Femtocell manufacturer Ubiquisys raises further $11m, acquires new CFO

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on August 11, 2009

“I suspect the femtocell has missed its chance,” wrote Charles Arthur in the Guardian recently. Not so fast. It seems the existing shareholders of femtocell manufacturer Ubiquisys beg to differ, because they’ve just pumped a further $11m into the company. The money will fund a range of consumer and enterprise products, to be deployed globally over the coming year. Ubiquisys’ investors include Accel, Atlas Venture, Google and the T-Mobile Venture Fund.

In 2009, the World Economic Forum recognised Ubiquisys as a “technology pioneer”. The company’s femtocells are manufactured using Sony technology and are available as standalone units or as part of a residential gateway.

“The femtocell industry is about to enter a phase of aggressive growth,” according to Ubiquisys CEO Chris Gilbert. “We have already seen the first major operator launches and the autumn will see a number of others unveiling their future plans.”

At the same time as announcing their new funding, Ubiquisys also announced that Alison Sparshatt will be joining as CFO.

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Now if only the major carriers would actually recognize the existence of a femtocell.

I called AT&T CS a couple months back, asking if they had any plans for femtocell beta-testing, seeing as how right underneath their gigantic “MORE BARS IN MORE PLACES” advertisement, I would get one bar all over the f*ing place.

The CS rep not only did not know what a femtocell was, but was very eager to sell me U-Verse.
jonas324

What’s a femtocell?
Who is Ubiquisys ?

I shouldn’t have to google every words in the title of a techcrunch post!
http://plentyways.com/blog/ Brendan

Hasn’t anyone heard of repeaters? I’m not bothering to wait for femtocells to further lock me into a carrier. I bought a repeater for $250 and the reception in my house is now perfect. And none of this voice only rubbish, it does voice, 2G, 3G, 7Gs… The lot.

http://www.repeaterstore.com
Penny Danté

Vodafone UK offers femtocells. Do Vodafone count as a major carrier?
Penny Danté

P.S. Before you ask, you can buy them here:

http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-accessories/vodafone-access-gateway
peter

so a company called ubiquisys that makes femtocells has raised $11million, but what the hell is a femtocell? i thought it was probably some form of battery for mobile phones given the word cell and investment by t mobile. but thats basically a guess, little help?
will

for some reason, the computer decided to call me peter?
http://www.tushneem.com Tushneem

In my view femtocells have a future especially as 4G gets rolled out and broadband cable at home is replaced with mobile broadband. LTE femtocells will potentially be used by all carriers to guarantee QoS. More about it here – http://bit.ly/10CttP
http://2thyme.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/femtocells-get-funded/ Femtocells get funded « Scotsman on a Horse

[...] Femtocell manufacturer Ubiquisys raises further $11m, acquires new CFO “The femtocell industry is about to enter a phase of aggressive growth,” according to Ubiquisys CEO Chris Gilbert. “We have already seen the first major operator launches and the autumn will see a number of others unveiling their future plans.” Published in: [...]
Dan, New Hampshire

A femtocell is a device that you connect to your broadband (cable or DSL) in your home or office network that converts your cellphone voice traffic into IP traffic that can then be sent over the Internet to cellular and phone network.

For those (like me) in an area that AT&T doesn’t care about offering good coverage, it will allow me to actually use my cellphone in my house.
tim

but THESE repeaters only support 800 and 1900 Mhz i understand the flexability of owning your own repeater but it won’t have the same flexability for the user as a femtocell the femto will support location based services and as far as i’m aware the current femtocells support HSPA speeds too. the benefit maybe more for the network operator as they will have massive flexability. on top of this do you own a wireless router? in the very near future you’ll have the whole package in one box for a small amount of money. i see a massive future for femtocells.