Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

[khemara_qc]

Tata Tele Brews New Age Apps with Qualcomm Technology

CyberMedia News Service
Friday, June 11, 2004



The entry of India into the new world of wireless telephones that do a lot more than just enabling voice communication was commended at Qualcomm's global meeting in San Diego, California.

'It is yet another milestone,' announced Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, launching the fourth BREW developer conference. BREW is Qualcomm's software platform, which allows a host of new functionalities to be built into mobile handsets using its patented CDMA (code division multiple access technology). BREW-based services have been used by Tata Tele to launch a host of new multimedia services in India. Tata's launch heralds the arrival of 3G telecom services and India became the 21st country to offer such high-end services using the CDMA platform.

BREW-based services will enable mobile customers to use BREW phone to wirelessly download games, ring tones, communication, e-mail and business-focused application, virtually anytime, or anywhere.

'Our customers demand cost-efficient, high-speed wireless Internet experience and the advanced voice and data services enabled by the BREW solution allows us to easily exceed these expectations,' said Amit Bose, president of telecom, Tata Teleservices, in a press released issued by Qualcomm here on Tuesday.

Tata will offer BREW-bases services to its wireless customers in the states of Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. It will be further expanded to 12 more circles covering Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

The first BREW-enables handsets offered are from Kyocera Wireless Corporation and have color screens. Tata has 1.7 million mobile customers with 1.43 million of them based on the CDMA platform.

CDMA's rival platform based on GSM continues to dominate the telecom market in India and the world thanks to its position as an early starter. However, the amazing range of functionalities such as camera recorders, position locaters, e-mail, graphics and music downloads, and even a diabetes monitor are luring new users to the CDMA platform. To make seamless roaming possible between the competing networks, telecom vendors are planning to soon introduce dual-band phones in India.

'The realm of possibilities among software developers and wireless subscribers will be greatly enhanced by Tata Teleservices' introduction of BREW solution to India,' commented Peggy Johnson, president, Qualcomm Internet services. ' The flexibility and the rapid time to market enabled by the BREW system is helping Tata Teleservices and the developer community in India remain on the leading edge of wireless data services.'

These new capabilities are pushing the expansion of a new age telecom solutions. Already over 26 handset manufacturers are providing such capabilities and 130 million downloads of various applications have been reported from around the world in the past 12 months. Besides India, telecom users primarily in Japan, South Korea and Brazil are the early adapters of these applications, not easily available through the dominant mobile services based on the GSM platform.

Reliance Infocomm with over seven million customers is the other leading user of Qualcomm's CDMA-2000 1X technology in the network. Telecom companies around the world are enthused by the predictions of a massive surge in demand for mobile telephones in India. The recent TRAI report, which forecast a surge in mobile user base from 28 million to 100 million by 2005 in India has been a major attraction for telecom vendors and service providers.

N Suresh at San Diego, California
CyberMedia News Service


http://www.voicendata.com/content/vndtoday/104061101.asp