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October 02, 2008

Broadcom Upgrades Location-based Services with WiFi Positioning from Skyhook Wireless

By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Broadcom (News - Alert), a provider of semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, plans to upgrade its location based services (LBS) infrastructure by adding a WiFi positioning system developed by Skyhook Wireless (News - Alert).



 
The company’s LBS services support more than 20 million customers in over 170 countries. It has provided more than one billion long-term orbit (LTO) downloads to date. Broadcom’s customers include top tier cellular operators and mobile device manufacturers.
 
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology works well in outdoor environments, but the ability to determine one's location is impaired in deep urban and indoor environments. In this context, LBS developed technologies with the ability to enhance GPS-only solutions by achieving faster location fixes in more locations.
 
“We've made a significant investment in positioning systems such as GPS and AGPS, and in delivering integrated end-to-end platforms that improve the overall performance on mobile devices,” said Scott Pomerantz, vice president and general manager of Broadcom's GPS line of business, in a statement.
 
Broadcom will integrate the Skyhook solution with its chipsets and LBS solutions to enable hybrid location positioning. By combining its location-based solutions with Skyhook's positioning capabilities, Broadcom will enable mobile device and personal navigation device makers to deploy an integrated hybrid positioning solution.
 
The combined solution also capitalizes on the emerging trend of integrating multiple wireless technologies such as WiFi (News - Alert), Bluetooth, FM and GPS into cellular handsets.
 
“We're excited to expand our LBS capabilities and support full hybrid positioning while delivering location availability and reliable accuracy in any operating environment,” said Jed Rice, vice president of market development for Skyhook Wireless, in a statement.
 
“Despite growing reliance upon hosted positioning services for hybrid solutions and LBS, the value of these services is often overlooked in the GPS and positioning markets,” said Dominique Bonte, Telematics and Navigation Research director from ABI Research (News - Alert), in a statement. “The ability for a single technology provider to supply GPS and WiFi silicon, hybrid location functionality, extensive SUPL services and LTO is a powerful advantage that will enable the next generation of location based services.”
 

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Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Mae Kowalke


 







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