UMA Vendors Rally Femtocell Market

UMA is jumpstarting the femtocell market. The standard is gaining traction with operators and major players in the market are adding force behind this push.

Just last week, Ubiquisys, the leading femtocell company, announced it is in trials with eight operators in Europe. A separate article suggested that one of the operators included SFR in France. Earlier this year, Ubiquisys announced its femtocell access point is interoperable with Kineto Wireless' UMA Network Controller (UNC).

In a recent article on Unstrung, Ubiquisys CTO Will Franks said, the company will start "very friendly" user trials in December. Broader user trials will start in March next year. And a few of the operators that are trialing Ubiquisys are aiming for soft launches in June 2008.

To add more fuel to the UMA/femtocell fire, Motorola announced it has completed end-to-end testing of its 3G femtocell solution and has begun trialing its solution with a major European operator. Motorola also noted that it leverages its leadership in UMA deployments and experience in delivering convergence solutions to major operators worldwide.

NEC, which integrated Kineto's UMA Network Controller into its Home Gateway Femtocell solution, is also making strides in the femtocell market and was recently elected to a board of director position with the Femto Forum.

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