Fixed Mobile Convergence

Cellcom has selected Starent Networks to provide a comprehensive, end-to-end solution that extends coverage and offers next generation Femtocell services to its customers in the home and enterprise.

Giving this information, Starent officials said that Cellcom (News - Alert) as part of the pact will be using Starent’s Femto Network Gateway, XT30 Service Convergence Platform and Session Control Manager.

The company officials were of the opinion that Femtocells have been gaining traction in the marketplace as some consumers are moving away from traditional land-lines and using mobile devices for single number contact.

Officials said that by offering consumers an individual cellular base station that connects to a network through a broadband Internet connection, mobile operators can benefit from extended coverage, cost savings and next generation services such as multimedia and presence.

“Cellcom is continuously looking for ways to better serve our customers and offer a more robust mobile communications experience,” said Robert Riordan, executive vice president and director of corporate development of Cellcom, in a statement.

Cellcom is a sister company of Nsight Telservices and a subsidiary of Nsight, a provider of communications services throughout Wisconsin and Michigan, with more than 80 retail and agent locations.

Riordan said that Starent’s leadership in mobile broadband and core networking, along with their ability to offer an end-to-end Femtocell (News - Alert) solution, made them a clear choice to help the company to provide enhanced voice, data and multimedia services to the customers.

The company officials said that Cellcom as part of the Femtocell solution would be utilizing Starent’s Femtocell Network Gateway (News - Alert), which provides security and aggregation for the Femtocells accessing the network.

“Cellcom is an innovative, early adopter of Femtocell networking, which provides us a great opportunity to collaborate with them in implementing next-generation services through Femtocell technology,” said Ashraf Dahod (News - Alert), president and chief executive officer of Starent.

Dahod said that it is important that the company provides its customers, like Cellcom, with more comprehensive solutions that will enable new service and revenue opportunities.

Starent Networks, Corp. is a provider of infrastructure solutions that enable mobile operators to deliver multimedia services to their subscribers.

Starent Networks claims that it has created solutions that provide mobile operators with the functions and services needed for access, mobility management and call control in their networks.

TMCnet recently reported that the mobilkom austria group, a mobile services provider in central and eastern Europe, had selected Starent’s multimedia core solution for deployment in its mobile operator member companies across Europe for UMTS and LTE (News - Alert) mobile broadband services.