NEC Corp. announced that Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), the leading telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS, together with NEC Neva Communications Systems (NEC Neva), have launched a Femtocell service in the Ural region. The service, ‘Consistent Reception’ provides MTS’s enterprise customers with stable 3G coverage in buildings where thick walls and steel beams may otherwise obstruct the signals coming from base stations.

NEC Neva has supplied MTS with an end-to-end Femtocell solution, including Femtocell gateway systems, Femtocell access points (FAP) and technical support of the Femtocell network. NEC’s FAP allows users to simultaneously accommodate up to 16 voice connections and reach an Internet access speed up to 7.2 Mbit/s using HSDPA technology.

“According to our research, more than 70 percent of voice calls and 90 percent of data traffic are generated inside buildings. As the total space of buildings such as business offices and shopping centers increases annually by 18 percent in Ekaterinburg, Ural, introducing an improved indoor user experience to the area with NEC’s market proven Femtocell solution is a natural step for us,” said Sergey Kuzmin, Director of MTS Ural.

“Supporting and developing MTS’s Femtocell services is a priority for NEC. We have successfully launched commercial Femtocell services in Siberia and Ural, and now we are conducting operational testing of services in the Far East,” said Mikhail Efimov, Deputy Managing Director, NEC Neva. “This year, we will strengthen our contribution to services by offering the latest and more powerful FAPs based on a new ergonomic design.”

NEC is a pioneer in the adoption of Femtocell technology, having contracts and field trials with leading operators throughout the world.