TelASIC Communications, supplier of Remote Radio Head (RRH) products for HSDPA/WCDMA, announced the closing of a $12.5 M round led by ATA Ventures. The current TelASIC investors, including Mission Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and The IPO Group, also participated in the round.
TelASIC sells Remote Radio Head products to base station OEMs. TelASIC's technology has been successfully deployed in live HSDPA/WCDMA networks serving 3G customers today. TelASIC is growing its customer base for its Remote Radio Head products and it plans to use the funding to expand the manufacturing operations and customer support organization required to serve its growing customer base.
Hatch Graham, managing director, ATA Ventures, stated, "The leading wireless operators started successful deployment of RRHs in 2006 in live networks and we believe that RRH will be their default solution within cellular sites during the next several years. I am pleased to invest in a company that is supplying richly differentiated products to a new market segment that is just beginning to experience its growth curve."
Operators all over the world are spending large CAPEX dollars to build 3G cellular and other mobile broadband infrastructures to offer TV, music, gaming, social networking, broadband Internet and other ARPU-rich data services. TelASIC stands to benefit from mobile operators' shift from a centralized RF to a distributed RF architecture using Remote Radio Heads for building the new network for broadband data services. Data applications, unlike voice applications, require an order of magnitude higher RF transmission power. Traditional in-cabinet radio systems that are designed for voice applications are not capable of delivering such high power at the antenna in a cost-effective way.
"Wireless operators are demanding fan-less tower-top or pole-mountable RRH products that can transmit high power at the antenna to meet the capacity and coverage needs for wireless data services," said Greg Martin, partner at Redpoint Ventures. "TelASIC has the unique technology to design and mass produce such high transmit power RRH products for its OEM customers. Its seasoned management team has a track record of building successful companies from the start-up stage and I look forward to supporting the team to repeat their success at TelASIC."
TelASIC's early investors, confident of the company's performance, have renewed their commitment by investing in this new round of funding. "As a technology leader in this high-growth market of Remote Radio Heads, TelASIC's growth potential and the team's superb ability to execute made our decision to reinvest in the company quite easy," said Ted Alexander, managing partner, Mission Ventures.