Both Chinese ZTE and Taiwanese telecom equipment maker Tecom recently announced their newly-developed home Node B base stations, also known as femtocell, featuring 3G WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and WiMAX technologies, respectively.

ZTE announced on November 11 that it has commercialized the world's first WCDMA home Node B, codenamed ZXWR H8901, which allows up to four users online and supports peak data speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, according to EE Times-Asia. This 3G home base station is designed to integrate seamlessly with telecom operators' existing networks, enabling the operators to deliver FMC (Fixed-Mobile Convergence) services to end users. The solution is also expected to significantly reduce operators' investment and maintenance costs, according to the same report.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese Tecom's WiMAX femtocells, jointly developed by Tecom and a major European wireless communication equipment maker, are scheduled to begin shipments to Europe by year-end 2007, Taiwan's Commercial Times reported. The first batch is expected to be approximately 50,000 units, priced at around US$100 per unit. Other than femtocells, the company's product mix includes macro, micro and pico base stations.