Qualcomm Inc. and Philips Consumer Communications L.P. entered into a royalty-bearing, cross-license agreement for CDMA technology and products, said Qualcomm. Philips granted Qualcomm a license under its patents for its own use and for sale of CDMA products. Qualcomm granted Philips a license under its patents to manufacture CDMA subscriber units, including those for cdmaOne and wideband CDMA applications. The cross-licensing deal “amicably settles litigation” between Philips and Qualcomm, which questioned the validity of Philips’ patents and “sought a determination that Qualcomm’s products are not infringing,” Qualcomm explained. Philips Consumer Communications is a joint venture of Lucent Technologies Inc. and Philips Electronics NV.
Brightpoint Inc., United States, announced it acquired Wavetech Ltd., a United Kingdom-based company that distributes wireless handsets. Wavetech, which reported sales of US$64 million last year, has distribution agreements with L.M. Ericsson, Nokia Corp., Siemens AG, Panasonic and Sony Corp.
The United States-based Modular Multifunction Information Transfer System Forum, an industry group comprising the defense and commercial wireless sectors and civil government, is working to develop a software-defined handset-one that can operate over any air interface and frequency. “Today, if you want to build a multimode/multiband phone, you have to stick pieces of hardware together,” said Chris Mangum, chairman of the MMITS marketing committee. “We’re talking about a single chipset that could do all of those things. We want to do all of the radio [functions] through software.”
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, representing U.S. wireless operators, released the results of a survey showing that 42 percent of drivers are “very likely” to report dangerous drivers.
Systems/Link Corp. and National Fraud Center said they have formed a strategic joint venture to develop new fraud control products. Initially, the partnership plans to expand Systems/Link’s product line to include an intelligent dialed-digit and link analysis tool to aid carriers in identifying fraudulent activity based on calling patterns.
