NEC Corp. will build the first Norwegian femtocell network for Network Norway, which will enable the company to provide its enterprise customers with a femtocell access point to plug into their broadband router. In addition, NEC is providing the operator with its femto gateway and access point management systems, which can aggregate and connect thousands of access points to Network Norway’s core network.

The low-power femtocell access point will provide a dedicated 3G network indoors for personal use by customers, eradicating the ‘no bar’ coverage that mobile phone users experience within buildings. The dedicated coverage will enable Network Norway to offer those customers who have poor indoor coverage to access their favorite mobile media services on their handsets and 3G-enabled net books.

Fredrik Tumegard, CEO, NEC Scandinavia, stated, “Mobile operators are under constant pressure to offer a competitive service; femtocell is a way they can differentiate with the indoor five-bar coverage required to access capacity-intensive applications that consumers want. By providing a femtocell service to its customers, Network Norway is leading where we believe other mobile operators will soon follow.”

Arild E. Hustad, Chief Executive Officer, Network Norway, added, “Our customers demand mobile services with excellent, stable quality. Poor indoor coverage has for a long time been an issue that needed to be solved. With NEC’s femtocell solutions we are now able to carry out a pilot to commercially and technically test state-of-the-art phone services solving the problem with indoor coverage, as well as a continuous, high-speed broadband service.”