Europe UK : A technology that strengthens the signal of your mobile phone in the home has won a prestigious global award for innovation at the IET's annual Innovation in Engineering Awards.

Swindon based company, Ubiquisys, won the Telecommunications award for developing femtocell technology to improve the signal strength of a mobile phone in the home.

Will Franks, CTO, began development of the femtocell after only being able to pick up a mobile phone signal in his kitchen. Ubiquisys has developed a domestic cellular base station using home broadband connection to pass both signalling and call traffic between a locally connected standard mobile phone and the operator's network. This results in a user being about to pick up mobile phone coverage anywhere around the house and receive cheap calls, data and mobile broadband.

A total of 15 awards, each sponsored by a major company, were presented and at a ceremony at the Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, Londonhosted by TV personality and science enthusiast Johnny Ball.

The host of "Think of a Number" said: "What makes a great innovator? Perhaps a little eccentricity, a desirefor improvement,plus vision and the determination to see it through. All that equals the type of projects recognised through these awards. Innovators always ask Why can't it be better?' If it wasn't for innovation we would still have black and white television and mono radio."

He continued: "Innovation is at the heart of business and wealth creation. It is right that we acknowledge those who push the boundaries of science, engineering and technology and it will be exciting to see how the innovations awarded this year will make their mark in the future. "

Robin McGill, CEO of the IET said: "These awards recognise the vital role that innovation in engineering plays in the global economy. On behalf of the IET I would like to congratulate all the winners who have displayed outstanding innovation in their respective categories."

He added that because of the huge interest in the awards this year details of the 2008 awards would be available immediately on the IET web site at: www.theiet.org/innovationawards

The judges said:" this was an innovative approach to realising a low cost low power cellular base station for the home. It provided seamless handover to 2/3G without network planning or interference and represented significant technology advance and design innovation."

The Telecommunications Category is sponsored by Orange.

The awards have been supported by the Department for InnovationUniversitiesand Skills and Make Your Mark in Manufacturing & Engineering.