BATH, UK -- picoChip has today announced that its technology has been selected by South Korean wireless equipment vendor Contela to supply SK Telecom (SKT) for a data-only femtocell deployment called Data Femto. The SKT Data Femto service is optimized to offload traffic and solve congestion issues. Contela has been selected by SKT as the sole vendor for the service which is to be launched this year. The SKT Data Femto service will be South Korea's first commercial 3G femtocell deployment. It is also the world's first commercial service to use the 3GPP luh interface between the access point and gateway.

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.

Picochip

SK Telecom (Nasdaq: SKM)