Altair and IPWireless Go Multi on LTE Modem Solutions

Event Summary

July 08, 2010 -- IPWireless, a provider of 3GPP technology for new applications and markets, and Altair Semiconductor, a developer of ultra-low-power, small footprint, and high-performance 3GPP LTE chipsets, announced a partnership to develop a suite of multiband LTE modem products that will support key frequency bands well suited to global LTE deployments. The companies will integrate Altair’s software-defined radio baseband processor into IPWireless’ LTE devices. The first consumer-friendly LTE USB modem device will support multiple frequency bands, including the 800 MHz digital dividend band, 1800 MHz, and 2.5 GHz. Subsequent devices will also support the entire U.S. 700 MHz and AWS frequency. Samples of the device will be available by September 2010, with commercial availability before the end of the year.

Quick Take

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Moderate on IPWireless and Altair partnering to bring to market multiband, multi-mode LTE IPWireless modems/devices, since the partnership yields a clearly differentiated LTE solution, but both players need to prove that LTE carriers will deploy the solution in volume during 2011 and beyond. Altair’s FourGee-3100 baseband and FourGee-6200 RFIC chip set, along with its software-defined radio (SDR), are integrated into IPWireless’ own technology, which also uses a custom-designed multiband MIMO antenna to improve edge and peak-rate performance that Altair and IPWireless rivals will need to counter to improve their LTE solution positioning.

• Vendor Importance: High to both IPWireless and Altair, because each is contributing and drawing from one another’s intellectual property and experience to create a product that should represent a best-practices solution and produce LTE service wins in this market segment. Although details concerning the actual form of the partnership and unit costing were not provided, the companies must feel they can create this product at competitive price points with adequate margins for both vendors.

• Market Impact: High on the USB dongle/modem for LTE devices market, because this segment is emerging and being driven by the need to connect to LTE-based network services in the support of higher upload and downloads rates in order to enable multimedia support on mobile devices. IPWireless and Altair are anticipating the product will be available to meet the early LTE field trials announced by carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. Many vendors already offer similar devices in the support of 3G services, but LTE will represent a new opportunity and vendors that have field-deployable solutions with the right feature sets should be able to capture a leading position quickly during the first deployment stage.

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