Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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US and S. Korea agree on wireless stand

US and South Korea agree on wireless standard

The US and South Korea have agreed to allow US wireless suppliers to market their products in South Korea and use a Korean web downloading standard.

In the past two years, South Korea has moved toward a mandated standard called Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI) for downloading content from the internet onto mobile phones.

The agreement gives US wireless equipment makers access to the WIPI standard, which makes use of Sun Microsystems' Java 2 Micro Edition.

The mandate shut out competing download technologies from Qualcomm, but under the new agreement Qualcomm can use WIPI.

The US hopes that the resolution of this issue can provide momentum for resolution of another telecommunications standards issue: Korea's plan to mandate an exclusive domestic transmission standard for portable broadband wireless internet.

The agreement between the two countries follows an agreement negotiated with China over a wireless encryption standard the country was set to mandate in June. Last week, China had agreed to suspend indefinitely its proposed proprietary national encryption standard for wireless Lans. China also agreed to adopt a policy of technology neutrality for licensing new cellular services.

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