Thomson Announces First Residential Gateway to Integrate Femtocell Technology

Thomson Announces First Residential Gateway to Integrate Femtocell Technology

Thomson today announces the launch of an integrated femtocell gateway (the "TG870") which will enable operators to deliver compelling multimedia services to the home network over any WCDMA[1] 3G handset. Improved indoor coverage and greater capacity enabled by the gateway will help operators drive advanced service consumption over wireless home networks, while its eco-friendly design slashes power consumption by half.

Femtocells are small cellular access points which provide enhanced coverage specifically in residential environments and enable operators to provide fixed-mobile convergence services and others such as IPTV. Development of the Thomson gateway is part of a Development, Marketing and Promotion Co-Operation Agreement on a 3G femto home access solution with Nokia Siemens Networks, a leading global enabler of communications services, announced in July 2007.

"By integrating the Femtocell technology into our leading residential broadband gateway platform, we extend our quadruple-play portfolio one step further" said Jacques Dunogué, Senior Executive Vice President, Systems Division of Thomson. "In addition, this new eco-friendly platform design underscores our corporate commitment to environmental sustainability";

"Coupled with our 3G Femto Home Access network solution, including our Femto Gateway network element, Thomson's femtocell-enabled residential gateway will allow operators to seamlessly deliver compelling 3G multimedia services to the home as well as make the mobile handset an integral part of any home networking environment" said Timo Hyppoelae, heading Indoor Solutions Product Line in Nokia Siemens Networks.

Eco-friendly design and deployment simplicity for operator and subscriber alike

In addition to providing new functionalities, the integration of a femtocell into the gateway brings a major eco-design breakthrough in that it is the femtocell gateway is equipped with an eco-mode which cuts average power consumption by half thus significantly reducing the environmental impact of the platform.

The integration of the femtocell in the residential gateway also ensures a plug-and-play solution for ease of use and installation helping operators to drive the mass deployment and consumption of sophisticated and revenue-generating fixed-mobile convergence services over their networks.

Trials of the 3G Femto Home Access solution including Thomson's residential gateway will start in Q2 2008, and commercial deployments are planned for the fourth quarter of 2008. While the femto market is still in its early stages of development and consequently difficult to forecast, market research firms ABI Research and Ovum respectively estimate this market could reach ten to twelve million units by 2010.