Qualcomm's
investment in ip.access,
the UK femtocell system supplier, follows a recent report that
ip.access has won a massive order for femtocells from
AT&T.
Panmure Gordon, the stockbrokers and investment bankers,
recently put out a note saying that ip.access had won an order for
seven million femtocells against stiff competition from Motorola,
Alcatel, Nokia-Siemens, Airvana and 2Wire, among others.
The Panmure Gordon report caused widespread interest in the
wireless industry because it meant that, if AT&T was committing
to femtocells, then other operators could be on the verge of
placing large orders.
To that end, Panmure Gordon surmised that Cisco would probably
make a play to buy ip.access.
Although neither ip.access nor Qualcomm have made any
announcement as to the size of the investment in ip.access, other
than to say that the amount is 'significant', Qualcomm's investment
could be to try and make such a sale less likely.
Cisco is already an investor in ip.access along with Intel
Capital, ADC, Motorola Ventures, Scottish Equity Partners,
Rothschild Gestion and Amadeus Capital Partners.
ip.access has a femtocell system called
Oyster 3G
which uses a residential broadband connection to deliver a
high-quality 3G signal in the home.
The attraction to network operators is that femtocells enhance
the strength and range of wireless signals, without the operators
having to invest in their network infrastructure, and is an
alternative to people using home WiFi to make phone calls using
Skype phones and the like.
"We aim to facilitate new and exciting mobile phone-based
services that otherwise wouldn't and couldn't work indoors," said
Stephen Mallinson, CEO of ip.access.
Femtocells have been waiting to get acceptance from the major
carriers. "This is the year it's got to get real", said Rupert
Baines, vice president of marketing at picoChip, who coined the
term 'femtocell', "at least twenty carriers are doing significant
things with femtocells, and some have said they'll place an
order."
picoChip
makes chips for femtocell systems and numbers ip.access among its
customers.
See also: Mannerisms, the blog of David
Manners. Updated twice daily, it's the distinctive, entertaining,
authoritative and never dull commentary on the semiconductor
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See also:
Electronics Weekly's
Focus on Wireless, a roundup of content
related to wireless communications.