Qualcomm Embraces LTE

Qualcomm seems to be throwing in the towel on its own UMB broadband technology, announcing future chipsets let mobile operators support CDMA2000 and UMTS operators to support LTE.

Every now and again, a company gives up on promoting its technology (and patent portfolio) as a future-building platform for the entire industry, and concedes the competition has managed to define the market despite their efforts. You won’t find any words to that effect from Qualcomm, but the company has just announced that future MDM9xxx-series chipsets will support Long Term Evolution (LTE) in favor of Qualcomm’s own UMB mobile broadband technology—a possible grudging concession that LTE has gained momentum while no carriers have embraced UMB.

"Qualcomm is in a very unique position with LTE, being one of the very few companies that will be able to offer multi-mode solutions that deliver an upgrade path for operators looking to complement their existing 3G networks with LTE," said Qualcomm’s senior VP of product management for CDMA technologies Steve Mollenkopf, in a statement. "We are pleased that we will be able to leverage our industry-leading technology position to offer LTE solutions to our customers."

Qualcomm’s MDM9xxx-series chipsets will support HSPA, UMTS, and EV-DO, which should make it simpler for existing mobile carriers to migrate towards LTE technology while still supporting legacy systems. Qualcomm says the chips will be available in 2009.