Wifi Revolution

IPWireless is working with ST-Ericsson (News - Alert) to offer a pre-integrated and verified Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) solution to 3G device vendors.

IMB is capable of streaming live video, and broadcasting and storing popular content on the device for later consumption resulting in significant offloading of data intensive traffic from operators’ existing 3G unicast networks and delivering an improved customer experience.

The collaboration brings together IPWireless’ IMB enabling technology with ST-Ericsson’s chipset platforms to enable handset vendors to integrate IMB into future mobile devices and for existing WCDMA USB dongle manufacturers to enhance their existing devices to allow them to quickly participate in the emerging global IMB market.

As a first step, IPWireless and ST-Ericsson are jointly developing a demonstration platform that device vendors can use to initiate IMB development. The demonstration platform will feature an IMB ASIC supplied by IPWireless and a 3G baseband radio platform from ST Ericsson.

Unlike other broadcast solutions, IMB completely integrates with WCDMA enabling device vendors to reuse existing radio frequency technology and antenna components for a lower overall bill of materials and greater scalability.

IPWireless expects to make the first IMB platform available to coincide with commercial IMB network launches planned for 2011.

In a statement, Bill Jones, CEO of IPWireless, said, “ST-Ericsson is one of the world’s leading providers of wireless platforms and chipsets. Their platforms combined with our key IMB technology will enable our device vendor partners to shorten the time to market for IMB handsets, boost worldwide IMB adoption, and allow operators to more efficiently use intelligent broadcast to address the looming capacity crunch driven by video and other multimedia applications.”

IPWireless is a pioneer in developing and designing 3G and 4G wireless broadband and broadcast solutions, including chipsets, devices and complete network infrastructure solutions, based on 3GPP.

The company’s mobile broadband and IMB solutions have been deployed by some of the world’s largest mobile operators, and government agencies including T-Mobile (News - Alert), Orange, and New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT).