August 5, 2008

Tango, AirWalk & Tatara Partner for enterprise femtocell

Three leading unified convergence technology companies have collaborated to deliver a ground-breaking enterprise-focused fixed-mobile convergence solution employing femtocells. The three companies include Tango Networks™, specializing in seamless enterprise FMC for unified communications; AirWalk Communications™, a provider of advanced enterprise femtocells; and Tatara Systems, focused on SIP-based femtocell network integration and convergence.

The Tango/AirWalk/Tatara enterprise femtocell FMC solution, which has been successfully demonstrated, couples the power of mobile operator networks with the robust features and management of an enterprise unified communications system or PBX. Unlike other in-building solutions requiring specialized, high-end handsets, this enterprise femtocell solution utilizes any standard mobile device. This is because the unique hybrid architecture of Tango Networks’ Abrazo enables any mobile phone to become a true extension on the enterprise’s existing voice communications network.

Femtocells are small cellular base stations connected to mobile operator networks via broadband to enhance in-building service coverage. Most current femtocell solutions are targeted at consumers’ homes; however, today’s announced solution marshals the combined capabilities of these three leading companies to create one of the first femtocell applications expected to address the enterprise market.

Most enterprises closely manage their communications networks and services, desiring all in-building communications to go through their unified communications and PBX systems. The Tango/Airwalk/Tatara enterprise solution expands the backhaul and control structure of femtocells to meet the more complex security and efficiency requirements of the enterprise. Mobile operators can also choose this solution to provide a converged managed services offering for enterprises that prefer a hosted/managed telecommunications model.

The joint solution also makes it possible for the mobile operator to provide policy management services for all on-campus calling from mobile phones to be kept local to the enterprise network. Tango Networks’ Abrazo™ provides the enterprise communications services and intelligent routing capabilities. The AirWalk EdgePoint™ femtocell is an integrated Radio Access Network (RAN) that offers unrivaled soft handoff capabilities between femtocells. The Tatara Convergence Server enables the mobile carrier’s service to be delivered over the Web to the femtocell, including calls and text messages to subscribers’ mobile numbers and handovers to and from the macro-cellular network. These capabilities open the door for mobile operators to tailor in-building tariff policies for enterprise customers with no impact to their mobile networks.

Through the use of the solution’s policy engine, mobile operators can enable enterprises to selectively decide which enterprise and public mobile users can utilize the enterprise corporate assets, including long-distance networks, conferencing, messaging, short-code dialing, and other features, while maintaining and enforcing corporate policy and management. This can apply to not only regular employees, but also for contractors and selective guests, while maintaining security of all systems.

“In-building coverage remains an important issue for many global enterprises,” stated Andrew Silver, chief technology officer and co-founder of Tango Networks. "Mobile operators have begun addressing how femtocells can benefit their consumer customers. Our joint solution simplifies the more challenging enterprise landscape, proving the business value of femtocells as part of a complete enterprise FMC solution and helping mobile operators address this tremendous growth opportunity.”

“To support the high standards of an enterprise environment, operators must offer in-building service and functionality comparable to macro networks to stay competitive,” said Serge Pequeux, CEO of AirWalk Communications. “AirWalk’s EdgePoint femtocells provide unmatched macro network features sets for in-building environments, Tango offers the high-end PBX functionality on mobile phones, and the Tatara solution makes this advanced enterprise FMC solution possible.”

“The Tango/AirWalk/Tatara enterprise femtocell FMC solution is a great example of the applications that can be enabled with SIP-based network integration,” stated E.Y. Snowden, president & CEO of Tatara Systems. “Our IP-centric approach to integration with IP-RAN femtocells like AirWalk’s facilitates Tango Networks’ mobile convergence with the PBX as well as other IP-based and Web-based applications in the enterprise and home.”




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