NEC and O2 Trial Femtocells in the UK

(Business News & Technology News, 12 Feb 2008)

NEC Europe, a subsidiary of NEC Corp., is working with mobile operator Telefonica O2 Europe to deliver the UK's first live femtocell trial. O2 has begun an initial period of live testing in February. If successful, the trial will be rolled out in greater numbers across the UK in the summer, with the view to a commercial launch by early 2009.

NEC is providing O2 with its Femtocell Solution, which includes 3G Femtocell Access Point for direct subscriber use, Femtocell Gateway and Access Point Management and Provisioning System.

The demand for 3G mobile voice and data services is accelerating and up to 70 percent to 80 percent of these services are used indoors, but there remain issues with 3G radio penetrating buildings. Femtocell provides a cost-effective alternative to the macro network to improve the 3G coverage and capacity indoors. A femtocell is a 3G access point which has been developed as a consumer device for use in buildings. Femtocells provides a low-cost dedicated 3G coverage and capacity indoor, enabling a user with an existing mobile phone to access high quality voice and high-speed data services thus enabling a true ubiquitous high speed mobile broadband experience.

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