Inter-operability is the key to the rapid growth of the
femtocell business into a mass volume market, according to femto
chip-maker picoChip
of Bath, which has taken the initiative in delivering
inter-operability via a three-way co-operation with Starent, which
makes specialised routers for mobile network equipment and CCPU,
which bought the Trillium stack business from Intel.
"We've co-operated to deliver inter-operability between
independent companies on the new 3GPP standard", Rupert Baines,
vice president of marketing at picoChip, told Electronics
Weekly.
A demonstration of hardware developed by the three companies
will be shown next week at the Heathrow-based
Femto World
Summit from June 23-25.
"The concern about femtocells is that you might have to buy the
box from the same company that delivers the core equipment to the
operator", said Baines, "that concern has worked to slow down mass
market development."
So are other femto players going to co-operate on
inter-operability? "We're optimistic," replied Baines, "we are the
first people to implement and demonstrate this. As other people
come along, they can all play nice with each other. This is not
exclusive - we look forward to working with everyone else. Broad
inter-operability with everyone in the industry is the only way to
get a high volume market."
The wireless industry has a poor record on co-ordinating
inter-operability, so how confident is he that others will follow
suit? "This is one of the areas where people will co-operate",
replied Baines, "it's so much in peoples' interests to get this, in
order to drive volumes in the market. This is one place where
competitors will co-operate for the good of everyone."
Are there any signs that the industry is going to co-operate?
The Femto Forum is co-ordinating a plug-fest", replied Baines, "the
schedules are being agreed across the industry."
How does picoChip feel about big players like Qualcomm coming
into the femtocell market?
"Femto's very important to Qualcomm, they're taking it very
seriously", responded Baines, "having them supporting it makes the
operators take it very seriously. Before, it was a bit like being
in a restaurant where there's no one else. You think: 'What do
people know about this place?'"
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