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UMB posts

Qualcomm throws in the towel on UMB, 4G race down to LTE and WiMAX

by Chris Ziegler, posted Nov 13th 2008 at 4:29PM

Realistically, the death knell tolled long ago for Qualcomm's stillborn Ultra Mobile Broadband initiative, its own special flavor of 4G and the logical next step in the CDMA2000 family of technologies. To make things nice and official, though, they went ahead and officially announced that they've halted development on the spec during an analysts' meeting earlier today, throwing support behind the competing LTE standard -- one of the two remaining techs vying for the hearts and minds of the world's 4G-wanting public. So where's one of the world's great patent enforcers going to collect cash now? Oh, don't worry about little ol' Qualcomm; the company claims it has plenty of 4G-relevant intellectual property that'll keep its bankrolls full for years to come.

[Via dailywireless.org]

Qualcomm gets cozy with LTE, makes migrating from CDMA a snap

by Chris Ziegler, posted Feb 8th 2008 at 4:00AM

What if Toshiba were to produce a Blu-ray player? If there's one surefire sign that a company is recognizing the mortality of its own standards, it's throwing some support behind the competition's -- and that's exactly what Qualcomm has done in announcing new roadmaps for its mobile and cellular base station chipsets that include LTE. LTE, one of several 4G standards competing for the hearts and minds of carriers across the world, has a huge leg up on Qualcomm's own UMB and WiMAX (which is technically a pre-4G standard, anyway) by having the blessing of the GSM Association, the global juggernaut of mobile industry organizations. Anyway, Qualcomm's new plans call for future chipsets to support various flavors of UMTS, HSPA, and EV-DO, theoretically making it easier for carriers of all creeds to migrate to LTE while still supporting legacy cells and devices. The new silicon is expected to be available next year, and without a single major carrier having signed up for UMB, we'd say that's not a moment too soon.

The 4G war: has WiMAX won, or will Verizon choose LTE?

by Conrad Quilty-Harper, posted Oct 29th 2007 at 1:18PM

In a wrap-up of the state of 4G networks over at BusinessWeek, the battle between the three competing 4G network standards -- WIMAX, Long Term Evolution (LTE), and Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) -- is appraised, with WIMAX clearly edging out its other rivals. This could be a two horse race before long if Verizon chooses to back GSM's successor LTE over CDMA's sequel, UMB. That would leave Qualcomm without one of its most significant backers for CDMA's spiritual sibling, although it'll do just fine thanks to the multiple 4G patents it holds. Ultimately though, in all of this space there's very little discussion about what the consumer wants: do we really need two or three different standards that probably won't inter-operate, leaving us back at the square we've always been at? Frankly, for all the benefits that 4G is purported to bring, we'd like something a little more imaginative than the usual bickering amongst the big shots.

Update: Although it didn't come from VZW, last month Vodafone's chairman Arun Sarin made it clear that Verizon will go for LTE. Bad news for UMB!