New announcements from Qualcomm Inc. and LG Electronics Co. Ltd. show the wireless industry is racing to embrace dual-mode devices. Indeed, new research shows the combination of wireless wide area and local area technology could produce almost 30 million dual-mode devices by 2009.
First up, LG introduced its dual-mode CL400 device, which includes Unlicensed Mobile Access technology from Kineto Wireless Inc. The device supports GSM/GPRS 850, 1800 and 1900 MHz networks as well as Wi-Fi 802.11b/g technologies. LG said the device would be available to wireless carriers for testing and trials starting in the fourth quarter.
Interestingly, LG said the device initially would not support Voice over Internet Protocol technology, which would allow users to make voice calls over Wi-Fi networks. The company said VoIP technology-working through Session Initiation Protocol-would be available in the phone at a later, unspecified date.
There are already a number of high-end devices that feature both wide area and local area technologies. However, the addition of the UMA standard will allow dual-mode device users to roam from a wide area network to a local area network and vise versa.
In other dual-mode device news, chipmaker Qualcomm said its Mobile Station Modem chipsets will support Royal Philips Electronics N.V.’s wireless local area network module. The company said the offering will allow handset makers to combine 802.11b and 802.11g protocols with either CDMA2000 or W-CDMA technology.
“Our work with Philips helps us to address the demand for additional functionality in mobile devices,” said Mike Concannon, vice president of strategic products for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “This strategic relationship delivers a number of new possibilities, which we look forward to making a reality.”
The market for such offerings is notable, according to research from Disruptive Analysis. The firm predicts industry will sell up to 47 million wireless VoIP phones, and 64 percent of those phones-around 30 million-also will support wide area wireless networks. The firm said such dual-mode devices would allow users to send music and picture files from their phones to their desktop computers through Wi-Fi technology.
