OREANDA-NEWS. May 19, 2011. NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced today that Zain Kuwait, a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East, has selected NEC’s Femtocell solution to enhance the indoor mobile experience of its enterprise and consumer customers. Zain plans to launch Kuwait’s first commercial high-speed, high-quality Femtocell service to its enterprise customers this year.

"In September 2010 we began a thorough user trial with NEC. During this successful trial we found that our customers highly valued the quality of service Femtocell technology brings," said Zain Kuwait CTO, Yaqoub Khajah. "NEC’s Femtocell solution provided high throughput and superior indoor coverage."

Yaqoub Khajah continues: "We are confident in NEC’s Femtocell solutions and the implementation happened over a very short period of time. The success and first rate support from NEC in Kuwait, has lead us to consider introducing Femtocell solutions to our operation companies in the Middle East."

"NEC is honored to be selected for Zain Kuwait’s first commercial contract for Femtocell solutions." said Toshiya Matsuki, General Manager of the International Sales and Operations Business Unit. "NEC’s Femtocell solution will allow Zain Kuwait to differentiate from other operators by providing their customers with premium mobile services. Our Femtocell solution will ensure that their customers always have the five-bar coverage indoors that they expect and dedicated capacity to run data-intensive applications on their smart phones and tablets."

An NEC Femtocell is a small wireless cellular base station similar in size and appearance to a broadband router that connects over broadband to a mobile operator’s core network. It provides dedicated mobile coverage and capacity for full personal use delivering excellent experience and increased customer loyalty.

NEC is providing Zain Kuwait an end-to-end Femtocell solution that includes NEC Femtocell, and Femtocell gateway systems that connect to Zain’s existing core systems. Zain Kuwait’s customers can install the NEC Femtocell with no intervention from Zain due to its "plug and play" capability.

NEC is a pioneer in the adoption of Femtocell technology. It has 14 contracts worldwide and 28 trials with operators around the World. The number of 3G connected subscribers is rapidly increasing and around 70 per cent(*) of these services are used indoors. However, issues remain with 3G radio penetrating buildings, leaving customers with dropped calls and slow, or no Internet connection indoors. The user experience is damaged by these network coverage holes. NEC’s Femtocell offers mobile operators an enhanced, cost-effective 3G mobile network that enables them to provide premium mobile services and an excellent consumer experience.

NEC is a board member of the Femtocell Forum, an industry association that was established in July 2007. NEC’s activities and groundbreaking work in the Femtocell field are well recognized through honors that include the Femtocell Forum’s 2009 award for "Progress in Commercial Deployment" and the 2010 award for "Femtocell Network Design and Technology Innovation." Furthermore, NEC won Telecom Asia Magazine’s "2010 Femtocell Vendor of the Year" award, an award intended to recognize vendors and suppliers of innovative products that cultivate new markets in the Asia Pacific rim.