Femtocells are small, low power cellular base stations that extend coverage indoors where signals are weak. Used primarily in residential and enterprise business settings, femtocells communicate with a service provider’s network through a broadband connection, allowing users to continue using their mobile devices without losing connectivity.
The acquisition of Percello is expected to enable Broadcom to lower overall bill of material cost and accelerate the time to market for best in class and energy efficient femtocell technology.
“Percello’s energy efficient and cost optimised femtocell architecture augments our portfolio of highly integrated solutions for broadband connectivity and provides significant benefits for our customers and end users,” said Greg Fischer, vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s Broadband Carrier Access line of business. “As wireless data usage continues to expand, this technology is well-positioned to enable wireless carriers to offload both data and voice traffic, while offering subscribers better cell reception in the home and office and accelerating the introduction of new ‘converged’ mobile broadband services.”
Added Shlomo Gadot, CEO, Percello: “Percello’s femtocell technology delivers a simple and cost effective solution that enables service providers to quickly and easily extend wireless cellular access as well as offering advanced applications and services to their subscribers. The combination of Percello’s high performance femtocell solutions and Broadcom’s broadband portfolio provides significant benefits including greater efficiencies, accelerated time to market and a world-class technology and engineering talent base.”
Noted Aditya Kaul, practice director, Mobile Networks, ABI Research: “The femtocell market has turned the corner in 2010 with more than one million femtocells global shipments expected by conservative estimates this year. By 2015 we see more than 50 million femtocells being shipped annually with WCDMA femtocells making up the bulk of the market.
“This is driven by the consumers’ desire to be connected at all times, the need for increased data capacity in networks coupled with wireless service providers deploying fast, simple and cost effective upgrades to support base stations and accelerate the introduction of advanced services like presence and location based alerts, multimedia syncing and sharing, smart phone applications and enhanced mobile video services to their subscribers.”