Subject: [NEXTEL-1] QUALCOMM Heats Up Push-To-Talk Race

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 12:04:18 -0500

QUALCOMM Heats Up Push-To-Talk Race
By Michael Singer
November 5, 2003

The competition for push-to-talk
over cellular (PoC) heated up this
week as wireless giant QUALCOMM
(Quote, Chart) announced its new
BREWChat platform.

The San Diego-based company's
"walkie-talkie" function carries the
same features of its root technology
Qchat, but is specifically designed
for CDMA2000 1X Release 0
networks. Both technologies allow for
both person-to-person and
person-to-group communication
between subscribers.

BREWChat differentiates itself by using standard voice-over-Internet
protocol (VoIP)
technologies to allow push-to-talk functions on 3G CDMA wireless devices
and networks.
The BREWChat client software is written as an application for QUALCOMM's
BREW
platform and offers over-the-air upgrades of handset software,
management of group
membership by subscribers and ad-hoc creation of chat groups.

The company said BREWChat is designed to easily upgrade to and
interoperate with
QChat, which will soon to be available on Release A CDMA2000 1X networks
QUALCOMM
said it has conducted trials in the U.S. and is planning more around the
world. Commercial
availability is expected to debut in the first quarter of 2004.

"BREWChat takes advantage of the high data speed and bandwidth
efficiency benefits
inherent in CDMA to deliver a fast and very efficient push-to-chat
solution for operators
with 3G CDMA2000 1X networks," QUALCOMM Internet Services president
Peggy Johnson
said in a statement. "BREWChat will give operators who offer
BREW-enabled services an
added opportunity to leverage their investment. Since BREWChat runs on
top of the
BREW platform, integration with other applications and services is easy
and allows
updates of software over the air."

Both BREWChat and QChat products take advantage of QUALCOMM's contract
with
push-to-talk pioneer Nextel (Quote, Chart), which uses Motorola's i-Den
technology.

Nextel is expected to use BREWChat fend off up-and-comers like Nokia
(Quote, Chart),
which recently took the wraps off of two infrastructure products that
operate over GPRS
and Verizon (Quote, Chart), which introduced its national push-to-talk
service this
summer.

 http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/print.php/3104941

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