SFR Business Team, ip.access and SPIE bring picocells to France

Feb. 11, 2009 - PRLog -- Cambridge,  ip.access (www.ipaccess.com), the multi-award winning developer of picocell and femtocell solutions to boost mobile phone coverage indoors, together with SFR Business Team, the leading alternative French operator on the business market, and SPIE today announced that they are working together to bring the benefits of ip.access picocells to the French mobile market.

Working with SFR Business Team, SPIE has developed the capability to provide a fully managed service for ip.access nanoBTS picocells in France. This service includes the initial project and network design and planning, network integration, site surveys and deployment of the picocells on enterprise user premises, as well as the day-to-day operations and network management functions. This new collaboration builds on SPIE’s track record of network deployment and operation for all the major network operators in France.

SFR Business Team uses ip.access nanoBTS picocells as the basis for its SFR Office Extend offer. “SFR Office Extend is greatly appreciated by our enterprise customers, who gain excellent coverage throughout their premises. This is a perfect complement to our SFR One Office service range”, said Pierre-Yves Rallet, Marketing Director at SFR Business Team.

Current SFR One Office Extend customers, such as Isobox and Piscines Groupe GA, enjoy comfortable network access for their employees, while also benefiting from very competitive prices. The Group provides all its customers with its top-flight network quality, ranked N° 1 in 2008 (by Arcep).

SFR Business Team has a strong position on the market, with 100 nanoBTS to be deployed as of late-March 2009. The solution’s attractiveness will mean significant growth potential.
Picocells provide an excellent way for mobile operators to deliver a high-quality differentiated service to their business customers, by offering excellent in-building voice quality and high speed EDGE data rates for business-critical devices such as Blackberries® and smart phones. The ip.access nanoGSM solution can reduce project implementation costs and lead time by a factor of 2, compared with traditional indoor coverage solutions, and makes indoor coverage cost-effective for small and medium enterprises starting at 10 employees or VIPs.

“ip.access is the pioneer and leading vendor of IP-based picocells that deliver high quality indoor mobile coverage and capacity, where businesses need it most. Working with them to deliver a fully packaged turnkey solution to demanding operator customers is a perfect complement to our broad range of deployment services for mobile operators” said Hervé SMADJA, Director of DML –Telecom Deployment Department of SPIE. Commenting on the collaboration, Chris Rees Senior VP Sales and Marketing, ip.access said “the experience and capabilities of SPIE are accelerating the deployments of the ip.access picocell solution into businesses in France”



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About ip.access
Based in Cambridge, UK, ip.access ltd (www.ipaccess.com) is a leading manufacturer of cost-effective picocell and femtocell infrastructure solutions for GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3G. These solutions bring IP and cellular technologies together and solve in-building access problems for mobile operators, opening up new revenue streams while defending existing business.

ip.access is the company behind the Oyster 3G™ femtocell solution, winner of numerous industry awards, including a Global Mobile Award and a World Communications Award. The Oyster 3G dramatically increases 3G cell capacity and coverage; improves quality of experience for the end-user; and drives down costs for the operator.

The ip.access nanoGSM® is the world’s most deployed picocell solution for cellular networks. It provides GSM, GPRS and EDGE coverage and capacity for offices, shops and using satellite backhaul passenger aircraft, ships and in remote rural areas.

With more than 35 live networks around the world and many more being deployed, ip.access is the partner of choice for operators competing in the new converged marketplace.

ip.access counts Scottish Equity Partners, Rothschild Gestion, Intel Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, ADC, Cisco, Qualcomm and Motorola Ventures among its shareholders.


About SPIE
As a specialist in electrical, mechanical and HVAC engineering, energy, communications and infrastructure, SPIE enhances the world around us and contributes to its development by helping local and regional authorities and companies design, build, operate and maintain their facilities.

With more than 27,000 employees working from nearly 400 locations in 28 countries, SPIE provides advanced technical services and solutions to meet the current and future challenges of both local and international customers.

In 2007, SPIE achieved sales of €3.46 billion and generated a trading profit of €137.5 million.

About SFR Business Team
Following the merger between SFR and Neuf Cegetel, SFR Business Team is now the largest alternative fixed and mobile operator on the businesses French market.
With its high speed mobile and fixed end-to-end network infrastructures, SFR Business Team has more than 120,000 small and large business customers, representing about 35% of mobile lines and 40% of corporate data/IP networks.
Based on new technologies (VoIP, M2M, 3G+ mobile data) and convergence and building from the expertise of its 2,000 dedicated employees (in technical, marketing, sales, and customer service) and 300 “solutions” partners, SFR Business Team is positioned as the model operator, capable of releasing the full potential of businesses, from small businesses to multinational corporations, by offering them the most appropriate and scalable telecom solutions (telephony, data, Internet, Machine-to-Machine) for their business.
SFR Business Team benefits from international coverage through its partnership with Vodafone.
SFR Business Team, a brand of SFR, relies on its subsidiary Neuf Cegetel to offer fixed solutions.
www.sfrbusinessteam.fr

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Dave McCann / Paul Nolan
CCgroup
T: +44 118 920 7650
E : ipaccess@the-cc-group.com
W: www.the-cc-group.com
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Nicky Davis
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nicky[at]neondrum[dot]com

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