More CDMA mobile phones to have Bluetooth

Good news for CDMA users: Qualcomm and Broadcom announced a non-binding agreement to jointly develop, promote and market Bluetooth™ solutions for CDMA mobile phones.

Although 20% of GSM mobile phones in the market implement Bluetooth, not many on the CDMA do.

As part of the collaboration, Qualcomm's Mobile Station Modem (MSM™) baseband solutions, which include fully integrated Bluetooth baseband technology, will be combined with Broadcom's short-range wireless RF products to provide a complete, fully tested Bluetooth solution for 3G CDMA devices.

"By working closely with Broadcom, we hope to expand the use of Bluetooth technologies on 3G wireless networks throughout the world. Bluetooth is invaluable in providing enterprise solutions, such as instant high-speed connectivity between handsets and laptops," said Sanjay Jha, president of QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. "We look forward to working with Broadcom to make Bluetooth widely used on CDMA2000 and WCDMA/UMTS networks worldwide."

"We anticipate that our collaboration with Qualcomm will raise the bar on Bluetooth performance and ease of use in the mobile phone arena and accelerate the integration of Bluetooth into PCs and PDAs as well," said Alan "Lanny" Ross, president and chief executive officer of Broadcom.