Major operators back Femto Forum

Alcatel-Lucent, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks and Telefónica O2 have been elected to the board of the Femto Forum.

The independent industry association supports the worldwide deployment of femtocells.

The low-power wireless access points operate in licensed spectrum to connect standard mobile devices to an operator's network using residential DSL or cable broadband connections.

The backers join the likes of Aricent, Carphone Warehouse, Motorola, Sagem Communications and the seven original founding members, Airvana, ip.access, Netgear, picoChip, RadioFrame, Tatara and Ubiquisys, on the board of the Femto Forum.

"Since the launch of the Femto Forum on 2 July, the development of the femtocell industry has continued its unrelenting pace, recently seeing the first commercial deployment," said Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum.

"The simple proposition of lower costs for operators and consumers, combined with improved coverage and services, is proving compelling.

"Major femtocell vendors and component providers are working with operators to ensure that their products interoperate and meet the necessary demands to ensure successful widespread deployments."

The Femto Forum aims to promote the uptake of femtocell technologies through open standards, market education and ecosystem development.

"With commercial 3G deployments now widespread, the next big challenge is to deliver a consistent user experience and ensure indoor coverage," said Ajay Gupta, vice president of the wireless and convergence business unit at Aricent.

"Femtocells represent a significant opportunity to achieve this. However, bringing these new innovative radio access gateway products to market as quickly as possible is another challenge altogether for the equipment manufacturers."