Qualcomm looks to the skies for future chipset technologies

Qualcomm is delving back into the satellite business, announcing today that it will produce a new line of hybrid cellular-satellite chipsets designed to work over the orbital networks of two newly rejuvenated satellite operators ICO and Mobile Satellite Ventures.

The vendor has agreed to develop a satellite protocol and include it in firmware of future multi-mode baseband chips. Those chips in turn can be embedded in satellite phones as well as consumer appliances and vehicle dash boards, enabling two-way communications to both terrestrial and satellite networks. Qualcomm is targeting the L-band and S-band frequencies initially, over which both MSV and ICO operate as well as other newly revived satellite ventures such as UMTS/satellite hybrid operator TerreStar.

MSV, a subsidiary of SkyTerra, is launching a more traditional voice and broadband network and is planning to wholesale data and voice connectivity to other operators, whether cellular carriers looking to off universal coverage or wireline operators wanting to extend their services wirelessly.

ICO, the most recent brainchild of telecom visionary Craig McCaw, is taking a more media-centric approach to its S-band service. Using a variation of Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) called DVB-Satellite Handheld (or DVB-SH), ICO is launching a broadcast digital TV network with a particular focus on the automotive industry. While the service could potentially compete directly with Qualcomm’s Forward Link Only (FLO) multicast TV technology and its MediaFLO service, Qualcomm will supply ICO with the crucial dual-mode chipsets that will allow ICO customers to connect back to the network. ICO plans to supplement the TV programming with OnStar-like emergency calling services as well as vehicle navigation and other location-based services, necessitating a two-way communications link.

Qualcomm will not be including DVB-SH received chips into its silicon; ICO will have to source those chips from another vendor. But ICO vice president of public relations Christopher Doherty said a deal with a supplier the size of Qualcomm is critical to its business. Qualcomm produces the majority of the world’s CDMA chips and a good deal of its UMTS chips, making it the prime source of silicon for cellular communications. By embedding the satellite capabilities into some of its chipset lines, ICO device makers can cut down on the number of components in their hybrid devices. Nor will they have to seek alternate vendors for satellite components if they already do business will Qualcomm. “They give us the scale we would otherwise be unable to achieve,” Doherty said.

This certainly isn’t Qualcomm’s first venture into the satellite communications business. It produced dual-mode satellite-CDMA phones for Globalstar in 1999, when the satellite communications business was on the rise and Qualcomm still had a handset division. But bankruptcy after bankruptcy killed off those mobile satellite services businesses in the late 90s, leading the industry to writing off mobile satellite services (MSS) as deal except in a few vertical markets. In the last two years though, MSS has enjoyed a resurgence, fueled by new investment and healthier post-bankruptcy balance sheets. The biggest catalyst for satellite’s revival has been the FCC’s recent grants ofAncillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) allowances to newly renamed satellite operators like MSV, ICO and TerreStar. ATC allows those operators to use part of their satellite spectrum for terrestrial networks as a way to augment their services in high-density areas where line-of-site and capacity become problems—an approach taken by satellite media companies like XM.

TerreStar, for instance, is using Nokia Siemens Networks high-speed packet access (HSPA) as the terrestrial component to its satellite broadband service. While those ATC allowances have been limited to the S-band and L-band operators so far, more companies may jump on the bandwagon if the business model proves viable. Satellite TV giant EchoStar has been testing DVB-SH technology with Alcatel-Lucent, which it could eventually pair with a terrestrial network using the 700 MHz spectrum it won at auction.