Korean cell phone manufacturer Pantech & Curitel and Magnolia Broadband, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, have signed an agreement to jointly begin developing a cell phone based on Magnolia's DiversityPlus chipset. The Pantech & Curitel CDMA2000 EV-DO phone will be delivered to U.S. carriers as well as to other parts of North and South America and Asia for testing in the third quarter. This partnership further bolsters Magnolia's strategic plans of deploying antenna diversity technology to U.S. wireless markets, said the developer.

The deployment of Magnolia's DiversityPlus chips in dual-antenna cell phones will enable wireless carriers to substantially increase subscribers within the same wireless infrastructure, eliminating the need for additional cell towers, while boosting capacity, coverage, data throughput and battery life. Additional benefits for carriers and consumers will include more reliable connections, fewer "dead zones," improved quality of service and a substantial lowering in the amount of energy the phone emits.

"We are very pleased to work with a leader like Pantech & Curitel and look forward to their initiatives to deploy our DiversityPlus technology in its handsets for U.S. carriers," said Larry Wasylin, Magnolia Broadband's vice president, Sales & Marketing.

"Our partnership with Magnolia further strengthens Curitel's position as a leading provider of innovative handset technologies within the U.S. market," said Moon S. Song, Curitel's CEO. "We see the potential deployment of Magnolia's technology as enhancing our position as a global leader of manufacturers of subscriber terminals for the wireless industry."