June 30, 2009

Cellcom, the largest Wisconsin-based cellular service provider, received the first Femtocell Industry Award for significant progress or commercial launch by a small carrier at the Femtocells World Summit in London. The other finalist for this prestigious and respected award was Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd. of Taiwan.

“Cellcom is proud to be the leader in bringing this world-class technology to the Green Bay area,” said Rob Riordan, executive vice president and director of corporate development for Nsight, the parent company of Cellcom. “As more consumers move away from traditional landline phones and rely on mobile devices, femtocells offer a low-cost and highly effective solution to dead zones, particularly in office buildings and homes.”

The Femtocell Industry Awards were presented last week by The Femto Forum, an international not-for-profit organization that promotes femtocell deployment worldwide.

“The judges were extremely impressed by the high quality and number of award submissions. The judging process was extremely difficult, but Cellcom stood out,” said Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum in London. “The femtocell industry is rapidly evolving as major advances are made in the technology, standards, services and applications – these awards recognize and reward this progress.”

Femtocells are small devices – about the size of a DSL router or cable modem – that plug into a user’s wired network and enhance wireless coverage inside buildings. Femtocells offer higher data rates, better voice quality and improved multimedia experiences; and they are compatible with existing handsets.

“A femtocell is basically a personal cellular site that utilizes a broadband Internet connection,” Riordan said. “Because Cellcom takes great pride in responding to our customers’ needs, we have taken a leadership role in deploying femtocell technology.”

Many femtocells can handle only three or four simultaneous calls; however, Cellcom is testing units that can accommodate dozens of calls at the same time, allowing them to serve as business solutions when the company launches them next year.

Cellcom is partnering with Starent Networks of Tewksbury, Mass., Airwalk Communications and Mavenir Systems (both of Richardson, Texas) to provide femtocell enterprise technology. “Cellcom is an innovative, early adopter of femtocell networking, which provides us a great opportunity to collaborate with them in implementing nextgeneration services through femtocell technology,” Ashraf Dahod, president and chief executive officer of Starent, said when the company announced its partnership with Cellcom earlier this year.

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About Cellcom
Cellcom is a locally owned wireless telecommunication company based in Green Bay, Wis. Cellcom is a subsidiary of Nsight – which also provides Internet, long distance, tower maintenance, cable and landline telephone services to residential and business customers. Founded in 1986, Cellcom has more than 80 retail and agent locations and activated the Midwest’s first alternative-energy cell site on Earth Day, April 22, 2008. To learn more, visit www.cellcom.com.

About The Femtocell Industry Awards
The Femto Forum Femtocell Industry Awards recognize outstanding achievement within and contributions to femtocell technology. The awards were open to organizations of all sizes involved in femtocell development and were judged independently of the Femto Forum by a panel of distinguished analysts, journalists and industry experts selected for their experience and impartiality. To learn more, visit www.femtoforum.org.