IP: Qualcomm & GPS

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>From: "Janos Gereben" <janos451@earthlink.net>
>To: "jg" <janos451@earthlink.net>
>Subject: Qualcomm & GPS
>Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 09:47:21 -0700
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400
>
>       Qualcomm maps out its GPS argument
>
>       Ray Hegarty - www.the451.com
>
>       New York - Qualcomm believes its GPS (Global Positioning
>System)-integrated cellular chipset solution will prove to be the
>best technology for future location based services.
>
>       Qualcomm GPS technology integrates a GPS subsystem in a
>handset placing most of the location-determination functionality
>inside the phone with small changes required to wireless
>infrastructure. Qualcomm CDMA Technologies senior product manager
>Arnold Gum claim its gpsOne technology offers operators better
>performance and lower cost, power and size advantages than
>competing GPS location technologies.
>
>       Outside the USA, the development of positioning systems has
>been driven by commercial considerations. In the US location-based
>technologies are poised to be of increasing relevance over the
>next few months as operators struggle to meet the US Federal
>Communications Commission E911 mandate. By October 1 the FCC
>mandate requires US wireless carriers to automatically pinpoint
>the location of emergency 911 calls made from cell phones to
>within 125 meters.
>
>       Currently, 911 calls made from cell phones are usually sent
>to one of 155 public-safety answer points (PSAP). By mandating
>wireless operators to provide the location of 911 calls to the
>PSAPs the FCC hopes to improve emergency response times. PSAPs
>have struggled to cope with the influx of calls from wireless
>phones and the lack of information such devices provide compared
>to landline phones.
>
>       Accurate location information also promises to kick start
>latent wireless commercial opportunities in the US. Location-based
>applications are considered to be one of the cornerstones upon
>which operators hope to drive data-driven traffic revenues across
>their networks. Adding positioning capabilities operators can
>offer their subscribers new and attractive services. Positioning
>systems can also help operators optimize networks to trace
>unsuccessful calls adapting networks to match calling patterns as
>well as professional and private subscriber commercial services.
>
>       It is debatable how much location based services could be
>worth to operators and developers. Optimists such as
>telecommunications analysis firm Strategis Group estimates that
>the location-based services market will be worth $4bn by 2004 in
>the US alone. Worldwide, revenue should reach more than $30bn in
>the same period, it believes. Pessimists such as the Shosteck
>Group think the technology is still immature and the revenue
>generating opportunity limited.
>
>       Qualcomm, which makes the chips used in CDMA phones, claims
>its location accuracy is between 5-10 meters in a 'clear sky'
>environment. In surburban indoor environments accuracy is 20
>meters, states Qualcomm VP for Federal government Affairs Jonas
>Neihardt.. The FCC handset requirements demand 150 meter accuracy
>95% of the time, 50 meter accuracy 67% of the time.
>
>       Gum also claims gpsOne can acquire a position in under a
>second outdoors while competitors can take up to 10 minutes for
>the first fix.
>
>       Qualcomm's hybrid GPS handset network solution competes with
>an alternative technology called radio triangulation or
>network-driven GPS-based scheme. The triangulation method uses
>three or more receiving sites to monitor a call and compare signal
>strength, time of arrival, and distance or angle of arrival of a
>signal from a handset. Such a solution requires changes to each
>base station on a network - a potentially expensive exercise, says
>Gum.
>
>       Questions remain about GPS - not least because of technical
>issues involved in integrating it into a cell phone, such as size,
>cost, and power consumption - but Qualcomm's Gum said Qualcomm's
>current MSM 3300 silicon technology and the improvement of GPS
>cores make it possible for GPS to share such resources as the CPU
>and memory already inside a cell phone. The bill of materials for
>separate GPS components - such as baseband, RF and memory chips -
>could cost between $20-40 per module, compared with its gpsOne
>integrated solution that costs $2-3. Qualcomm's next integrated
>chipset solution including gpsOne is due in late 2001 and will
>address multiple air interfaces including GSM and W-CDMA, he said.
>
>       Denso and Samsung are already integrating the technology
>into its phones.
>
>       Meanwhile in the US wireless carriers are understood to be
>still struggling with which GPS technology solution to adopt. Last
>we heard AT&T Wireless Group had not yet chosen which technology
>it would deploy, VoiceStream was wavering having initially decided
>to employ triangulation while Sprint PCS said it would use a
>handset system.
>
>       Last year over 120,000 wireless 911 calls were made in the
>US.
>
>
>================
>Janos Gereben/SF, CA
>janos451@earthlink.net



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