/> Contela is supplying SKT with an end-to-end solution, including not only FAP (Femtocell Access Point) but also FMS (Femtocell Management System) and FGW (Femto Gateway).

SKT plans to cover the rapid growth in data traffic due to the increased use of smartphones in the home, school and offices with its Data Femto service, which it will launch by the end of this year.

Contela is a leading manufacturer of access and core equipment for wireless infrastructure and has developed a range of femtocells based on picoChip’s technology, which are being deployed by operators around the world. Contela has also provided its outdoor femtocell to SKT in a field trial of rural coverage solutions. picoChip's femtocell technology portfolio scales to include support for larger femtocells for enterprise and public access, as well as the innovative smartSignaling(™) technology to support very high numbers of smartphones on one femtocell.

“Operators around the world are facing the challenge of rising network traffic and are turning to femtocells to solve the problems of capacity and offload,” said Rupert Baines, VP of Marketing at picoChip. “Given the importance of data and given the sophistication of the wireless market it is no surprise that Korean operators are taking advantage of the technology, and developing innovative approaches. Based around the latest standards from 3GPP and the Femto Forum, Contela has developed an end-to-end solution which dramatically improves network capacity, solving the ‘data deluge’ that operators are now facing.”

Analysts predict the global femtocell market to grow rapidly. For example, in its recent report, Dell'Oro recently forecast that revenues from worldwide femtocell deployments will be $4 billion by 2014, ushered in by a significant increase of shipments next year, and an inflection point in 2012. Shipments should reach 62 million in 2014, the firm said. Seventeen carriers have already launched commercial femtocell deployments worldwide, with commitments from three other carriers, one of which is SKT, to launch a commercial service within 2010.

picoChip is the industry’s leading supplier of femtocell technology and silicon, shipping in volume for use on multiple carriers’ networks. The company’s picoXcell SoCs crystallize five years’ experience in the field; its picoArray(™) programmable wireless processors are class-leading, flexible, programmable solutions for any wireless standard, including GSM, HSPA, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX, cdma2000, LTE and LTE-Advanced. Over the last 18 months the company has grown to be the leading provider of femtocell technology with its chips in the majority of today's commercially available femtocells. picoChip is the only femtocell chip company shipping to multiple carrier deployments in high volume, and announced in June it had passed the milestone of one-million chips shipped.