Kineto Wireless

Founded in 2001, Kineto Wireless, Inc. operated as a developer and supplier of fixed-mobile convergence technology. The company was established by Jahangir Mohammed. Based in Milpitas, California, Kineto focused on providing solutions that enabled mobile operators to extend mobile voice, data, and messaging services over IP-based networks like Wi-Fi. This allowed subscribers to use their mobile phones for services over their home or office wireless networks, addressing issues of poor indoor cellular coverage.

Kineto's business model centered on supplying software to mobile operators and mobile device manufacturers. The company pioneered Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology, later known as Generic Access Network (GAN), which became a 3GPP standard for integrating cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Its product suite included both client-side software for handsets and infrastructure-level gateways. The 'Smart Wi-Fi' application for smartphones, available for operating systems like Android, allowed the devices to seamlessly hand over calls and data sessions between cellular networks and Wi-Fi access points. On the network side, Kineto's Multi-Service Access Gateway served as a network controller for UMA, femtocell, and Voice over LTE (VoLGA) services. This strategy was designed to help mobile operators compete with over-the-top (OTT) service providers by improving network capacity and coverage.

The company's client and partner roster included major mobile operators and handset manufacturers such as T-Mobile USA, Orange, Rogers Wireless, Samsung, Motorola, and LG Electronics. Over its lifetime, Kineto was a venture-backed company, raising a total of $123 million over 10 funding rounds from investors including Venrock, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Oak Investment Partners. A significant milestone was the company's collaboration with Taqua, a provider of virtual mobile core solutions, to enable Wi-Fi calling services for carriers like Sprint. This partnership ultimately led to Taqua acquiring Kineto Wireless on September 4, 2014, to create a more integrated Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) offering for their operator customers.

Keywords: fixed-mobile convergence, Unlicensed Mobile Access, UMA, Generic Access Network, GAN, Voice over Wi-Fi, VoWiFi, mobile network solutions, smart Wi-Fi, femtocell gateway, VoLGA, mobile operator solutions, cellular/WLAN convergence, Taqua acquisition, Jahangir Mohammed, mobile network offloading, telco OTT, mobile core network, IP-based mobile services, dual-mode handsets