China Unicom, Qualcomm launch alliance to develop BREW platform
AFX - Asia November 19, 2002
SHANGHAI
China Unicom and Qualcomm have launched an alliance to focus on developing applications for Qualcomm's BREW (binary runtime environment for wireless) platform, the International Finance News reported, citing sources at Qualcomm and China Unicom.
Qualcomm and China Unicom are also awaiting government approval for a planned venture to help promote the development of applications on the platform, the report said.
BREW is an open platform that will support various data services including game downloads and wireless shopping. It is compatible with all Qualcomm chipsets and different languages including Java and Flash, it said.
China Unicom has already selected five suppliers, including International Business Machinces Corp, Siemens Ag, Motorola Inc and two domestic companies to develop the company's BREW capability during the second phase construction of its CDMA network.
China Unicom and Qualcomm will levy only small charges on service developers and suppliers working on the BREW platform, and will not charge for the right to use the platform, it said.
Wang Yingpei, business department manager at China United Telecommunications Group Corp (China Unicom Group), said most handsets for the company's nationwide CDMA 1X network, which should become operational next February, will be based on the BREW platform and will be provided by manufacturers within the BREW alliance.
Wang also said the group has a target to recruit 7 mln subscribers to its CDMA mobile network by the end of this year and add a further 13 mln subscribers next year.
It had more than 5 mln CDMA subscribers by Nov 12, he said.
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