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RadioFrame misses femtocell bandwagon: Ubiquisys, ipaccess and Airvana ride on

Bare six months after raising $28 million "in order to fund femtocell product development" RadioFrame has decided to use the capital for other purposes. And while they pull out of European femto building, leading rival Ubiquisys is smugly sitting on an ABI Research award for "top femto."

The femto business is still a long way from generating large consumer revenues, and it's hard to believe that there is much more to RadioFrame's decision than internal accounting considerations. If they had the money to pursue all options, Femto would still seem to be a good bet.

But the company couldn't justify its booth at Mobile World Congress, reports Michelle Donegan who has investigated and found "no plans to attend CTIA either" - indicating a general lack of financial blood pressure, rather than a lack of faith in femtocell futures.

She quotes CEO Jeff Brown: "While we closed down Europe specific to Femto cell, we are now focused on our iDEN and ASIC businesses," and adding that "We are trying to be prudent with our money in these tough economic times and we have pared back to a core set of businesses that will take advantage of our unique market position while maximizing our use of funds."

The company says it will continue to make chips for femtocell boxes for home use, but is not going to be "in the customer equipment side" of the femtocell business.

No such doubts plauge Ubiquisys, which was given the accolate of "on top of the vendor matrix" by ABI Research senior analyst Aditya Kaul.

And close behind Ubiquisys, comes veteran picocell company ip.access, and then Airvana, says ABI Research:

“Ubiquisys has the momentum going for it at the moment with multiple operator trials and rollouts across the world. ip.access has seen its partnership and close relationship with Cisco bear fruit. The firm has built upon its innovation and R&D expertise and is now in close competition with Ubiquisys. Closely following ip.access is Airvana, which has risen two positions from last year. Its modular approach allows it to integrate with multiple form factors and is one of the leading femto module suppliers to broadband gateway vendors.”