London, UK – The Femto Forum, the independent industry association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, today announced the winners of the inaugural Femtocell Industry Awards. The awards recognise outstanding achievement within, and contributions to, the femtocell industry. The awards were presented at a gala dinner at the Femtocells World Summit in London last night.
The winners for the Femtocell Industry Awards 2009 are:
1. Award Category: Femtocell or femtocell network element design and technology innovation
Award Winner: ip.access Ltd – nano3G Enterprise Solution
The nano3G represents an evolution of the femtocell into the enterprise environment. Not only does it support the 3GPP’s new femtocell standard, it also represents a step up in coverage and capacity.
2. Award Category: Femtocell service (commercial, prototype or demo)
Award Winner: ip.access Ltd – Facebook virtual fridge notes
The service implements a “classic” application use case – where the subscriber receives a reminder message when arriving at home – but with an innovative extension that enables the message to be composed and sent using Facebook.
3. Award Category: Progress in commercial deployment (vendor or ecosystem)
Award Winner: NEC Corporation
This recognizes NEC’s strong traction in the market with several commercial contracts in place and several live trials underway with operators around the world.
4. Award Category: Significant progress or commercial launch by a large carrier
Award Winner: Sprint Nextel Corp.
This recognizes this commercial launch, which was the world’s first commercial deployment of femtocells.
5. Award Category: Significant progress or commercial launch by a small carrier
Award Winner: Cellcom
For Cellcom’s deployment of the world’s first IMS-based CDMA femtocell network for consumers and enterprises.
6. Award Category: Contribution to femtocell standards (individual or company)
Award Winner: Taka Yoshizawa, Thomson
For his pivotal role in defining the femtocell management specifications by working through the Femto Forum, the Broadband Forum and the 3GPP.
7. Award Category: Enabling technology (components, subsystems, modules etc.)
Award Winner: picoChip Designs Ltd -picoXcell™ PC302 SoC.
This optimized system-on-chip, which supports the 3GPP’s new femtocell standard, embodies five years of femtocell experience, comprehensive interoperability testing and numerous real-world deployments.
8. Award Category: Social vision – use of femtocells for social / economic / environmental development
Award Winner: Softbank Mobile Corp – Niimi project
The project illustrates how femtocells can be cost-effectively deployed to deliver services in rural environments where existing coverage is limited.
9. Award Category: Award for individual contributions to Femto Forum activities
Award Winner: Chris Fenton of Telefónica-O2
For achieving architectural consensus as chair of the Femto Forum Network & Interoperability Working Group.
“The judges were extremely impressed by the high quality and number of award submissions which reflect the health and innovation of the femtocell industry,” said Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Femto Forum. “The femtocell industry is rapidly evolving as major advances are made in the technology, standards, services and applications – these awards recognise and reward this progress. Our congratulations to the winners and to all those who participated.”
The awards were open to the whole industry and were judged independently of the Femto Forum by a panel of distinguished analysts, journalists and industry experts, chaired by Professor William Webb, Head of R&D at Ofcom.
For more information on the Femtocell Industry Awards, please visit:http://www.femtoforum.org/femto/aboutforum.php?id=96
About The Femto Forum
Femtocells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum to connect standard mobile devices to a mobile operator’s network using residential DSL or cable broadband connections. The Femto Forum (www.femtoforum.org) was set up in 2007 to promote the wide-scale adoption of femtocells. The Forum supports and drives the adoption of industry wide standards and common architectures to enable the widespread adoption & deployment of femtocells by operators around the world. It directs and implements a multi-faceted marketing campaign raising the profile, driving technology development & deployment and promoting the potential of femto solutions among industry stakeholders, journalists, analysts, regulators, special interest groups, standards bodies and consumers.
Media Contacts
Femto Forum:
Oliver Chapman
[email protected]
+ 44 (0) 7713 404 571