Femtocell Forum

Femtocell is a wide-area wireless broadband using home base stations.

In support of this new technology, the Femtocell Forum has been established, holding their first plenary July 2 in London.

This timely meeting, ahead of the first Home Access Point and In-Building Conference which opened July 3, has given the forum the opportunity to reveal seven of the forty founding members of the Forum.

An independent consultant will chair the Forum.

Those members revealed include femtocell technology pioneers such as:

1. picoChip,
2. ip.access,
3. Ubiquisys,
4. Airvana,
5. Netgear,
6. RadioFrame
7. Tatara.

The forum claim to have some of the "biggest OEMs and tier 1 communications equipment makers are involved, and we have a 'who is who' of the mobile operators on board, too." Those identities will be revealed in coming months.

The key aim of the Forum is to get things up and running quickly, with the initial focus on:

1. pre-competitive standards-focused issues including radio planning and control,
2. device provisioning and management
3. device to network standardization.
4. a marketing task force to promote the benefits of femtocell technology for both operators and subscribers.

The Forum will be open to other potentially competing technologies such as WiFi. “We have already seen announcements of femtocells combined with WiFi so that you get the best of both worlds

Commenting on the formation of the Forum, Guillaume d'Eyssautier, CEO and president at picoChip, said: "As the early protagonist of femtocells, picoChip is pleased to see other companies rallying for the cause. The femtocell concept has finally gained its own momentum and with the backing of the Femto Forum we can all steer it on a clear path to success."

A recent study from ABI Research forecasts that by 2011 there will be 102 million users of femtocell products on 32 million access points worldwide.

For more on Femtocell technology and benefits

Back To Top