Alcatel-Lucent investing in Sequans Communications

Telecom giants Alcatel-Lucent SA has revealed that they are investing in WiMAX chip maker Sequans Communications. They did not reveal the size of this investment though the companies added that it extends a $24 million round of financing that Sequans raised last year.

Both of these companies are based in France and have worked together in the past. They announced their plans last year to develop a low-cost end-user WiMAX device for developing countries. This device is expected to be available sometime later this year.

Caroline Gabriel, research director at Rethink Research Associates added that this investment might help Alcatel-Lucent get an additional measure of control over the direction of technology development at Sequans Communications.

Gabriel added: “The large vendors are all looking at a variety of chip suppliers as they pull together their WiMAX ranges, not just for competition reasons but because none of the chip providers, including Intel, really cover the whole range of potential products.”

She further said: “Several of the original Intel supporters– Alcatel, Nortel, Airspan, etc.– were only using Rosedale in very selected products and looking elsewhere, to companies like Sequans and Runcom which had more advanced technologies.”