March 29, 2010 - ZTE Corporation and Qualcomm Inc have entered into a development agreement around femtocell technology. The terms of the agreement allow ZTE to access Qualcomm’s Femtocell Station Modem™ (FSM™) chipset platform in order to develop CDMA2000® femtocell products.
 
The unprecedented growth in mobile data consumption, driven by smart phones and other data intensive devices has created the need for improved coverage and increased data throughput for subscribers. Up to seventy percent of wireless data originates indoors and femtocells allow operators to target areas where the solution is needed. Qualcomm’s FSM platform features flexible and fully integrated System on Chip (SoC) solutions consisting of baseband, RF and power management IC’s coupled with commercial grade software, resulting in femtocells with the low power consumption and high levels of integration. This technology will allow operators to improve coverage, add capacity, increase data throughput and enhance the end user’s wireless experience while reducing operating costs in supporting mobile broadband applications.
 
“Femtocells improve the mobile data experience for users while driving down the cost per bit for operators,” said Ed Knapp, senior vice president marketing, Qualcomm. “We are pleased to be working with ZTE in their efforts to bring femtocell products to market.”
 
“ZTE serves the world's top mobile operators based on our ability to consistently deliver high-quality and high-capacity network performance,” said Ms. Li Jian, general manager of CDMA product line, ZTE Corporation. “Our ongoing relationship with Qualcomm will enable us to bring leading-edge femtocell technology and small base station products to market. We look forward to collaborating with them on this technology.”
 
Qualcomm’s FSM platform supports the full range of 3GPP and 3GPP2 modem features contained within the baseband SOC while also integrating network listen, GPS, crypto acceleration, Ethernet and a host CPU to support all protocol stack and radio network controller functions within the access point. The integrated RF device features multiple receiver channels which enables traffic, beacon GPS and network listen functions to operate simultaneously. The RF devices support all major wireless bands for both 3GPP and 3GPP2, and the FSM™ platform features innovative interference management techniques between femtocells and the macro network.The target markets for the ZTE-developed product are mainly in North America and China, helping operators supply better services to home users and enterprise users.