Last week we wrote about the growing interest in femtocells, and now we learn that Ericsson is showing its own femtocell solution that it calls, well, Femto Cell Solution--a wireless AP for the home which broadcasts GSM, WCDMA, WiFi and ADSL. Ericsson also describes it as the "world's smallest GSM radio base station," but we don't know about that. The femtocell routs voice calls over an Internet connection to a backend VoIP system and boosts cell phone signals for use in the home. Femtocells also allow operators to offer more services to customers even as these customers give up on wired communication in favor of wireless. Indeed, Ulf Ewaldsson, vice president and head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson, wanted to emphasize this point when he said that "Ericsson's Femto Cell Solution enables mobile operators to compete on the fixed access market, offering price-competitive, innovative and secure services to their customers."
For more on Ericsson's offering:
- see company's press release
PLUS: Ericsson has acquired Entrisphere, its U.S. GPON (gigabit passive optical network) partner, for an undisclosed sum. The move will certainly strengthen the Swedish company's position in the North American FTTH market (read about SF's possible FTTH move in the Spotlight below). It was known that Ericsson was interested in getting a bigger share of the American FTTH market, especially in competing for AT&T's FTTH network business. Report