ZTE and Qualcomm team up to boost UMTS

Qualcomm and ZTE claim they can enhance mobile data performance by 60 per cent

Chip maker Qualcomm and telecoms equipment giant ZTE have joined forces to help boost the performance and capacity of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).

The deal will involve integrating Qualcomm's Uplink Interference Cancellation (ULIC) technology into ZTE's next generation of UMTS base station products in an effort to dramatically boost throughput by reducing the interference caused by the clashing signals of nearby cells.

Qualcomm claimed that this could improve data performance by as much as 60 per cent, and increase voice capacity by up to 45 per cent.

"Interference cancellation is helping to redefine the performance characteristics of UMTS by improving system capacity and delivering data throughput on a par with Long Term Evolution networks," said Jing Wang, executive vice president at Qualcomm in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

"It not only provides faster speeds, but creates a better experience for the growing number of people using mobile devices to upload and share data-intensive content, such as photographs and videos."

Qualcomm said that the system can work with a large number of simultaneous users and transmissions, thereby bringing the performance of modems based on Code Division Multiple Access close to their theoretical limits.

"Using ULIC technology we are providing operators with a highly efficient means to optimise system performance, while extending the lives of existing networks," said Zhang Jianguo, general manager of ZTE's UMTS products.

The harsh economic climate is slowing the rollout of next-generation mobile data access technologies, and many mobile operators are looking to extend the life of existing infrastructure while still dealing with the increasing demand for media rich mobile data services.