picoChip has announced a partnership agreement with Korea Telecom to develop WiBro/WiMAX access points, also known as Femtocells or home-base stations. The Femtocells are intended for use in residential or corporate environments where high-speed coverage would otherwise be limited.

Cost-effective deployment of high-speed access enables carriers to compete with UMA or voice-over-WiFi (News - Alert). Korea Telecom has already launched its WiBro Service, and is slated to develop a program for WiMAX. WiBro is the South Korean wireless telecommunications standard and is compatible with WiMAX 802.16e-2005 (mobile WiMAX).

picoChip offers a multi-core DSP that complies with industry standards for WiMAX infrastructure and is also being used for WCDMA Femtocells. The new partnership will focus on the PC20x family of processors from picoChip, which enable a single chip WiMAX BS PHY with integrated ARM for upper layer protocols.

“We are pleased to be co-developing WiMAX access points with the leader in Femtocell technology,” said Yoon, Jong Lok, senior executive vice president of KT. “Critically, picoChip delivers a complete solution, based on their cost-effective single chip processor. This is essential for this high volume market area where low bill-of-materials is necessary for success. KT is always looking out for growth markets and the introduction of WiMAX home base stations will improve coverage and accelerate market acceptance of the standard.”

“We are honored to be partnering with KT,” said Guillaume d’Eyssautier, president and CEO of picoChip. “picoChip’s strategy is to provide WiMAX solutions at all levels of the value chain and there is key strategic value of working with world-class carriers like KT to refine our reference designs and core technology. These relationships are incredibly valuable and help us better support our growing number of OEM customers.”

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Laura Stotler writes about IP Communications and related topics for TMCnet. She has covered VoIP and related technologies for seven years, contributing to Internet Telephony magazine and TMCnet, and as a freelance writer. To see more articles, please visit: Laura Stotler’s columnist page.