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- Ubiquisys
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Ubiquisys
Ubiquisys is a dynamic young telecommunications company at the forefront of a worldwide drive to develop the femtocell technology to improve indoor 3G cell phone reception.
Headquartered in Swindon, the company intends to utilise Sony’s manufacturing expertise to take its revolutionary ZoneGate femtocell system to market.
ZoneGate is a small plug-in device developed by Ubiquisys that boosts the cellular signal indoors where it is often unreliable or non-existent. It simply connects to a user’s broadband gateway in the home or office and routes calls to a high speed internet connection rather than the standard network.
Callers can use their existing 3G cell phones and the system not only provides high quality coverage in the home at landline prices but enables mobile carriers to deliver innovative new services to their customers in their homes.
There is a huge potential market and it has been estimated by ABI Research that by 2012 there will be more than 150 million users of femtocell products on 70 million access points worldwide.
A number of companies worldwide are developing femtocell technology but Ubiquisys was the first company to demonstrate a fully working femtocell solution at last year’s 3GSM World Congress and this year unveiled the world’s first commercial grade femtocell system.
It has already attracted considerable venture capital and last month announced it had secured a second round of funding totalling £12.5m. Its leading technology investors Accel Partners, Atlas Venture and Advent Venture[g1] Partners - have been joined by search engine Google in the investment.
Ubiquisys, a privately owned company formed in 2004, will be carrying out further research and development of its product at Technium Digital@Sony and aims to start volume production later this year. Its target customers will be the main network operators.
Four of the Ubiquisys team are former Sony R&D engineers and the move to Technium Digital@Sony will
enable the company to access Sony’s manufacturing expertise and facilities and benefit from the Technium business support team and the links into academic establishments.Ieuan Wyn Jones, Minister for the Economy and Transport, said the facilities, support and access to world class expertise available through the pan-Wales Technium network was proving to be an attractive proposition for technology based businesses.
“The Technium network has fostered a large number of knowledge based companies with high growth potential. I am pleased to see a company like Ubiquisys developing new technology and innovative products here in Wales and joining the growing ranks of small, very smart companies in Technium centres .
“Technium Digital@Sony provides
the right environment to help young technology companies turn ideas into commercial reality while the design for manufacture elements of the facility provided through the Sony partnership makes it particularly attractive for businesses manufacturing electronic and digital devices.“Ubiquisys has attracted considerable backing from the venture capital market and their new ZoneGate system has the potential to bring long term benefits to the area through local manufacturing and by developing a local supply chain.”
“We had a number of tough criteria when looking for our manufacturing partner for the ZoneGate,” said Will Franks, CTO and founder of Ubiquisys. “Technium understands the requirements of entrepreneurial manufacturers and has the right blend of skills and experience. Their streamlined production ramp-up process has accelerated the path to full production.
“ We also benefit from their proximity to our headquarters in Swindon and Sony’s pedigree and expertise in high-velocity consumer manufacturing. We are delighted to be working with them and look forward to a long and close relationship.”
The team behind Ubiquisys, which has considerable experience, expertise and track record in the communications industry, is led by Chief Executive Officer Chris Gilbert who transformed IPWireless from a niche wireless broadcast player into a mainstream cellular provider.
Their Chief Technical Officer Will Franks developed the hugely successful wireless innovation centres for Lucent Technologies prior to co founding Ubiquisys.
