In a statement, Christian Estrosi, France’s Minister for Industry, said Icera will hire at least 50 engineers over the next 3 years to work on the “next-generation of mobile telecommunications.”

The opening of the R&D center in Sophia Antipolis follows the decision by Intel Corporation to invest in R&D in Toulouse, France, and also to open a design center in wireless technologies in Sophia Antipolis, according to Christian Estrosi.

Because of France’s research tax credit, Icera has also been able to speed up its R&D investments. Icera will continue to benefit from the local Secured Communicating Solutions (SCS) competitiveness cluster, according to Estrosi.

Apart from this, Estrosi said, Icera’s investment is bound to strengthen the ecosystem of Sophia Antipolis in crucial areas like embedded software, mobile telecommunications, and ICs.

Icera had, in April 2008, raised a $40 million more in equity funding. It was in January 2005 that Icera opened its first facility in Sophia Antipolis. The company started an additional 1200m engineering facility there in 2006, concentrating on system integration, validation and certification for next-generation mobile phones and devices, as well as on development of 3G and 2G layer 1 protocol.

Icera has a worldwide presence, having offices in France, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, and China.