Femtocell-Aware Phone Application Supports Multiple Vendors’ Femtocells

Intrinsyc’s UX-Zone application incorporates femtocell presence triggers to change the user interface on a smartphone automatically as soon as it enters a home or office environment covered by a femtocell signal. Airvana, ip.access and Ubiquisys have collaborated to implement these presence triggers in a standardized way, according to a draft framework created by the Femto Forum’s Services Special Interest Group. Intrinsyc has already developed the software required for Android™ and Windows Mobile® handsets, for the first time enabling femtocell-aware smartphone applications to interoperate with multiple vendors’ femtocells. In the demonstration, the phone user interface adapts automatically to different environments as it moves between the femtocells and the outdoor network – for example by changing the theme and icons to offer high bandwidth entertainment services that take advantage of the fast, low-cost data provided by a femtocell at home.

As well as providing improved network coverage and capacity, femtocells are ideally suited for supporting a wide range of services which add extra value for consumers. They make sophisticated presence-based applications simple to use on any phone; provide massive bandwidth indoors to mobile devices at very low cost; and make it easy for people to share their digital content across various previously isolated networks.

In June, Airvana, ip.access and Ubiquisys pledged to work together in support of the Femto Forum’s Services Special Interest Group (SIG), which aims to make it simpler for developers to build and deploy new femtocell applications using standardised Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The demonstration with Intrinsyc is the first result from this collaboration.

“With standard femtocell APIs, developers will be able to write mobile applications that run on any femtocell on any network,” said Andrew Germano, Vice Chairman of the Femto Forum and Chairman of the Services SIG. “This kind of demonstration is an important proof point for the Forum’s current focus on creating a standard API for handset applications.”

“The demonstration is part of the wider initiative to ensure femtocell-aware applications will work with any vendor's femtocell,” said Andrew Hurdle, Vice President of Business Development, at Intrinsyc. “UX-Zone is more than just a single application; it’s an extension to our RapidRil™ product set that provides a standardized way for third party applications on the phone to become femtocell-aware.”

“Femtocell-aware applications offer significant opportunities for developers, network operators and end-users,” said Dean Bubley, founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm. “However, it is important to work towards standardised approaches that can work across multiple types of handset and femtocell. This type of common 'trigger' capability is a very good example and a positive signal for the market.”