Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent have invested an undisclosed amount of money in 4G chipmaker Sequans Communications.
The move comes two months after Sequans announced it would develop LTE and WiMAX semiconductor technologies in parallel. The company said it plans to demonstrate its first LTE solutions in early 2010 for pre-commercial trials with operators. Sequans historically had been focused on WiMAX before its foray into LTE.
“LTE is a strategic investment area for Alcatel-Lucent and we fully expect to play a central role in driving the evolution to LTE,” said Doug Wolff, vice president, End-to-End Solutions at Alcatel-Lucent. “We are confident that our collaboration with Sequans will successfully contribute to the development of a vibrant LTE TD-TDD device ecosystem.”
Both Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent have previously invested in Sequans. Today’s announcement marks an acceleration of their involvement in the privately-owned company. Sequans will use the new funding to speed its LTE development timeline and to add resources to its LTE teams.
