Motorola brings UMTS in-building

Motorola today released an indoor UMTS access point, designed to be wall-mounted on-site in an enterprise and connected to a base station through IP backhaul.

Motorola is targeting the pico-cell, called the AXPT, at carriers looking to lure enterprises to their new 3G services, but doing so by skirting fixed/mobile convergence solutions such as the Wi-Fi-cellular handoff being proposed by other vendors. One of the selling points for enterprises is UMTS’s high data rates, but the technology’s high capacity could quickly be rendered moot if a high concentration of users are simultaneously accessing the network, such as in a corporate headquarters. The AXPT adds additional capacity to the network within the limited confines of a building and strengthens signal power at specific location, fitting more users and delivering more capacity, Motorola officials said.

At the same time Motorola is trying to promote its UMTS technology as an indoor business access solution, it announced today Motorola ventures made a strategic investment in Israeli WLAN infrastructure developer Extricom. No financial details of the investment were released.