Probably better known for its Automotive tyres, Pirelli is a diverse business and includes a division specialising in home broadband access products, known as Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) in the trade. The division has been successful in IPTV set top boxes, such as the “AliceBox” sold by Alice in France.

Pirelli Broadband Solutions offer an Integrated Access Gateway, with separate models for home and small business use. All of the common features you’d expect to find in a DSL broadband modem are there – ADSL2+, Ethernet and WiFi with remote management using the TR-069 standard. Additionally, their products work with other broadband access technologies including VDSL and Fibre to the Home (FTTH).

An agreement was announced in May 2008 to interwork with Nokia-Siemens femto-gateway.

The femtocell module incorporated in their gateway is provided by Airvana, who also have a strong relationship with Nokia-Siemens.

A range of different products incorporating a 3G UMTS femtocell is available:

The A225G-F7 shown below (courtesy of Pirelli Broadband) incorporates an ADSL 2+ broadband modem, WiFi 802.11b/g or n, FXS socket (enables standard wireline phone to be used for VoIP calls) and a USB socket (allows USB stick or hard drive to be used for shared storage).

Pirelli collaborated with Nokia-Siemens and Airvana to demonstrate successful femtocell operation using Satellite broadband from ASTRA. This allows femtocells to be deployed in areas where no DSL or cable broadband is available.

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