Ip.access nets small cell deal with Telenor Group
As femtocell and WLan vendors venture outdoors, competition mounts, with Meru throwing its hat in the ring too
Published: 6 February, 2012
READ MORE: Spectrum | Infrastructure | Femtocell | UMTS | Wi-Fi
As mobile carriers become increasingly interested in building their next generation networks with small cells, vendors from two different segments are trying to seize market share before the top five OEMs pounce. One group, led by BelAir Networks and Ruckus, have roots in carrier Wi-Fi, while the other is driven by firms which started in the indoor femtocell space, like Ubiquisys and ip.access.
In the latter category, ip.access has announced a global small cell agreement with Norway's Telenor, covering the carrier's 11 countries. These are mainly in the Nordic countries and eastern Europe, plus some activities in Asia (though the future of the cellco's Uninor joint venture in India is in some doubt after the regulator cancelled 122 GSM licences).
Telenor was looking for a standards compliant, end-to-end 3G system, which could span residential, enterprise and public access applications with one architecture, according to the vendor, as well as "technical credibility, and a competitive long term total cost of ownership". There is also the potential to extend the current 3G framework agreement to LTE in future.
The supplier's CEO, Simon Brown, said in a statement: "This is another important milestone for both ip.access and the small cell market. Major operators are recognising and reacting to the role that small cells can play to boost coverage, capacity and customer service in homes, offices and public spaces."
Meanwhile, the Wi-Fi players are tapping into operator plans to include WLan access points and unlicensed spectrum in their small cell strategies, initially for offload and later in integrated Wi-Fi/cellular 'HetNets'. This is luring suppliers which have focused on indoor home or enterprise markets outside to join BelAir and Cisco. The latest is Meru, which says it has "brought the wireless edge outdoors" with its rugged, 1.3Gbps access point. The Meru OAP433e supports WLans which can stretch across campuses, enterprises, shopping malls and stadiums, says the firm.
Meru says it is offering the first three-radio, three-stream 802.11n outdoor access point to boast 1.35Gbps of data rate capacity. It is designed to work with Meru's virtual WLan operating system, System Director 5.
Kamal Anand, VP of product management at the company, commented: "The enterprise is no longer bounded by bricks and mortar. People require reliable network access as they travel between buildings, enter stadiums, move across campuses - and they expect their applications and Wi-Fi devices to perform flawlessly."
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