US West, Qualcomm & Cisco
Team On Wireless Internet
February 08, 1999: 4:46 p.m. ET
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, U.S.A. (NB) -- By Sylvia
Dennis, Newsbytes. As Cisco Systems Inc. [NASDAQ:CSCO]
and Motorola Inc. [NYSE:MOT] announced a plan to develop
wireless Internet protocol (IP) technology, Cisco officials also
teamed with Qualcomm [NASDAQ:QCOM] and US West
[NYSE:USW] to announce immediate plans to stage a series
of wireless Internet trials.
As reported in a separate story by Newsbytes, Cisco and
Motorola have committed to a billion dollar technology to
evolve a global wireless IP standard and network that will
allow mobile users to easily access the Internet.
While Cisco and Motorola are supplying the research and
development, along with other elements to their five-year
plan, Qualcomm and US West are using Cisco's knowledge
and integrating their respective hardware technologies to
stage trials of wireless Internet access based around
Qualcomm's high data rate (HDR) technology.
According to Qualcomm, its HDR technology can support
high-speed data transfers approaching 1.8 megabits per
second (Mbps), with even faster data transfers expected in
the future.
The HDR technology will almost certainly not be trialed in
an end user scenario, however: Qualcomm says the system is
pitched mainly to wireless operators, Internet service
providers (ISPs), cable companies and existing landline
service providers that want to expand their customer base
with high-speed Internet access, using a standard 1.25
megahertz (MHz) channel.
According to Jeffrey Jacobs, Qualcomm's vice president,
alongside the rapidly growing demand for high-speed Internet
access from home, the office and on the road, "HDR provides
a fast and cost-effective wireless code division multiple
access (CDMA) system for market segments that may be
difficult or expensive to reach via traditional operator or cable
networks."
Plans call for the lab-based phase of the HDR wireless
Internet trials to start this April, with Qualcomm supplying the
HDR subscriber stations, as well as engineering and
deployment services. US West, meanwhile, will provide the
network infrastructure for the trials.
According to Qualcomm, HDR is designed to enable
existing cdmaOne service providers to obtain higher
capacities and superior performance by optimizing voice and
data spectrum separately, while serving both applications
from the same network.
All of the wireless pacts were announced today at the
CTIA Wireless '99 event.
Cisco's Web site is at cisco.com . Qualcomm's
Web site is at qualcomm.com . US West's Web
site is at uswest.com
home | digitaljam | contents | search | stock quotes | help
Copyright © 1999 CNN America, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. |
