Press releases from Picochip

Picochip partners with FemTel on TD-SCDMA femtocell

07 September 2010

BATH, UK – 7 September 2010 – Picochip has today announced that its technology is being used by FemTel Communications to deliver the F100-T femtocell. The F100-T is based on Picochip’s PC8808 TD-SCDMA reference design and PC202 silicon, and is already being used in field trials by a leading operator in China.

FemTel has a strong background in both 3G wireless technology and home gateway products, and femtocells are the ideal solution to deliver both improved voice and data coverage along with additional in-home services. The F100-T is the first femtocell in Femtel’s portfolio, and is a cost-effective residential unit supporting 4 users, each with 1 AMR voice and 1 HSPA channel with carrier-class reliability and performance. The Picochip technology scales to include support for larger femtocells for enterprise and public access

“FemTel has a wealth of experience in the home gateway field and Picochip is the leading vendor in femtocell industry. This collaboration will greatly speed up the development of the TD-SCDMA femtocell industry across China, and the deployment of the technology.” said Wu Ziliang, CEO of Femtel. “Picochip’s reference design provided us with the solid base we needed for the F100-T and Picochip has also provided on-site support throughout the project, helping to make the product a reality. What is more, Picochip’s leadership in LTE provides us with a roadmap to TD-LTE small cells.”

“Operators around the world are seeing the problems of rising network traffic and are turning to femtocells to solve the problems of capacity and offload. Femtocells are truly a global phenomena, and it is no surprise that Chinese operators are taking advantage of the technology. Femtel’s F100-T not only improves voice and data coverage, but allows operators to include additional services to its customers,” said Rupert Baines, VP of Marketing at Picochip.

Picochip’s PC8808 TD-SCDMA femtocell software reference design was developed in China at Picochip’s Beijing design center. TD-SCDMA is the third major 3G standard, and launched during the Olympics in 2008. Picochip now powers all the 3GPP technologies: it is the market leader in HSPA, shipping in high volume; has the award-winning PC9608 LTE platform; and, in partnership with Cambridge Consultants, supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE basestations.

China is well-advanced in the move to TD-LTE and Picochip has a leading position in ‘small’ cell LTE with the PC9608 TD-LTE femtocell platform.

The PC8808 reference design supports Release 6 of the TD-SCDMA standard and is the industry’s lowest cost complete solution. The single-chip PC202-based platform integrates both Node B and RNC protocol stack, and can easily integrate back into the core network using a number of different architectures including IMS, Iu-h or UMA. The design is software-defined and delivers baseband complete with upper layer software stacks. It is based on the same architecture as Picochip PC8208/HSDPA and 8209/HSUPA WCDMA platforms.

Analysts predict the global femtocell market to grow rapidly. For example, Dell'Oro recently published a report forecasting that revenues from femtocell deployments worldwide will generate $4 billion by 2014, ushered in by a significant increase of shipments next year with an inflection point in 2012. Shipments should reach 62 million in 2014, the firm said. Currently, 17 carriers have launched commercial femtocell deployments worldwide.

Picochip is the industry’s leading supplier of femtocell technology and silicon, shipping in volume for use on multiple carriers’ networks. The company’s picoXcell SoCs crystallize five years’ experience in the field; its picoArray™ programmable wireless processors are class-leading, flexible, programmable solutions for any wireless standard, including GSM, HSPA, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, cdma2000, LTE and LTE-Advanced. Over the last 18 months the company has grown into the leading provider of femtocell technology with its chips in the majority of today's commercially available femtocells. Picochip is the only femtocell chip company shipping to multiple carrier deployments in high volume, and announced in June it had passed the milestone of one-million chips shipped.

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About Picochip
Picochip is enabling the next generation of wireless infrastructure. Its picoXcell™ family of optimized silicon devices is the leader in the fast growing market for femtocell access points. Its picoArray™ family of flexible wireless processors is the leading solution for OFDMA-based network equipment, and is backed by comprehensive software support for global standards such as EDGE, HSPA, HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, LTE, cdma2000 and GSM. Located in Bath, UK and Beijing, China, Picochip is re-shaping mobile networks.

For more information, visit www.picochip.com

About FemTel

FemTel Communications is a startup company founded by a team with strong background in the 3G and home gateway field. FemTel is based in Suzhou International Industry Park. FemTel has rich advantages in Femtocell Development and Manufacturing and can provide Femtocell FAP products with high quality, good cost and rich features.

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