Kyocera Wireless Corp. and semiconductor supplier Marvell Semiconductor have entered into a strategic alliance to enable convergence of WLAN/cellular. They plan to incorporate Marvell’s WLAN technology and chipsets into a dual-mode WiFi/CDMA handset platform.

According to several leading trade analyst firms, the market for WLAN-enabled cellular handsets is positioned for exponential growth, with forecasts ranging as high as 125 million dual-mode devices being shipped in 2008. This would represent approximately 15% of the global market for mobile phones.

“The footprint and adoption of WLAN networks is increasing exponentially, and we have carrier customers who are viewing this technology as a complement to their capacity-constrained cellular networks,” said Tom Zeran, vice president of product management at Kyocera Wireless. “Adding the feature capabilities of high-speed WLAN while reducing demand on precious bandwidth is certainly an attractive proposition."

The vision for dual-mode WLAN/cellular devices is simple – complement traditional voice and data services on cellular networks by offering better coverage and enhanced multimedia services when in range of WLAN networks and their data rates of up to 54 Mbps.

Momentum behind WLAN/CDMA convergence is growing. In December, Qualcomm, the pioneer of CDMA technology, publicly announced it had joined the WiFi Alliance in an effort to ensure WiFi compatibility with its future MSM chipsets. The company also announced support for companion WLAN chipsets that work with its own MSM chipsets. Kyocera Wireless is a member of MobileIgnite, an independent industry organization founded in early 2005 to drive broader Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) adoption.

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