NEC Corp., a leader in femtocell technology, has announced the deployment of its femtocell solution by leading French telecommunications carrier SFR, enabling the operator to become the first to launch femtocell services throughout France. NEC is providing SFR with an end to end femtocell solution that includes compact indoor femto access points to be installed in the customer’s premises, the femtocell gateway which aggregates and connects several access points to the core network, and the management systems for the access point and the gateway.
The low-power femto access point will provide a dedicated 3G network indoors for personal use by customers, with the enhanced coverage improving the customer experience for both voice and data services. The dedicated capacity will help customers to experience high data rates on their handsets and their 3G enabled laptops, providing an enhanced ubiquitous mobile broadband experience.
Along with providing benefits to the operator’s customers, the femtocell network helps reduce CAPEX associated with macro cell equipment and OPEX costs in the backhaul network. The increased standard of service delivery will also help improve customer loyalty and creates new network capacity wherever it is needed.
Michel Lignon, President and CEO, NEC France, said, “It’s been an exciting year for femtocell and we’re delighted to be involved in some of the first commercial deployments in Europe and other parts of the world. SFR is one of the first to implement a femtocell network in Europe and we’re seeing the technology change the economic and deployment models for networks as well as providing superior levels of service for consumers. This carrier is leading the way and soon we will see the femtocell form part of all operators’ core offerings.”
Richard Hanscott, Vice President Network Solutions, NEC Europe, declared, “Femtocells not only have the capability to enhance voice coverage, but with the additional capacity, high speed and reliability they bring we will see them changing the role of mobile phones in our lives further. NEC is looking at new applications such as automatic synchronization with the home computer network.”
