Janak Parekh
12-06-2006, 09:00 PM
Several intriguing and potentially great wireless technology announcements have come out this week.<br /><br /><li> Phone Scoop is reporting that <a href="http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=1984">Qualcomm has bought</a> <i>both</i> Airgo, known for their WiFi chipsets, and RF Micro Devices, who are busy building "advanced Bluetooth" features, specifically Enhanced Data Rate (EDR). The strong suggestion here is that Qualcomm will be integrating WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR directly into several of their chipsets. Airgo's patent portfolio also raises some intriguing IP issues.<br /><li> Phone Scoop <i>also</i> reports that the CDMA Development Group (CDG) <a href="http://www.phonescoop.com/news/item.php?n=1985">has unveiled</a> preliminary EVDO Rev. C details. EVDO Rev. C, also called Ultra Mobile Broadband, will aim for a theoretical maximum of 280Mbps downstream. 8O Of course, it has yet to be seen if that can be accomplished, and moreover, this is still a long way from consumer adoption.<br /><li> Finally, in shorter-term news, Samsung and Nortel <a href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/12/05/samsung-and-nortel-hit-3-6mbps-down-2mbps-up-over-hsupa/">are demonstrating</a> HSUPA (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSUPA">High-Speed Uplink Packet Access</a>, a 3.75G successor to HSDPA) at ITU Telecom World in Hong Kong. Speeds of 3.6Mbps downstream and 2.6Mbps upstream have been measured. Apparently, HSUPA will hit Europe in 2007. I can't wait to see wider deployment!