Siemens licenses Motorola's 3G handset platform

Siemens licenses Motorola's 3G handset platform
By Patrick Mannion, EE Times
April 16, 2002 (1:45 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020415S0060

MANHASSET, N.Y. — Siemens said it will use Motorola Inc.'s i.300 Innovative Convergence 3G platform for a line of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terminals it plans to ship starting early 2004. Siemens is the first major company to license the i.300 platform, and Motorola said the deal validates the technology licensing model it initiated last year.

Motorola had previously licensed only its 2.5G platform, and only in Asia to such companies as Eastcom and Benq.

"This is a very significant win for us," said Pete Shinyeda, vice president and general manager of the wireless and broadband systems group within Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector. "Last summer we announced we were taking our technology to the commercial merchant market. This is our first tier-one win for this strategy, so it validates our proposition. It's also a 3G first for us."

The deal also strengthens Motorola's and Siemens' interoperability test ing capabilities, said Shinyeda. The drive for better interoperability testing comes in the wake of what Motorola sees as the WAP debacle.

Under terms of the contract, Motorola's semiconductor sector will provide Siemens with a complete chip solution, including an RF front-end, baseband processor and applications processor, with the latter unit based on the company's DragonBall MX microprocessor series.