Europe UK : Ubiquisys Ltd announced the forthcoming availability of an Iuh interface for its ZoneGate femtocells. The interface provides standardized communications between femtocells and the gateways in mobile operator’s networks. Ubiquisys will introduce the interface from mid-2009, with migration available for deployed femtocells. The company has worked with mobile operators on Iuh requirements and is synchronising market availability with multiple infrastructure partners.

Today, an operator’s choice of femtocells is dictated by the type of femtocell gateway infrastructure they connect to. Iuh is important because it standardises the interface between the femtocells and femtocell gateways. It frees operators to choose femtocells from their preferred vendors,and to make that choice independently of the network infrastructure. The speed and momentum behind the 3GPP’s work on Iuh illustrates the strong demand from operators for standard network interfaces for femtocells.

Ubiquisys is well positioned to deliver Iuh, because its femtocell architecture was specifically designed to anticipate the standard.  The company has already used this architecture to develop multiple network protocols (SIP, GAN, IMS) for its ZoneGate femtocell.

“Femtocells should be like mobile phones - interchangeable with the network they connect to,” said Will Franks, CTO and Founder, Ubiquisys. “Now that Iuh ratification is largely completed, demand from operators has intensified, and we have responded by accelerating our Iuh programme.”