Ubiquisys said Monday that it is aiming for a fourth quarter release of consumer and business versions of its next-generation femtocell, the G3, designed to offer mobile broadband download speeds up to 21.6M bps (bits per second).
The femtocell also supports mesh technology, which enables a number of femtocells to work together to cover, for example, an office building, Ubiquisys said.
Femtocells are small base stations that can improve indoor wireless coverage and increase capacity. When a user is making calls and surfing the Web with a phone or laptop equipped with wireless broadband, signals are sent via the femtocell and a fixed broadband connection.
Femtocells also provide carriers a chance to offload users from the regular mobile network to save money on backhaul capacity.
The G3's higher upload speeds are made possible using HSPA+ (High-Speed Packet Access). The G3 will support upload speeds at up to 5.7M bps, according to Ubiquisys.
Femtocells haven't taken off this year to the extent that many people expected. Forecasts were a bit overheated, according to Keith Day, vice president of marketing at Ubiquisys.
But the company continues to work closely with operators, and expect that to bear fruit during 2009, he said.
HSPA+ has so far been rolled out by small number of operators, including Mobilkom Austria, StarHub in Singapore and Telstra in Australia.
The G3 will be demonstrated at the Femtocells World Summit in London Tuesday through Thursday, Ubiquisys said.
Ubiquisys is also working on a version that will come in the shape of a module, and is designed to be integrated into a home gateway or other consumer electronic product. Pricing has not been announced.
