Regional wireless carrier Cellcom joined with Airvana and Taqua to announce their FemtoCloud femtocell-as-a-service offering, which is designed for regional North American CDMA operators. The companies contend that their service will enable rural North American operators to get in on the small cell action without having to pony up significant upfront capital expenditures. Operators also will not need to develop the expertise required to establish their own small cell core. Cellcom's FemtoCloud platform consists of Airvana's femtocell service manager and small cell analytics service and Taqua's fully integrated small cell core offering. The partners intend to begin marketing the service later this month. Release