NSN's New Femtofriend

5:30 PM -- Pirelli Broadband Solutions is the latest CPE maker to partner with Nokia Networks on 3G femtocells, bringing the vendor's number of femtopartners to six. NSN does not make the femtocells that go in people's homes or offices, but instead focuses on producing the femtocell gateway that goes in the network. (See NSN, Pirelli Partner and NSN Femto Rumors.)

Timo Hyppölä, head of NSN's indöör rädiö sölutiöns product line, told me last week that the vendor was involved in some limited femtocell trials, without naming any operators. "We're looking at supporting commercial soft launches in the second half of this year," he said, but he wouldn't say where those launches will be.

NSN's five other femtocell partners are Airvana Inc. , Netgear Inc. (Nasdaq: NTGR), RadioFrame Networks Inc. , Thomson S.A. (NYSE: TMS; Euronext Paris: 18453), and Ubiquisys Ltd. (See Ericsson Stalls on 3G Femtos , Femto Players Gun for Gateways, NSN Intros 3G Femtocell, NSN, Airvana Team, Thomson, NSN Team, Nokia, Ubiquisys Team Up, and NSN, RadioFrame Team.)

I asked Hyppölä whether NSN would ever consider making its own femtocells, and he said, "We focus on the network."

That sounds like a No, then.

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Unstrung