PacketVideo Joins With QUALCOMM to Deliver Wireless Media

PacketVideo (http://www.packetvideo.com) announced today that QUALCOMM Inc. will be integrating its wireless media software into a variety of QUALCOMM's future products. QUALCOMM, which owns the patents for several aspects of CDMA Technology, currently manufacturers chipsets for several major CDMA handset and infrastructure manufacturers including: Samsung Electronics Ltd, SANYO Electric Co. Ltd. and Toshiba Corp.

The initial QUALCOMM product to be enabled with PacketVideo's software will be the recently announced MSP1000 system-on-chip and system software. The MSP1000 device is expected to be available by the fourth quarter of 2000

PacketVideo's announcement with QUALCOMM is the latest in a series of agreements with silicon providers. Previously, Texas Instruments, Lucent Technologies, and Intel Corporation have all agreed to include PacketVideo's software in their chipset solutions. These agreements mark the first building block to enabling multimedia delivery over wireless networks.

According to PacketVideo's spokesman, Anjeanette Rettig, the company is also currently working to integrate their technology into the networks of the major wireless carriers. PacketVideo and Sonera, one of Europe's leading telecommunications providers, conducted a field test of the technology in Finland. The field trial was conducted in Finland because more wireless bandwidth is available there, and the trail ran at speeds of both 14.4kps and 43 kps.

Currently, most wireless networks in the United States can only support speeds up to 14.4 kps, and this speed is hardly suitable for streaming multimedia. Nonetheless, PacketVideo's technology can be used today for such applications as a nanny cam. Parents that wish to check in on their kids at day care don't necessarily need to have full motion video.

The final aspect of PacketVideo's plan is to have a wealth of multimedia content produced with its MPEG-4 software for encoding, decoding and transmission of video directly to the wireless space . Warner Bros has announced in early August that they are creating and producing four original animated series for domestic and international distribution to the wireless environment. Warner Bros is expected to begin distributing these toons early next year beginning in Japan, where bandwidth capabilities are typically at 64kps.

PacketVideo has been in exsistence for about two years and just recently brought their technology to market. They originally filed for IPO in March, but has since pulled the bid due to the deflation of the net economy. Interestingly, many of their key strategic deals have been with investors. Time Warner, QUALCOMM, Intel, Sonera, and Texas Instruments have all provided funding to PacketVideo Corp.