Gossip

3GSM: more Femto-confusion likely as show progresses

by Sniffer | posted on 09 February 2007

Mystery surrounds the plans of two major telecommunication companies with femtocell technology, as the Barcelona congress looms, and understandably, rumour is swift to fill in the gaps in the known plans of both Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent.

Motorola seems to have bought into the femtocell business by accident; it bought TTPcom, which owns 40% of IPAccess. Does Motorola understand that this means it is now a player in the infrastructure market? and if it does understand that, does it want to exploit that situation (by buying the other 60%!) or does it want to run away?

Rumours suggest both.

In the case of Alcatel-Lucent, the giant corporation is hosting a press conference at 11:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday, February 13th at the Theatre Lliure. Mary Chan, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless activities and Marc Rouanne, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s convergence activities will discuss Alcatel-Lucent’s strategy and portfolio.

What that terse preview doesn't say, is anything about Nortel; and Nortel has spent a lot of effort becoming a leading femtocel pioneer. And since January 3 this year, Alcatel-Lucent owns all Nortel's UMTS business.

Exactly what Alcatel-Lucent is doing, is no secret: the company has issued a detailed list of its Congress activities - below - but none of those appears to be anything to do with Nortel.

The list:-

Mobile TV solution, also being shown at the Telefónica booth, illustrating how TV can become a personalized experience delivering “content anywhere, access everywhere.” Demonstrations also will showcase seamless access of broadcasted (S-Band) and streamed mobile TV channels, as well as continuity of a video session between a home TV and a mobile device.

IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) services -- also being shown at the Telefónica, Accenture and Capgemini booths -- illustrating how IMS-based applications can help end-users communicate, network, and share information with their friends, family, and colleagues.

A new Bell Labs security innovation, called Project Aware, which enables wireless operators to protect their data networks and subscribers from existing, as well as new wireless-specific threats that could originate from within and outside their networks.

Mobile Internet Café illustrating a mobile communication system specifically tailored for high-growth economies, which consists of a 3-wheel motorcycle and Alcatel-Lucent’s WiMAX solution to deliver high-speed data to even the most remote areas.

Business Transformation animations will demonstrate Alcatel-Lucent’s unrivalled experience in end-to-end network integration and operation. These specifically feature the unmatched services capabilities to lead large-scale network transformation projects.

Alcatel-Lucent’s Multi-Standard base station, which supports GSM (with TWIN Transceiver), W-CDMA and WiMAX in a single cabinet, also will be shown.

If, in spite of good sense, Motorola decided to flog off IPAccess, who would buy it? Rumour again (and nobody seems to actually believe this one) suggests that Cisco might buy the business. The reason nobody believes this one is that the rumour suggests it's a Linksys acquisition, and you really can't sell IPAccess hardware to the domestic customers who make up the Linksys market.