SCHAUMBURG., Ill., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Spurred by the continued interest in broadband technologies to deliver rich media experiences in the home and beyond, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) will carry groundbreaking Long Term Evolution (LTE) work and expanding WiMAX and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployments into a projected expansion of broadband in 2009. The leading provider of wired and wireless broadband solutions wrapped up 2008 with historic demonstrations, including the industry's first CDMA to LTE network handoff, and a steady drumbeat of WiMAX and FTTH deployments and products.
Despite the current economic landscape, the demand for media mobility points to myriad opportunities for Motorola products and services to help operators and service providers deliver rich media experiences to their customers.
"Motorola is committed to broadband and 4G development and made significant gains in 2008, particularly with LTE to address the mobility demands being driven by consumers looking for personalized media experiences," said Dan Moloney, president, Motorola's Home and Networks Mobility business. "Our testing of LTE networks has demonstrated great forward movement for the cellular community into networks that are fast, agile and able to deliver content on consumers' terms. We're looking forward to carrying this commitment into 2009 and leading the market in further development and deployment of LTE technologies."
LTE
Motorola's confidence in LTE comes from its OFDM expertise and industry-leading success as the first company to engineer a packet-switched network handoff between CDMA EV-DO Rev-A and LTE technologies in a demonstration with VoIP calls and streaming video. Motorola's handoff technique illustrated how service providers using CDMA-based networks today can smoothly integrate broadband OFDMA and IP packet-based wireless broadband technologies like LTE into their network, enabling the rollout of more interactive services like HD mobile blogging and broadcasting, HD video-on-demand and online gaming.
Soon after, Motorola successfully completed the first LTE call in the 700MHz spectrum. Major carriers including Verizon/Vodafone have taken notice of Motorola's LTE leadership and are conducting LTE trials with Motorola. With the wireless broadband technology's expected 2009 launch, Motorola is ready for the necessary products to keep pace: products for both 700MHz and 2.6GHz are expected to be offered commercially in late 2009. View more information on Motorola's LTE solutions and get a behind-the-scenes look at LTE development here.
WiMAX
According to a new report from West Technology Research Solutions, regulatory conditions are looking bright for the mobile WiMAX industry growth and adoption. As for the fixed WiMAX market, Forrester sees Africa and Eastern Europe as key areas for telecom growth.
Motorola is poised to take advantage of both. The company already has 25 contracts for commercial WiMAX systems with customers in 20 countries, and has shipped more than 5,000 multi-sector access points (powering more than 17,000 sectors) and hundreds of thousands of CPEs and PC cards as of Q3 2008. The company's WiMAX business for contract deployments, trials, and other customer engagements is currently engaged in 49 countries.
Motorola's global gains include a $165 million contract with Saudi Arabia's Atheeb, and contracts with Embratel in Brazil and Axtel in Mexico. Other significant new contracts and expansions occurred in previously underserved areas of the world, including Jordan, East Malaysia, and Pakistan. In fact, Wateen Telecom in Pakistan placed one of the world's largest WiMAX device orders in 2008, with 198,000 units.
Stateside, in advance of Clearwire's commercial deployment of mobile WiMAX in Chicago, Motorola's WiMAX infrastructure has passed rigorous technology acceptance tests. Nearly 600 Motorola WiMAX base stations are on the air and ready for commercial service. View information on Motorola's global WiMAX activity.
On the wireline side, Motorola's FTTH suitability for large-scale telecom environments is reflected in the solution's reach: Motorola service passes through 14 million homes and connects 3.75 million homes in North America.
That growth continued with the announcement that Hotwire Communications has selected Motorola's FTTH, MPEG-4 high definition (HD) encoder and IP set-top solutions for the delivery of both residential and commercial broadband services. Specializing in multi-family communities, Hotwire Communications is the latest in a series of ultra-broadband network and FTTH wins for Motorola that range from tier-one deployments to smaller telecom and cable operator rollouts.
Smaller telecoms will benefit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Program for Motorola's gigabit passive optical network (GPON) FTTH solutions. This official listing gives telecom service providers access to Motorola's field-proven solutions for the delivery of triple play (IPTV, RF video, broadband and quality IP and TDM voice) services, while qualifying for low-interest rural utilities service loans.
"End users around the globe are showing us their desire to have immediate, reliable broadband access wherever they are," added Moloney. "With the continued launches of WiMAX, optimal test results for LTE, and ongoing gains in our FTTH solution, 2009 promises to be another exciting year for the entire broadband landscape."
About Motorola
Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications. The company develops technologies, products and services that make mobile experiences possible. Our portfolio includes communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility solutions, digital set-tops, cable modems, mobile devices and Bluetooth accessories. Motorola is committed to delivering next generation communication solutions to people, businesses and governments. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $36.6 billion in 2007. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit http://www.motorola.com.
MOTOROLA and the stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. (C) Motorola, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.
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