution
The nano3G represents an evolution of the femtocell into the enterprise environment. Not only does it support the 3GPP's new femtocell standard, it also represents a step up in coverage and capacity.

2. Award Category: Femtocell service (commercial, prototype or demo)
Award Winner: ip.access Ltd - Facebook virtual fridge notes
The service implements a "classic" application use case - where the subscriber receives a reminder message when arriving at home - but with an innovative extension that enables the message to be composed and sent using Facebook.

3. Award Category: Progress in commercial deployment (vendor or ecosystem)
Award Winner: NEC Corporation
This recognizes NEC's strong traction in the market with several commercial contracts in place and several live trials underway with operators around the world.

4. Award Category: Significant progress or commercial launch by a large carrier
Award Winner: Sprint Nextel Corp.
This recognizes this commercial launch, which was the world's first commercial deployment of femtocells.

5. Award Category: Significant progress or commercial launch by a small carrier
Award Winner: Cellcom
For Cellcom’s deployment of the world's first IMS-based CDMA femtocell network for consumers and enterprises.

6. Award Category: Contribution to femtocell standards (individual or company)
Award Winner: Taka Yoshizawa, Thomson
For his pivotal role in defining the femtocell management specifications by working through the Femto Forum, the Broadband Forum and the 3GPP.

7. Award Category: Enabling technology (components, subsystems, modules etc.)
Award Winner: picoChip Designs Ltd -picoXcell™ PC302 SoC.
This optimized system-on-chip, which supports the 3GPP's new femtocell standard, embodies five years of femtocell experience, comprehensive interoperability testing and numerous real-world deployments.

8. Award Category: Social vision - use of femtocells for social / economic / environmental development
Award Winner: Softbank Mobile Corp - Niimi project
The project illustrates how femtocells can be cost-effectively deployed to deliver services in rural environments where existing coverage is limited.

9. Award Category: Award for individual contributions to Femto Forum activities
Award Winner: Chris Fenton of Telefónica-O2
For achieving architectural consensus as chair of the Femto Forum Network & Interoperability Working Group.

“The judges were extremely impressed by the high quality and number of award submissions which reflect the health and innovation of the femtocell industry,” said Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Femto Forum. “The femtocell industry is rapidly evolving as major advances are made in the technology, standards, services and applications - these awards recognise and reward this progress. Our congratulations to the winners and to all those who participated.”
The awards were open to the whole industry and were judged independently of the Femto Forum by a panel of distinguished analysts, journalists and industry experts, chaired by Professor William Webb, Head of R&D at Ofcom.
For more information on the Femtocell Industry Awards, please visit: http://www.femtoforum.org/femto/aboutforum.php?id=96

Qualcomm invests in femtocell company

Qualcomm has made another strategic investment in a UK mobile company - this time pumping an undisclosed amount into pico and femtocell developer ip.access. Qualcomm joins Cisco, Intel Capital, ADC and Motorola Ventures, Scottish Equity Partners, Rothschild Gestion and Amadeus Capital Partners as strategic investors in ip.access.

Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Stephen Mallison, ceo of ip.access said the investment was about much more than the money.

"We like Qualcomm because as a strategic player in the industry they are very well connected to the carriers. They've go their finger on the pulse and we can tap into that knowledge and judgement," Mallison told Mobile Europe.

As for Qualcomm, obviously if the femtocell market is going to take off, it will be interested in the chip side of that business - and will gain knowledge and insight by sharing with ip.access, Mallison said. "From a Qualcomm point of view they want a closer understanding of where femtocell will goand how it will impact on their business," Mallison said.

"3G femtocells will have a very important role in future mobile network architecture," said Frederic Rombaut, head of Qualcomm Ventures Europe, "ip.access has an innovative approach to the 3G femtocell market that will enable our customers to enhance the delivery of 3G services to mobile users."

ip.access currently builds its femtocell on technology from PicoChip, and Mallison said that wouldn't be changing any time soon as a result of this deal.

"Certainly Qualcomm is active in silicon development and in the future the femtocell market will require future iterations of silicon as the scale of the market increases - but it is not conditional in them investing in us," Mallison said. "PicoChip is a great company with a great product."

Mallison said that ip.access is "actively engaged" with a number of operators, but was unable to release any further details.

"That's a positive sign though," he said, "as it proves that the market is getting competitive now, and operators do not want to release details of how they will come to market with this technology."

Source MobileEurope

Nokia Siemens and Pirelli to co-develop femtocells

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has signed a co-development deal with Pirelli Broadband. The agreement will see Pirelli's femto-enabled Multiplay equipment coupled with NSN's home access software with the aim being to allow operators to introduce femtocell-based services to home and small office environments.

The Pirelli Multiplay box offers broadband support for ADSL2+, VDSL2 and FTTH, together with the company's Epicentro middleware and applications platform. Pirelli said that its Epicentro software manages the co-existence of 3G handsets with Pirelli's access gateway, IPTV set top box and 3G femtocells.

Separately, ABI Research claimed that vendors attempting to ramp up the sales of 3G femtocells will only have limited early success with just 100,000 units being forecast to ship this year. Noting that more than 20 femtocell development trials are currently underway, ABI said development of the units is not likely to see shipment volumes until 2010, when shipments will likely total tens of millions. "By 2010, femtocell silicon solutions will have been optimised to the degree that US$100 price points for femtocell access points will be within reach, and OEMs' order books will have the volume to sustain critical wholesale price reductions," said Stuart Carlaw, ABI Research's VP and research director. "The turning point for this market will be late 2009."

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