Qualcomm Acquires Airgo

Written by Adam Gosling

Monday, 04 December 2006

Mobile phone technology company Qualcomm has gone on a bit of a spending spree taking WLAN technology leader Airgo home in a box along with some new Bluetooth assets. The company announced it has acquired "the majority of RF Micro Devices' (RFMD's) Bluetooth assets," which it will then use to help it integrate Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) technology with its own technology and Airgo's to offer integrated mobility solutions. Airgo is an increasingly important player in the WLAN business having played a key role in the development of the MIMO technology used in 802.11n devices. "QUALCOMM's business strategy has always been integration, enhancing performance and reducing time to market by offering complete solutions," said Dr. Sanjay K. Jha, president of QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. "With these two acquisitions, we will continue to extend our leadership in mobile broadband and will be offering our partners comprehensive chipsets with seamlessly integrated features." It's not necessarily good news for the standards process. Qualcomm is historically a highly litigious company and is large enough to throw its weight around the 802.11n Task Force. The company has already announced what it describes as the "world's first chipset offering full support for Draft 2.0 of the IEEE 802.11n Standard". This isn't the second draft of the standard, which hasn't been written or voted on as yet. This is the Draft that the Wi-Fi alliance say they will certify against rather than wait for the final standard to be ratified. Frustrated with the slow progress being made in the derailed Standards process, the Wi-Fi Alliance which represent some 250 companies declared it would certify devices based on the Draft 2.0 of the 802.11n specifications which are due to be voted on by the Standards committee next March. You can read about the whole sorry sage here. It seems the Wi-Fi Alliance is happy to establish itself as the arbiter of a de facto industry standard. "The industry-leading performance of (the) AGN400, and its full compatibility with the 11n interoperability specification selected by the Wi-Fi Alliance, is exactly what our customers have asked us to deliver," said Greg Raleigh, president and CEO of Airgo Networks. "Now that QUALCOMM is acquiring Airgo, PC notebook customers can count on a single supply source for wireless chipsets that deliver industry-leading Wi-Fi connectivity when a Wi-Fi network is available, and seamless connectivity everywhere else using 3G CDMA cellular broadband access technology." www.qualcomm.com Related news items Unwired Meets Funding Commitments Ensuring WiMAX Network -30/04/2007 Nokia Hopes To Nix Qualcomm Patents -20/03/2007 IP Unity Glenayre promotes interoperability and innovation with expanded partner program -13/02/2007 Linksys Releases Draft-N For SMBs -30/01/2007 Intel Demo's Mobile WiMAX Chip -07/12/2006 Newer news items Easy VoIP System For Mobile Makers -16/03/2007 Draft N Inches Forward -14/03/2007 Agere Sells Wireless Patents -02/03/2007 Atheros Reaches 100 Million Chip Landmark -27/02/2007 Symbol Builds A Bridge Between RFID and WLAN -07/12/2006 Older news items WLAN Win For CSIRO -15/11/2006 Lenovo To Put Draft-802.11n In Notebooks -08/11/2006 NETGEAR First With Draft-n In ADSL2+ Modem -11/09/2006 Pre-N WLAN Sales Grind To A Halt -06/09/2006 aql Offers Brits Free WoVLAN From Mobiles -05/09/2006 Tag This Now: