ip.access and Kineto Wireless have completed interoperability testing (IOT) between ip.access’ Oyster 3G femtocell Access Point and Kineto’s Multi-Service Access Gateway (MSA-GW). The testing was based on 3GPP’s Release 8 Iuh specification.

3GPP Release 8 defines the standard interface between femtocell Access Points and the femtocell gateway. The Iuh standard makes it easier for mobile network operators to deploy femtocells in multi-vendor environments, ultimately giving them a wider choice of suppliers.

"We are fully committed to the standards process, and are pleased to extend our participation in the Femto Forum plugfest to a deeper level with Kineto,” said Dr. Nick Johnson, CTO of ip.access.

"The femtocell industry’s progress in defining and implementing open standards has been impressive, and we see this is an important step in proving and improving those standards. Kineto and ip.access are two companies distinguished by having their technology live in production networks. This step marks another important milestone in our lengthening technical leadership”, further he adds.

"Delivery of standards-based femtocell systems are crucial to supporting the next phase of operator deployments,” said Ken Kolderup, vice president and general manager of Kineto’s Infrastructure Business Unit. "The relative ease with which we were able to confirm interoperability with ip.access is a testament to both the completeness of the Iu h specification and the market-readiness of our respective products.”

Kineto and ip.access have separately deployed femtocell solutions successfully for mobile network operators. Both companies had participated in the world’s first femtocell plugfest organized by the Femto Forum and ETSI in March 2010.