picoChip announced a partnership deal with Korea Telecom to develop WiBro/WiMAX access points, or femtocells, which will serve as competitors to UMA (unlicensed mobile access) or voice-over-WiFi initiatives. picoChip has been pushing the idea to 3G operators as a way to cost-effectively extend service into residential or corporate environments without having to buy into the idea of buying UMA-enabled handsets that push traffic off the network and onto WiFi networks. In this case, KT is the first to develop such a program for WiMAX. KT and picoChip will focus on picoChip's recently introduced PC20x family of processors from picoChip. It's critical for KT, which is competing with a myriad of mobile high-speed wireless technologies, to improve coverage quickly and aggressively push market acceptance of WiMAX. Femtocells may just find a home in WiMAX before 3G.
To read more about the partnership between picoChip and KT:
- take a look at this release