IPWireless, a specialist in developing key enabling IMB technology, today announced that it is working together with ST-Ericsson, a specialist in development of wireless platforms and semiconductors, to offer a pre-integrated and verified Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) solution to 3G device vendors.
IMB is said to be capable of streaming live video, and broadcasting and storing popular content on the device for later consumption resulting in significant offloading of data intensive traffic from operators’ existing 3G unicast networks and delivering an improved customer experience. This collaboration brings together IPWireless’ IMB enabling technology with ST-Ericsson’s chipset platforms to enable handset vendors to integrate IMB into future mobile devices and for existing WCDMA USB dongle manufacturers to enhance their existing devices to allow them to quickly participate in the emerging global IMB market.
As a first step in the partnership, IPWireless and ST-Ericsson are jointly developing a demonstration platform that device vendors can use to initiate IMB development. The demonstration platform will feature an IMB ASIC supplied by IPWireless and a 3G baseband radio platform from ST Ericsson. Unlike other broadcast solutions, IMB completely integrates with WCDMA enabling device vendors to reuse existing radio frequency technology and antenna components for a lower overall bill of materials and greater scalability. IPWireless expects to make the first IMB platform available to coincide with commercial IMB network launches planned for 2011.
Dr. Bill Jones, Chief Executive Officer, IPWireless commented, “ST-Ericsson is one of the world’s leading providers of wireless platforms and chipsets. Their platforms combined with our key enabling IMB technology will enable our device vendor partners to shorten the time to market for IMB enabled handsets, boost worldwide IMB adoption, and enable operators to more efficiently use intelligent broadcast to address the looming capacity crunch driven by video and other multimedia applications.”
IMB was defined in the 3GPP release 8 standards, and was recently endorsed by the GSMA as their preferred method for the efficient delivery of broadcast services. In June 2010, O2, Orange and Vodafone – three of the five major UK mobile operators – announced that they have teamed up for an IMB pilot where they will explore using the IMB wireless technology within a little used tranche of 3G spectrum called Time Division Duplex (TDD) spectrum. The trial will commence in the fourth quarter of 2010 and intend to show how IMB can deliver data intensive services, such as Mobile TV in a more efficient way.
This spectrum already forms part of the 3G licenses held by many European mobile operators, but has remained largely unused because of a lack of appropriate technology. Currently, 3G TDD spectrum is available to over 150 operators across 60 countries covering more than half a billion subscribers. IMB is said to enable spectrally efficient delivery of broadcast services, in TDD spectrum based on techniques that are aligned with existing FDD WCDMA standards. This allows for a smooth handover between IMB and existing 3G networks, says IPWireless.