Last week KDDI announced that their “au Femtocell” service will be commercially available to customers of KDDI’s au Hikari fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service in the Tokyo metropolitan area starting July 1, 2010.

KDDI had Selected 3G Femtocell Solution from Hitachi and Airvana earlier this year. Airvana's contribution to the joint solution includes its HubBubâ„¢ CDMA femtocell which provides simultaneous support of both 1x-RTT and 3G EV-DO services; the Femtocell Service Manager (FSM) for massive-scale device management and automated network planning; and the  FNG femtocell network gateway. 

Hitachi has provided core network equipment to connect the HubBub femtocell system into KDDI's core network. Airvana's femtocell and Hitachi's call processing server both use SIP control signaling to transparently support existing CDMA 1x calling functions in the network.  Hitachi is also acting as the overall system integrator to ensure interoperability between the femtocell network, the macro EV-DO radio access network and the core network infrastructure.

Femtocells are home-based cellular access points that use a subscriber's existing broadband connection to provide enhanced voice coverage and data performance for mobile phones indoors.