SAN DIEGO, Nov. 11, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The CDMA Development Group (CDG) (www.cdg.org) today announced the recipients of the 2009 3G CDMA Industry Achievement Awards, presented on November 10 at a reception during the 2009 3G CDMA Americas Regional Conference in San Diego. The awards recognize individuals and companies for excellence in deploying advanced CDMA2000(R) networks, products and services.
"We've seen a tremendous amount of innovation this year within the 3G CDMA industry, both in the consumer and enterprise spaces," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "3G continues to expand rapidly, enabling new capabilities and opportunities for communication and commerce. Recipients of this year's Industry Achievement Awards are leading the way in an increasingly competitive wireless ecosystem, and we look forward to tracking their continued successes in 2010."
This year's 3G CDMA Industry Achievement Award recipients are:
-- Industry Leadership: Fran O'Brien, Technology Director, Wireless Standards Development and Industry Relations, Alcatel-Lucent - Given to the individual who has provided the most dynamic leadership in 3G industry activities, including contributions to standards development and the growth and evolution of 3G CDMA technologies. - Awarded for his significant contributions to the CDMA industry while leading Alcatel-Lucent's standards engineering efforts, global spectrum policy development and industry relations for the past 15 years. -- Operator Leadership: China Telecommunications - Given to the operator that has demonstrated leadership in the wireless community through the expansion of 3G CDMA system deployments and/or the unique implementation of 3G CDMA technologies in a specific market. - Since launching 3G EV-DO Rev. A mobile broadband services at the beginning of 2009, China Telecom has extended its CDMA2000 network to more than 500 cities nationwide and is the leading 3G operator in China. With a selection of 566 devices from over 160 suppliers, China Telecom's handset sales have increased by 200% in 2009. China Telecom is now serving more than 48 million CDMA2000 subscribers, an increase of 20 million new users within the past 9 months. -- Operator Leadership: Verizon Wireless - Given to the operator that has demonstrated leadership in the wireless community through the expansion of 3G CDMA system deployments and/or the unique implementation of 3G CDMA technologies in a specific market. - Verizon's contributions to industry-wide device efforts have had a positive impact on all operators and vendors worldwide. Most notably, Verizon's Open Development Initiative (ODI) has encouraged innovators and developers from around the world to design, produce and market new products and services that leverage the 'open' interaction between the device radio and Verizon Wireless' network. This strategically important initiative has led to a large selection of CDMA2000 devices. -- Subscriber Technology Innovation: Airvana - Given to the company that has demonstrated innovative thinking in terms of services supported and terminal design. Resulting products take advantage of the inherent benefits and latest technological developments of 3G CDMA. - Airvana's HubBub CDMA2000 femtocell provides enterprises and consumers with the ability to consolidate all of their office and home telephony and broadband Internet access services with a single preferred mobile service provider. Not only are Airvana's femtocells providing improved 3G CDMA coverage and capacity, they are becoming the central point of integrated telecommunications within the office or household through its integrated router and telephony services. -- Network Technology Innovation: Alcatel-Lucent - Given to the company that has introduced network capabilities that allow 3G CDMA operators flexible and cost-effective solutions for implementing advanced features and an easy evolution path to future network enhancements. - Alcatel-Lucent has played a lead role in the standardization of enhanced High-Rate Packet Data (eHRPD), known commercially as the enhanced EV-DO core and radio network. By March 2009, all 3GPP2 eHRPD standards were essentially completed, 15 months from when the proposed standard was introduced to 3GPP2. This aggressive timeline was accomplished largely due to the technological expertise and effective shepherding conducted by Alcatel-Lucent. Alcatel-Lucent provided the editorship and leadership in drafting the major core network document, X.S0057, the radio document, C.S0087, and the radio access network (RAN) interface document, A.S0022.
For the sixth year, the CDG is pleased to partner with Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) on awards that recognize excellence in the development of consumer entertainment services and applications.
-- Innovation in Consumer Entertainment Services: KDDI - Given to the operator that has leveraged the capabilities of 3G CDMA to introduce a broad array of innovative and appealing consumer entertainment services (music, games, mobile TV, social networking, etc.) to the market. - Launched by KDDI in 2008, "au Smart Sports" is a combination of innovative mobile device capabilities, such as the 3-axis motion sensor and GPS-enabled geopositioning, and enhanced server capabilities, including healthcare-relevant applications and customer record storage. By wearing an "au Smart Sports"-enabled device, customers can measure the number of steps made while running or walking, estimate calorie consumption, record heart rate, etc. Measured data is wirelessly uploaded to a storage server and shared through PC access. -- Innovation in Consumer Entertainment Services Development: IREX Technologies - Given to the application developer or content provider that has developed innovative and appealing entertainment applications or services. - The IREX Digital Reader DR800SG features an 8.1-inch stylus touchscreen and high-speed access to an enormous selection of digital books and other titles from Barnes & Noble's ebook store via EV-DO broadband data connectivity. The device has 2GB of memory to store up to 1,500 books, which can be purchased over-the-air along with newspapers and magazines from a wide variety of sources. In addition, IREX supports multiple formats, including the industry standard ePub display format and multiple digital rights management (DRM) solutions, rather than a single, "closed" proprietary format that locks content to a specific device.
The CDG is pleased to partner with RCR Wireless News on awards that recognize excellence in the development of services and applications for the enterprise sector, and for solutions that provide notable social and economic benefits. This is the first year for the Wireless Social and Economic Solutions Development award, an acknowledgement of the impact mobile services and applications are having on people across the globe.
-- Innovation in Wireless Enterprise Solutions Development: AirWalk Communications, for EdgePoint PRO Enterprise Femtocell - Given to the company that has leveraged the capabilities of the 3G CDMA wireless medium to offer innovative mobile applications that enable companies to streamline their operations, increase worker productivity and achieve a compelling return on their investments. - The debut of Airwalk's EdgePoint PRO in early 2009 introduced the wireless industry to a new product segment: enterprise femtocells. Enterprise users often experience low RF coverage in buildings, peak time capacity issues and a lack of mobility throughout the office. The EdgePoint PRO is a compact cellular access point which provides premier cellular service inside office buildings, allowing operators to deliver a reliable and affordable solution to expand their CDMA2000 network, capture the growing enterprise market segment and increase their revenues. -- Innovation in Wireless Social and Economic Solutions Development: Reliance Communications - Given to the business, infrastructure, device or application developer that has leveraged the capabilities of the 3G CDMA wireless medium to offer innovative mobile services that improve the social and/or economic well-being or advancement of people, communities or target segments. Qualifications include enhanced user interface, positive impact, breadth of applicability, scalability, uniqueness and sustainability. - Together with Reliance Communications, Reliance Energy deployed CDMA2000-enabled Automated Meter Reading (AMR) modems across Mumbai to automatically and remotely read electrical power meters from a central location. Developed in-house, these modems are installed at the customers' premises and then verified through remote software to check the connectivity with the remote server. A forward and backward integration of the AMR server with existing platforms was developed to provide a highly-efficient end-to-end solution for billing, analyzing the load on the grid, logging critical parameters and checking for meter tampering. This has resulted in reducing billing and accounting errors, leading to consumer satisfaction in this challenging emerging market.
The awards nomination process was open to the general public through the CDG Web site. Final selection of the industry award winners was made by senior CDG executive members as well as representatives of industry associations and the trade media community.
Photos from the awards ceremony are available by contacting the CDG News Bureau at +1 858-735-8748.
About CDMA2000
CDMA2000 is a widely deployed 3G technology, with 308 operators in 116 countries and territories serving 494 million subscribers. Counting 2G cdmaOne(TM) subscribers, there are over 502 million CDMA users worldwide. CDMA2000 1xEV-DO is a widely-deployed 3G CDMA (IMT-2000) solution offering mobile broadband to 128 million people across a wide range of devices. CDMA2000 has been chosen by operators in both developed and emerging markets, and is deployable in the 450, 700, 800, 1700, 1900, AWS and 2100 MHz bands. More than 2,320 CDMA2000 devices from over 122 suppliers have been introduced to the market, including more than 548 Rel. 0 and 226 Rev. A devices on 114 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rel. 0 and 77 Rev. A systems. More information on CDMA2000 is available on the CDG Web site at www.cdg.org.
About CDG
The CDMA Development Group is a trade association formed to foster the worldwide development, implementation and use of CDMA2000 technologies. The more than 140 member companies of the CDG include many of the world's largest wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers. The primary activities of the CDG include development of CDMA2000 features and services, public relations, education and seminars, regulatory affairs and international support. Currently, there are more than 500 individuals working within various CDG subcommittees on CDMA2000-related matters. For more information about the CDG, contact the CDG News Bureau at +1-949-428-8221, or visit the CDG Web site at www.cdg.org.
The CDG logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2911
Note to editors
cdmaOne is a registered trademark of the CDMA Development Group. CDMA2000 is a registered trademark of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA-USA). All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.