China’s FemTel Communications is using picoChip technology to deliver the F100-T femtocell, which is based on picoChip’s PC8808 TD-SCDMA reference design and PC202 silicon. It is already being used in field trials by a leading operator in China. The PC8808 TD-SCDMA femtocell software reference design was developed in China at picoChip’s Beijing design center.

FemTel has a strong background in both 3G wireless technology and home gateway products. The F100-T is the first femtocell in the company’s portfolio, and is a cost-effective residential unit supporting four 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. 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.”

Rupert Baines, VP of Marketing at picoChip, said, “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.”