Bell Labs offers 3G 'double whammy'

The only thing the new chip doesn't do is guarantee customers are going to be interested in 3G...

Bell Labs, Lucent's research unit, has designed a chipset that will enable 3G base stations to increase the number of customers they can support. The chip supports both voice and data signals, thereby saving the need to deploy two chips in each 3G phone. The single chip also uses less base station power when sending and receiving calls, which will enable the base stations to support 10 per cent more 3G phones than predicted. Lucent will add the chip to its next generation GSM base stations which will hit the market this summer.