Femtocells World Summit 2009

22 Jun 2009 - 24 Jun 2009, Radisson Edwardian Hotel, London

With 2009 shaping up as the year when femtocells move from the laboratory into consumers’ homes, London’s Femtocell World Summit proved to be a landmark for the femtocell community. Most importantly came the announcement of Europe’s first commercial femtocell-based service – the ‘Vodafone Access Gateway’.

Many news sources reported on this exciting story; BBC News, EE Times, Mobile Europe, Rethink Wireless and Unstrung.

Another important announcement was by AT&T who are expanding their trials and will launch Femtocells nationwide in the USA later this year.

At the summit, Picochip collaborated with Starent and Continuous Computing in the industry's first demonstration of the new Iuh interface, an important part of the 3GPP Release 8 standard. Iuh is a key part of the industry's move towards open standards and interoperability, a trend that will drive femtocells to mass market acceptance.

To find out more about Picochip's collaboration with Starent and Continuous Computing, please click here.

The company also showcased its currently shipping picoXcell PC302 product, as well as the latest addition to its SoC range, the PC312 for enterprise applications. Demonstrations included both software-defined and SoC femtocell solutions, with a pathway to future standards such as LTE.

Numerous Picochip customers demonstrated their femtocells, including a number showing commercial product based on the PC302 SoC. In addition, eco-system partners demonstrated solutions for high-volume manufacturing test of femtocells, benefiting from the test functionality built in to Picochip's products.

At the conference, the company’s CEO, Nigel Toon, took a closer look at the steps the industry needs to take to create genuine consumer-style femtocell access points, for any standard. To view his presentation or to download a copy, please see ‘useful links’.

Picochip named winner at inaugural Femto Forum Femtocell Industry Awards 2009

Picochip company's cost-optimized PC302 and PC312 picoXcell SoCs won the enabling technology category at the inaugural Femtocell Industry Awards.  The awards recognize outstanding achievement within, and contributions to, the femtocell industry.

"Winning enabling technology at the inaugural Femtocell Industry Awards is an outstanding achievement" said president and CEO Nigel Toon.

"The judges were extremely impressed by the high quality and number of award submissions. In light of this the judging process was extremely difficult but Picochip stood out and was deserving of its award" said Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum.

As a mark of Picochip’s presence in the industry, of the 23 shortlisted award nominees (operators and manufacturers) no fewer than 16 use Picochip’s femtocell silicon.

Additionally, Chris Smart, Picochip CTO Office, and Alan Law of Vodafone were shortlisted for the individual contributions to Femto Forum activities category for coordinating the interference management white paper.

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