Ubiquisys Now Supports New EU Code of Conduct on Energy Consumption

Femtocell (News - Alert) vendor, Ubiquisys Ltd, has announced its support for the EU’s code of conduct on energy consumption of broadband equipment, the new version of which was published on Monday.

 

European Union (EU) Code of Conduct on Energy Consumption of Broadband Equipment has existed since 2007 and is framed with the intention to reduce power consumption of broadband equipment by 2015 and to reduce related environmental, economic and energy supply security impacts.

 

To support this, the European Commission has invited all service providers, network operators, equipment and component manufacturers to sign a Code of Conduct (CoC).

This Code of Conduct has is designed with certain basic principles that have to be followed by all parties involved in broadband equipment operating within the European Community.

 

The recently released version of the code sets targets for femtocells for the first time and is designed to drive reductions in energy consumption without hampering rapid technological development or the quality of the service provided.

 

The new code has set targets for 2009 of 9 Watts and for 2011 of 8W. Ubiquisys (News - Alert) Ltd claims that this is been met by the company’s ZoneGate femtocell, which addresses the ever increasing demand from mobile operators for cost-effective, high-quality 3G coverage in the home.

 

“Energy efficiency has become a key driver of operator strategy. At the same time, rising energy costs have placed all electronic devices under close consumer scrutiny,” said Chris Gilbert (News - Alert), chief executive officer at Ubiquisys.

 

“The fact that the EU has taken these steps, supported by the operator community, illustrates how rapidly femtocells are reaching commercial maturity, and how power consumption has become part of the definition of a femtocell,” added Gilbert.

 

Femtocells (News - Alert) are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum to connect standard mobile devices to a mobile operator’s network using residential DSL or cable broadband connections. When deployed in large numbers, there is a huge savings of energy in the macro network.

 

A low power, cool-running femtocell is much simpler to integrate into “all in one” residential gateway products which also boast WiFi (News - Alert) and a DSL modem, said the company.

 

Ubiquisys’ sole focus is femtocells, and in 2007 it created the Femto Forum to promote standards and partnerships in this fast-emerging industry. The Ubiquisys femtocell has been successfully integrated into several such gateways, including the Netgear DVG834GH.