Qualcomm Juggles GSM and BREW Deals
02/25/02
Qualcomm had several announcements at this week's 3GSM World Congress pertaining to its Global System for Mobile (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technologies as well as its BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) platform.
For starters, the company demonstrated a convergence solution for GSM1x, a cost-effective technology evolution for GSM operators. GSM1x enables convergence of a GSM/GPRS core service network with CDMA2000 radio access.
With it the company says operators can mix it into their existing GSM/GPRS core network equipment while enhancing the data capabilities and spectral efficiency of their radio access with commercially available CDMA2000 1x infrastructure.
Using existing spectrum, GSM1x offers better voice and data capacity, supporting peak data speeds of up to 307 kbps in a 1.25 MHz channel. Common data throughput will be 70-90 kbps, 2-3 times the throughput of standard dial-up modems.
This solution introduces a GSM1x Mobile Switching Node (MSN) to interface an existing and unmodified GSM core network with an unmodified CDMA2000 radio access network.
The GSM1x terminals use a standard GSM Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) and are subject to standard GSM authentication. But as a result, Qualcomm says operators will be able to offer global roaming and service transparency between CDMA2000 1x and GSM networks without compromising their current infrastructure.
"Combining the feature-rich services of the GSM core network with the spectral efficiency of a CDMA2000 radio network creates a powerful, cost-effective solution," says Qualcomm chairman and CEO Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs. "With the GSM1x solution, GSM operators can offer customers advanced voice and data capabilities while maintaining the key features and services already available on their GSM networks."
The company says it is accelerating acceptance of 3G CDMA solutions in South Korea, North America and Latin America, which now account for over five million 3G CDMA users.
The company also inked a development deal with Comverse, and content agreements with Walt Disney Internet Group and San Francisco-based NuvoStudios. All three companies will be using Qualcomm's BREW technology to enhance their own offerings.
A Comverse exec said that "Our joint efforts and resulting synergy will lead to the introduction of a vast array of attractive multimodal solutions for BREW applications. As a result, end users will enjoy a more natural user experience because they will be able to choose their preferred mode of interaction."
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