Sequans secures funding from Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola Ventures for LTE development

PARIS, FRANCE: Sequans Communications, a leading 4G chipmaker, has raised a new round of capital to fund its Long Term Evolution (LTE) development program. Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola Ventures, the investment arm of Motorola, two of the world’s leading system vendors, led the round, which also included the participation of Sequans’ other existing investors.

Sequans, a recognized leader in WiMAX semiconductor solutions, recently announced its foray into LTE, stating its intention to develop LTE and WiMAX semiconductor solutions in parallel.

“Our expansion into LTE has been part of our long term strategy for about two years and is a natural progression for us,” said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO.

“Our long experience with operators and OEMs combined with the tremendous base of knowledge we’ve accumulated over the last five years developing WiMAX silicon, puts us in an excellent position to deliver industry-leading semiconductor solutions for LTE as we have done for WiMAX. We are grateful for the backing of Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola and look forward to a close collaboration in bringing powerful new 4G technology to reality.”

“LTE is a strategic investment area for Alcatel-Lucent and we fully expect to play a central role in driving the evolution to LTE. With the support of Alcatel-Lucent, Sequans has demonstrated a high level of execution consistently over several years, delivering a steady stream of industry-leading next generation solutions to the marketplace,” 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.”

“Sequans’ competencies in wireless technology and silicon design position the company well to bring high quality LTE chipsets to market,” said Bruce Brda, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Networks, Home & Networks Mobility, Motorola.

“Motorola is pleased to continue working closely with Sequans to realize 4G, and today’s announcement is further demonstration of Motorola’s commitment to the commercialization of LTE and expansion of our 4G ecosystem.”

Sequans will use the new funding to accelerate its LTE development timeline and to add resources to its LTE teams, and intends to demonstrate its first LTE samples in early 2010 in support of pre-commercial operator trials.