Who and how are femtocells manufactured?

There are several categories of femtocell manufacturers, most of which we have covered and include individual pages on all of the leading players under the vendors section.

Independent Femtocell Specialists

Independent femtocell specialist companies, such as Ubiquisys , ip.access and Airvana have their own relationships with high volume manufacturing contractors. For example, Ubiquisys announced a close relationship with a factory in Wales, UK which has the capacity to ramp up production to very large volumes.

Mainstream cellular equipment manufacturers

The more traditional cellular equipment manufacturers, such as Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei, already have their own high volume production plants. Alcatel-Lucent source the hardware for their femtocell from Sagem who already make substantial numbers of broadband modems and other consumer items, and can reuse these facilities. Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei are also producers of both handsets and network infrastructure, so are also likely to have appropriate facilities.

Set-Top Box and Integrated Femtocells

It is likely that femtocells will be incorporated into set top boxes and broadband modems, so that the existing vendors of those products (e.g. Netgear, Thomson, Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola etc.) will be large volume producers of femtocell capable products in the medium to long term.

In the short term, separate physical products will be developed and manufactured, either by the femtocell vendors themselves or under contract. This allows rapid revision and new product versions to be launched in volume to meet market needs.

Find out where you can buy one and other common questions

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