PointRed the major winner of India’s first Mobile WiMAX contract from BSNL

BARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, Stand 2A116 — February 15, 2010 — Leading WiMAX chipmaker Sequans has been selected to supply chips to PointRed Telecom, product subsidiary of Gemini Communication, the major winner of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) contract award for deployment of WiMAX network equipment in India. Once deployed, BSNL’s WiMAX network will be the largest in the world.

The network deployment will comprise 7000 base stations deployed across multiple BSNL networks in several states across India and will deliver commercial broadband and e-governance services. PointRed-Gemini won 40 percent of the large contract.

Sequans is providing WiMAX semiconductor solutions to PointRed for several WiMAX devices, including USB dongles, simple WiMAX modems, Wi-Fi/WiMAX/VoIP modems, and outdoor units. PointRed is a leading wireless product design company and over the last decade has shipped its products to 45 countries for more than 120 mobile operators worldwide.

Sequans’ new generation technology, the SQN1200 series of single die WiMAX semiconductor solutions, is based on state-of-the-art 65nm technology and five years of Sequans’ proven field experience. It delivers the highest level of integration yet achieved in the WiMAX industry, resulting in dramatically reduced, size, cost and power consumption. SQN1200 series chips deliver maximum throughput of more than 40 Mbps with extremely low power consumption of less than 350 mW in active mode and less than 0.5 mW in standby. The integrated RF covers all three global WiMAX bands, 2.3, 2.5, and 3.5 GHz and supports both TDD and H-FDD. The SQN1210 also supports 2 Tx and uplink MIMO, a feature unique to Sequans that can nearly double cell coverage.

“The market for WiMAX in India is huge and we are very pleased to work with PointRed on this network deployment that will bring broadband service to millions,” said Georges Karam,, Sequans CEO. “It is a major opportunity to demonstrate the power and utility of WiMAX.”

About PointRed

PointRed Telecom is a decade old wireless design & product company based out of the Silicon Valley of the East, Bangalore India. PointRed products are engineered based on various standard technologies, such as WiFi (IEEE a/b/g), fixed WiMAX (IEEE 802.16d), and Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e). PointRed has shipped its products to 45+ countries spread across 120+ telecom operators worldwide.