Mobile working Toolkit

Siemens phones to get Qualcomm chips

Ben Charny CNET News

Published: 20 Oct 2004 11:40 BST

Qualcomm on Tuesday announced that it will supply Siemens with third-generation cell phone chips.

Under the deal, German phone maker Siemens plans to produce several lines that use the chips. Siemens did not disclose additional details of the upcoming high-speed phones.

Qualcomm last supplied the handset maker with mobile phone chips in the late 1990s, when Siemens made a run at the North American market, according to Luis Pineda, a Qualcomm vice-president of marketing and product management.

The new deal between the two companies is another sign of the wireless industry's focus on 3G, the cell phone standard on which the Qualcomm chips rely. 3G (or W-CDMA, if you rather) connects at 384kbps, which is fast enough to give wired broadband providers a run for their money in some markets.

While the current number of 3G subscribers, 10.8 million, is negligible when compared to overall mobile phone subscribers, there are some promising signs for the standard.

In the last quarter, another 2.5 million subscribers signed up for 3G plans, a growth rate faster than major cell phone standards TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and IDEN (Integrated Dispatch Enhanced Network), according to estimates from cell phone trade group 3G Americas.