EMERYVILLE, Calif. & SWINDON, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Netopia, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTPA), a market leader in broadband service
assurance solutions, and Ubiquisys Ltd., the developer of ZoneGate
mass-market femto access points for the residential market, today
announced the two companies will collaborate to accelerate the
development of the femtocell market.
Femtocells are cellular access points for mobile operators looking to
provide enhanced 3G mobile coverage within homes and small businesses.
Cellular access points, like the Ubiquisys ZoneGate system, made
possible through sophisticated radio frequency planning techniques, are
receiving strong interest from mobile operators globally. The devices
are sold and deployed by mobile operators and sit on a customer’s
home network, behind a broadband gateway.
Key to sustainable, mass-market femtocell adoption is the requirement
for an advanced service activation and management technology. To deliver
such a system, Ubiquisys is enhancing its ZoneGate access point to
support the TR-069 specification and is working with Netopia to create a
zero-touch, fully managed software solution that utilizes Netopia’s
NBBS TR-069 platform. NBBS is a standards-based management system that
supports the DSL Forum's TR-069 specification for the remote management
of customer premises equipment.
“Ubiquisys has adopted the DSL Forum’s
TR-069 specification because it enables operators to seamlessly install
and manage millions of ZoneGate access points in customers’homes,” said Chris Gilbert, CEO of Ubiquisys.
"Working with Netopia is a logical next step for us, since it allows us
to offer mobile operators best-in-class femtocell technology through the
fully managed ZoneGate access point.”
The ZoneGate access point will be shipped to customers with an active
SIM card. Once connected to a customer’s home
network, the access point will first authenticate with the wireless
carrier, and then connect to the Netopia NBBS management server hosted
by the mobile operator. Based on the customer’s
service profile, the appropriate configurations will then be
automatically downloaded to the access point. Finally, the access point
will be tuned to the optimal settings for the particular home
environment, and the customer’s individual
account will be activated. This all occurs without the intervention of
either the mobile operator or the customer.
“Our goal is to offer service providers
complete service activation and management systems for home networks,”
said Jeff Porter, vice president of NBBS sales. “Today
we have several million broadband gateways actively managed by our NBBS
software. Supporting Ubiquisys allows us to expand our remote management
footprint to include the emerging femtocell market opportunity.”
About Ubiquisys Ltd
Ubiquisys is a privately owned communications company formed in 2004 to
bring the groundbreaking ZoneGate femtocell technology to market. The
ZoneGate access point is a small plug-and-play device that simply and
seamlessly connects to a user's broadband gateway or becomes an
integrated module as part of a comprehensive residential gateway device.
The product integrates seamlessly with the mobile operator’s
network using a range of standards-based approaches including pre-IMS /
IMS, UMA technology and Iub over IP. The ZoneGate access point is
remotely managed and updated using standard TR-069 management systems.
ZoneGate enables mobile operators to extend 2G and 3G coverage in an
extremely targeted way, reduce deployment costs, generate new revenue
streams and speed up fixed-mobile substitution. For more information,
visit www.ubiquisys.com
About Netopia
Netopia, Inc. delivers broadband service assurance solutions through
high-performance broadband customer premises equipment and carrier-class
remote device management and support software. Netopia's broadband
gateways feature advanced technology, high reliability, and remote
manageability to assure delivery of triple-play and IPTV services.
Netopia’s service assurance software
platforms empower carriers, service providers, and enterprises with
remote device management, centralized support, and value-added services
to speed deployment of innovative new broadband applications across home
and business networks. Netopia has established strategic distribution
relationships with leading carriers and broadband service providers,
including AT&T, BellSouth, eircom, and Swisscom.
Headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., Netopia's common stock is listed on
the NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol "NTPA". Netopia has entered
into a definitive agreement with Motorola, Inc, under which Motorola
will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Netopia’s
common stock. The acquisition is subject to customary regulatory
approval and the approval of Netopia’s
stockholders, and is expected to be completed in early 2007. Further
information about Netopia can be obtained via phone at (510) 420-7400,
fax at (510) 420-7601, or on the Web at www.netopia.com.
