UK-based small cell technology developer and manufacturer, ip.access, confirmed that its Oyster 3G femto technology is powering more than 500,000 Access Points deployed live in homes, offices and mobile network hotspots worldwide. Such is the rate of growth and deployment of the company’s small cell technology; it expects to pass the one million milestone next year.

The announcement comes after recent independent market analysis from Infonetics Research confirmed that ip.access has the leading market share of femtocell units deployed. Oyster 3G technology is used in the company’s femtocell and picocell deployments worldwide. The company numbers more than 60 operator partners for its 3G and 2G small cell technology and major customers include Cisco, which uses Oyster 3G core technology in its 3G MicroCell solution for AT&T in the US.

Making the announcement, Simon Brown, ip.access CEO said, “The 3G small cell market is now really accelerating – consumer femtocells, enterprise and retail picocells, public hot-spots and the move towards metro-zones on 3G and 4G networks are all driving the adoption of small cell technology.

“Nothing gives a bigger coverage and capacity boost – or delivers more from the available radio spectrum – than the move to small cell technology. At ip.access, we are firmly in the vanguard of both the deployment and the development of small cell solutions.”

Oyster 3G technology is integral to ip.access’ full product line which includes C-class residential units, S-class Access Points for shops and small offices, and the E-Class enterprise picocells for larger offices and public locations. Recently, the company announced the OysterCatcher solution, a remote diagnostics and management tool which can fine tune deployed femtocells and picocells to help improve performance and adapt to changing radio environments.

“It is developments such as these that have fuelled our growth to the half million milestone and will continue to enable ip.access to successfully deliver market scale and grow past one million deployments next year,” said Brown.