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No truth in "Avaya takeover" story - Ubiquisys

A spokesman for Ubiquisys today responded "off the record" to the NewsWireless story about an imminent takeover by Avaya with a simple: "There is no truth to this story" statement. But others in the femtocell market have agreed that the match would be a good one.

Sources inside Kineto Wireless, which is starting to focus closely on the Ubiquisys product line, have expressed interest in the possibility of the Avaya takeover but nobody was prepared to make a comment on events in America until the US offices open this afternoon.

At direct rivals, IP Access, senior executives have been discussing the change in the market, and expressed some scepticism about Avaya's ability to take the product range to market.

"You have to sell femtocells to the mobile operators," said marketing manager Chris Cox [above, right]. "These things work on licensed spectrum, and you can't install them yourself - you need people with a licence. That applies even indoors."

This was recently confirmed at a conference where Cox specifically asked an Ofcom regulator to clarify the law: "Even indoors on private property, if it transmits on UMTS frequencies, a device needs a licence," said the Ofcom executive.

Avaya, however, doesn't have much track record on selling to the mobile operators, and is normally seen as one of the SIP VoIP specialists which the mobile telcos regard as close to being the Devil incarnate.

IP Access believes that its approach, which supports both 3GPP and IMS standards, will be competitive, even if it has to face Avaya in mobile markets.