Mindspeed reaffirms small cell leadership position

With LTE small cells starting to deploy, Mindspeed announced that it is in pole position in this segment too with commercial deployments in SK Telecom, Korea Telecom and other operators around the world. The company has 34 design engagements for LTE and dual-mode small-cells, including market-leading OEMs and is well positioned as operators launch. Finally, the company has deployments in China for TD-SCDMA and has announced a technical collaboration agreement with China Mobile Research Institute. "Mindspeed has a very strong position in small cells," said Richard Webb, chief analyst of Infonetics. "It is clear that they have the leadership position in 3G small cells and a strong place in the emerging segment for LTE. We believe that the economics will favor dual-mode and multi-mode small cells, so having this portfolio will help Mindspeed in their position as the market evolves and competition intensifies." Many semiconductor companies are looking to the small cell segment. Based on Infonetics' data, Mindspeed has 63% of the 3GPP segment. The remaining 37% is shared between all other suppliers. "Small cells represent one of the most exciting segments in the wireless market today, and we are proud of our position in it," said Raouf Y. Halim, chief executive officer at Mindspeed. "A year ago Mindspeed acquired Picochip, who had pioneered this market and built a dominant position. In the twelve months following the acquisition, we have extended our lead — not only are we number one in 3G, we are number one in LTE and are still the only SoC company with field-proven products in both technologies. We have integrated the teams, gained the synergies we had aimed for and, as a result, are the only SoC company with credible dual-mode solutions."