Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and Qualcomm (QCOM) are teaming up to develop small cells for enterprise and residential deployments. The companies said they plan to jointly invest in the development of the next generation of Alcatel-Lucent lightRadio small cells using Qualcomm’s FSM9900 family of small cell chipsets. According to the Financial Times, Qualcomm will also acquire a small stake in Alcatel-Lucent by acquiring company shares over time.
For Qualcomm, the partnership with a leading small cell vendor represents a significant win for its recently launched FSM9900 portfolio. According to Scott Gardner, senior analyst at The Linley Group, the use of 28 nanometer process technology enables the FSM9900 to integrate more features and improve RF efficiency. RF amplifiers often use much of the available power in femtocells, meaning that “base-station processors often must survive on a miserly power budget,” according to Gardner.
Qualcomm uses some of the same power-saving technologies found in its smartphone processors to maximize efficiency in its quad-core processor for small cells. The processor is integrated with a modem based on the technology Qualcomm acquired when it bought DesignArt Networks last year. Qualcomm’s small cell solution combines 3G, LTE and W-Fi connectivity.
Alcatel-Lucent says the partnership with Qualcomm is part of its recently announced Shift Plan, an effort to transform the company into an IP networking and broadband access specialist. CEO Michel Combes has said that these two business areas will represent 85% of the firm’s research and development expenditures within two years.
Earlier this year, ABI Research ranked Alcatel-Lucent as the number enterprise and consumer femtocell end-to-end system vendor. The firm says vendors were ranked on their “ability to successfully bring together all elements on the femtocell solution from the access point through to the core gateway and system integration.”
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