Hot of the heels of an $850 Million round of financing for their network
build out, LightSquared gets Nokia and Qualcomm on board for device
production. Qualcomm will be introducing the MDM9600 Multi-Mode LTE
Chipset. Qualcomm will also be introducing a new interface technology
called EGAL (enhances Geostational Air Link). This new interface will
allow mobile devices to operate on the satellite link. Nokia is also
jumping into the ring by providing branded data devices to the company.
Showing posts with label Qualcomm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qualcomm. Show all posts
Chip manufacturer Qualcomm has announced that they will be suspending
consumer sales of Media Flo. The service allows customer to watch live
TV from mobile devices. Qualcomm does see continued interest in the
Media Flo service, and the spectrum that it operates on, but is still
intending on discontinuing the service. Qualcomm has agreed to continue
support for existing Media Flo devices until Sping of 2011. Should the
service close early Qualcomm intends to issue appropriate refunds.
Sprint Nextel will officially stop offering additional handsets that run on Qualcomm's two way platfrom QChat. Sprint will focus instead on maintaining iDEN services within their product portfolio. Recently, effort has been made by Sprint to increase the operational proficiency of the network, and even add additional features to their iDEN offerings. Some new devices now offer rpeating alerts, and group chat expansion to 20 users at a time. Sprint sites recent progress in the network, and no doubt the aquisition of IPCS, as a motivating factor behind the descision to focus on iDEN for their two way operating platform.
"As a result of this progress, Sprint is committed to continuing to offer innovative push-to-talk products and services on the gold standard iDEN network," he said. "Sprint will continue to support its existing QChat customer base to ensure their needs are met. However, at this time there are no new QChat handsets on the product development roadmap." said Sprint spokesman Scott Sloat.
Due to the expected withdrawl of complaints made to the EU, from Broadcom, Telefon AB, Ericsson, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic Mobile Communications, and Texas Instruments, the EU has decided to close its investigation of Qualcomm. Qualcomm was originally brought to the attention of the EU through a complaint filed alleging that Qualcomm's royalty fees were too high, and prevented competition from entering the market. The EU has closed their investigation, and at this point has not imposed any fines on Qualcomm, but has not absolved them of any wrong doing in regards to their wireless patents and technology licensing practices.
Cox wireless has announced a partnership with Qualcomm for content delivery. Cox will make use of Qualcomm's BREW technology for delivery of content such as applications, games, locations services, and other content available for download through the carrier. BREW technology is known in the industry for being very secure, as well as very restricting to the end user in terms of application customization.
Qualcomm and Rentrack corporation are teaming up to bring enhancements to Qualcomm's Flo TV. The enhancement will be a system that is capable of measuring mobile TV viewership. The metrics data retrieved from this will allow network operators, advertisers, and content producers a real life guage to judge the performance of their offerings. Currently its been discovered the average user watches mobile tv for 30 minutes at a time. Typically the TV is used between 1 and 2pm, and the highest viewership is noted when there is a special event that is occuring.
In a $65 Million purchase Qualcomm is now the proud new owner of AMD's Handheld Division. The purchase included some technology patents, intelectual properties, and other technology assets. The graphic and multimedia holdings from this transaction should allow Qualcomm to boost their graphics features. Qualcomm has further made offers for employment to the AMD employees responsible for developing this technology. AMD has decided to return to grass roots and focus its energy on the x86 chips, and high end graphics chips.
Skyhook wireless will provide Wifi Positioning support for Qualcomm applications. Wifi positioning systems use Wifi, cellular, and GPS data to locate mobile devices. Qualcomm has signed a license to allow them to include this technology in future handset releases. Qualcomm currently provides GPS support via GPSOne technology and is having issues with indoor, and in-city performance. WPS will help to improve the accuracy of GPS products where GPS, and A-GPS do not function up to par.
MediaFLO is becoming more and more accepted in the market place. Mobile video is being seen as one of the next killer application for cellular phones, and as such Qualcomm has a huge division of the company dedicated to expanding its foot print. Currently MediaFLO technology is employed in 62 Markets. February 2009 ushers in a new wave of renewed hope for Qualcomm as the migration to digital broadcast television will free up more airspace for their transmission. This transition will add an additional 46 markets to the services foot print. Qualcomm has also been ever vigilant waiting for opportunities to add new and exciting content to their network; Their newest project is creating temporary channels that can revolve around an event. MediaFLO is also exploring the addition of original content to the network instead of just relying on content aggregators for all their programming needs.
Qualcomm has announced that they will be ceasing operations having relation to developing UMB or Ultra Mobile Broadband technology. UMB has not had a good take off as current Qualcomm customers have decided to bank of the rival standard LTE or long term Evolution. Verizon Wireless, Alltel, MetroPCS, Leap Wireless, T-Mobile, At&t and others have announced they will be showing support for LTE, the GSM migration path option of choice. As a result of the stopped operations, Qualcomm does expect to make small scale layoffs, but optimistically views better market conditions somewhere in the upcoming "mid" 2009.
Qualcomm and Nokia come to terms over their royalty dispute. The dispute that lasted 3 years was over how much Nokia would need to pay Qualcomm for the licensing of their chipsets in 3G enabled wireless phones. Nokia has agreed to pay Qualcomm about $2.3 Billion, and officialy settles the dispute.
Lately it seems that Qualcomm has been sued by just about every major company in the cellular field. Gabriel Technologies does not aim to make itself the exception. Gabriel Technologies claims the SnapTrack, a comany owned by Qualcomm, has breached a development agreement. Further elaboration concludes that Qualcomm has alegedly gained 90 seperate patents by claiming ownership falsely. The disputed technology enhances A-GPS (assisted Global positioning Satelite). Gabriel Technlogies is seeking more than $1 Billion in damages.
Telstra is currently developing their next evolution in broadband networking. Using HSPA+, Telstra expects to increase mobile broadband speeds to 21 Mbps. Telstra, in cooperation with Ericcson, Qualcomm, and Sierra Wireless expects to start shipping units for customer trial in the next few months followed closely by a commercial launch.
Chip manufacturer Broadcom has brought a new claim against Qualcomm. This time broadcom is claiming that qualcomm is misusing its patents to collect royalties more than one time. Both companies have been at odds over patents for years, and are currently in the middle of working things out.
Related Articles:
Qualcomm Looses to Appeals Court
Qualcomm Gets MVNO'D
MediaFlo Expands New Line Up
The patent infringement lawsuit against Qualcomm is like a bad penny that just keeps turning up. The US Federal court has decided to uphold an earlier decision that Qualcomm has indeed infringed upon wireless patents that are currently held by Broadcom. Qualcomm has been ordered to pay royalties, and so far has not complied. Both companies are currently negotiating to come to a resolution to license the already infringing products.
{Reuters}
Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC have been added to MediaFlo's channel line up. MediaFlo will be offering simulcast broadcasting to fit inline with the coverage on their major cable and satelite networks. MediaFlo is available to Verizon and At&t subscribers. Qualcomm believes the move will allow their subscribers "up-to-the-minute financial news". MediaFlo has been expanding their services to more popular stations like MTV, CBS Mobile, Fox Mobile, and NBC.
{engadget}
{phonescoop}
{Qualcomm}
Lifecomm is the newest brainchild of someone that was a little bit too short sighted to realize throwing away perfectly good company assets is a bad idea. Qualcomm has announced they will partially back a new MVNO (mobile Virtual Network Operator) called Lifecomm. Lifecomm will be focused on health management for baby boomers. There have been no announcements yet as to what features will be available, the phones they will use, or the health providers that they will be partnering with. Lifecomm is expected to release in September. Unless they have something really up their sleeve, I expect them to be filing for bankruptcy in Dec 2010. Qualcomm has had this idea in the works for several years, but put it on hold so it would not strain its relationship with existing carrier partners. Qualcomm did not want to be the primary source of funding for such a venture. Past experience has told us that this type of Niche in cellular does not last very long. Cellular Niche markets have only ever been good for watching a company slowly bleed profits until they can no longer pay their employees. Why on earth would you go after such a targeted Niche with an MVNO? Are you listening Qualcomm?
