Qualcomm Inc. on Wednesday announced that wireless handset makers in the United States have begun receiving volume shipments of Qualcomms third generation CDMA 2000 1x chipsets.
Several companies have commited to Qualcomms MSM5105 Mobile StationModem chipset, including AirPrime, GTRAN Wireless Inc., Kyocera Corp., Novatel Wireless Inc., Samsung, Sanyo North America Corp. and Sierra Wireless Inc., according to officials for the San Diego, Calif., company.
Handsets based on the CDMA 20001x chipsets boast always-on connections, speeds of up to 153 K-bps, talk times of 2.5 to 3.8 hours and standby times of 230 to 350 hours.
Rollout of the handsets is dependent almost entirely on the carriers, who must upgrade their networks to support the new technology in order for the handsets to work at their optimal speeds. Several carriers, including Verizon Wireless, have licensed the technology from Qualcomm necessary for the upgrade, officials said.
CDMA 2000 networks already have rolled out in Europe and are now expected to hit the States in the middle of this year.