Airvana

About Airvana

Founded in March 2000 by former Motorola executives Sanjeev Verma and Vedat Eyuboglu, Airvana emerged as a specialized provider of network infrastructure products for mobile operators. The company focused on enhancing mobile broadband services by developing hardware and software rooted in internet protocol technology. This enabled wireless networks to deliver multimedia services such as internet access, email, and video to mobile devices. Airvana’s business model centered on selling these infrastructure solutions directly to major wireless carriers globally.

The company's product line primarily consisted of small cell solutions, including femtocells, which are compact cellular access points designed to improve indoor mobile phone coverage and capacity by connecting to a mobile operator's network via existing broadband connections. These solutions for 3G and 4G LTE networks were engineered to provide better data performance and reliable voice coverage in challenging environments like offices, public venues, and homes. Airvana also developed an enterprise-class Cloud RAN (C-RAN) system called OneCell and the Airvana Device Management System (DMS) for provisioning and managing these small cells.

Airvana experienced several significant corporate milestones. After securing a $40 million Series C funding round in March 2002, led by investors like Matrix Partners and Qualcomm Ventures, the company went public on NASDAQ (ticker: AIRV) in July 2007. It was later taken private in 2009 in a transaction valued at approximately $530 million. In 2013, the company divested its 3G EVDO macro-cell business unit to Ericsson. The journey as an independent entity concluded in September 2015, when Airvana was acquired by CommScope, a global network infrastructure provider. The acquisition integrated Airvana's small cell technology with CommScope's distributed antenna systems (DAS) portfolio, aiming to offer a more comprehensive range of indoor wireless solutions.