picoChip has announced that FemTel Communications is using its technology 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.

The F100-T 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

“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,” said Wu Ziliang, CEO of Femtel.

The PC8808 reference design supports Release 6 of the TD-SCDMA standard. 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. 

Analysts predict the global femtocell market to grow rapidly. 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.