Qualcomm  & ip.access have announced a femtocell technology development agreement to allow ip.access to develop WCDMA residential and enterprise femtocell products using Qualcomm’s Femtocell Station Modem (FSM) chipset platform. ip.access is also a licensee of Qualcomm’s femtocell patent licensing program.

"The FSM reduces the cost of a femtocell access point while providing best in class interference management techniques and other advancements.  ip.access has established a leading position in this exciting new technology area, and we are very pleased to be collaborating with them," said Ed Knapp, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Qualcomm Flarion Technologies.

Network operators in North America, Europe and Asia have been accelerating their femtocell deployments in recent months;  in June this year, AT&T completed the national rollout across the United States of its own-brand residential femtocell offering, the 3G MicroCell.  According to company statement, the AT&T femtocell is built by Cisco using ip.access’ Oyster 3G femtocell technology.