ip.access earns double honours at inaugural Femtocell Industry Awards

ip.access, the multi-award winning developer of picocell and femtocell solutions, added to its haul of industry accolades when it scooped an Awards double at the Femto Forum’s inaugural Femtocell Industry Awards held in London last week.

The ceremony took place last Wednesday evening as part of the Femtocells World Summit. A judging panel of industry analysts and representatives from leading wireless trade bodies voted the ip.access nano3G solution the winner in the category for “Femtocell or femtocell network element design and technology innovation”. Its “Facebook Virtual Fridge Notes” application also triumphed in the “Femtocell service (commercial, prototype or demo)” category.

The ip.access nano3G is an 8-channel Access Point which delivers a localised 3G cellular signal over a range of up to 200 metres. It uses the same architecture as the award-winning ip.access Oyster 3G consumer femtocell, and enables mobile operators to provide high-quality 3G coverage and capacity into offices, shops and other locations where cellular signals cannot easily penetrate.

As the trend to all-mobile office communications continues, operators can use the nano3G to compete more aggressively in the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) market, as an effective way to guarantee 3G voice quality and data connectivity in offices.

The “Facebook Virtual Fridge Notes” application was developed by ip.access and unveiled at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It uses a femtocell’s handset detection capability to pick up the presence of a registered user’s phone, and then deliver reminder messages sent via their Facebook profile, as soon as they arrive home.

The application is available for operators to offer to their femtocell subscribers, and works on any SMS capable handset. The new iPhone version actually displays the messages on a virtual fridge, allowing the recipient to manage them just like real fridge notes.

Commenting on the double Awards triumph, ip.access CEO Stephen Mallinson said, “ip.access is delighted to win two categories at the first ever Femtocell Industry Awards. As worldwide interest in and demand for effective in-building cell solutions grows among mobile operators, this latest success is testament to ip.access’ commitment to innovation and excellence – in both our market-leading products and also our exciting new femto applications and services.”

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 ip.access stood out and was deserving of its awards, 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 ip.access and to all those who participated.