Q:  What is going to be the thrust area for Kineto under the new CEO?

JEFF: Kineto has a strong history of innovation in delivering services over broadband and IP for mobile operators, and will continue as a leader in these areas.  It provides the technology behind the leading fixed mobile convergence standards using both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. In addition, Kineto has been a leading contributor to standards and industry forums and continues to focus on this.  It’s a company rich in technology and thought leadership.  I also see a lot of potential in Kineto’s solution for voice and SMS over LTE as part of the VoLGA Forum.  All in all, it’s a very exciting company.

You started out promoting UMA based FMC and then extended support to femtocells. Has this FMC been impacted by the shift in focus towards LTE?

With the amount of data users of smart phones like the iPhone generate on an operator’s network, it is going to take a number of service paradigms to ensure adequate bandwidth and service levels.  Kineto’s strengths lie in enabling mobile operators to deliver services over both fixed and mobile IP networks.  UMA delivers these services.  Femtocells rely on the same fixed-broadband IP to connect to the mobile core.  In the future, operators will need a mobile IP access network for delivering voice and SMS services over LTE; and that is actually right in line with Kineto’s core competencies. 

You are also working on picoChip. Has this area helped you to increase traction?

Definitely.  Kineto announced a collaboration with picoChip three years ago.  The result has been the success our OEM partners have achieved in the femtocell market.  Together with picoChip and our other partners, we provide the most advanced 3G femtocell solution on the market today, in part because of our early collaborations.

Who are your main service provider customers right now?

As you pointed out, Kineto is in three different markets today: UMA, femtocells and the emerging voice over LTE space.  Kineto’s customers for UMA are fairly well known, including Orange, T-Mobile, Telia and others. 

In the femtocell market, Kineto has secured a number of commercial opportunities, including Orange, but many others are still unannounced.  Orange is a great example of an operator who sees the need for multiple FMC technologies to meet the demand of their customers.  We are supplying Orange with femtocell controllers, as well as UMA controllers. But Kineto’s belief has always been that licensed and unlicensed technologies are complementary, and Orange is a great example of that.

For voice over LTE, the market is still quite young, but we have solid engagements with several operators at this point. 

It’s also important to note that Kineto is unique in providing core solutions, like our RAN gateway, to service providers. We are also the leading supplier of client software for a range of consumer products, including those made by the industry’s leading handset vendors and terminal adaptor manufacturers.

It has been a while since you announced VoLGA initiative. What has been the progress there?

I think the progress the VoLGA Forum has made in less than three months is truly incredible. 

The VoLGA Forum was announced about 10 weeks ago, on March 31, with the goal of providing the most functional, cost-effective solution for voice and SMS over LTE.  In that time, the Forum has grown from 10 to nearly 20 members and has been quite active speaking and presenting its position to the market.  Operators are realizing the need for this solution to provide voice over LTE.

‘Falling back’ to 3G or 2G is not acceptable for many reasons.  And while IMS remains the plan of record for a number of operators, it’s viewed as expensive to own and implement. 

Also, most operators are still spending on their 3G networks while having to acquire spectrum and pay for an LTE rollout.  There is a desire to find solutions that can delay that spend-out for voice services, and VoLGA fits the bill perfectly. 

Finally, VoLGA is poised to solve a more immediate problem for data-only LTE deployments.  Operators rely heavily on SMS to provide operational, management and customer care messages to 3G/HSPA dongles and data cards today.  But as we now know, there is currently no industry plan for SMS over LTE.  Operators must have a solution for SMS over LTE to launch even the most basic LTE data service.  VoLGA, which supports all circuit services including SMS, is the right technology at the right time to solve this problem.