Qualcomm

While wireless chipmaker Qualcomm has been embroiled in lawsuits with cellphone makers and rivals over patents, the company remains optimistic about its own 3G and HSPA (high speed packet access) technology, even as the WiMax momentum heats up.

Qualcomm has predicted an uphill climb for WiMax, and does not believe that WiMax laptops will surface as quickly as what analysts have predicted. Meanwhile, the company has been focusing its efforts on HSDPA, improving its uplink speed to 2Mbps--up from the 64kbps uplink speed of earlier 3G technology.

To boost its 3G efforts further, Qualcomm in August this year spent US$18 million to snap up Qualphone, a U.S.-based company specializing in IMS (IP multimedia subsystems) embedded client software and interoperability testing services.

The inventor of CDMA technology has also invested in related technologies such as mobile TV, where Qualcomm recently developed a chip that supports three rival mobile TV standards including DVB-H, ISDB-T and FLO. Qualcomm sees the chip as a necessary step toward resolving standards issues that could hinder mobile TV development.