Denmark's TDC strikes femto deal

Denmark’s leading mobile operator, TDC Mobile, said Friday that it has tapped NEC to deploy a femtocell network later this year.

The agreement will see the deployment of a friendly user trial of femtocell access points deployed in consumer locations and connected to TDC’s commercial core network system.

Femtocells are low power wireless access points used to connect standard mobile devices to a mobile operator’s network using residential DSL or cable broadband connections. They are targeted at the domestic market, intended to be used in the home and will typically be connected to the consumer’s fixed internet connection.

Earlier this week, the Femto Forum, an independent industry and operator association, announced that is has reached 100 members, including the top five infrastructure vendors and 17 of the world’s top 20 operators covering more than 2.3 billion subscribers.

The 3GPP has also committed to completing the WCDMA femtocell standard by the end of March, and the forum is working to ensure that devices from different vendors are fully interoperable, as well as supporting the 3GPP’s release 9 and its planned provision for IMS femtocells. The forum said that it is currently focusing its efforts on other air interface technologies such as LTE and WiMAX, as well as exploring new enterprise models and the developing of home zone services, which take advantage of the presence capabilities of femtocells.