Global Mobile Corporation, NextWave Wireless Collaborate To Deliver On End-to-End Mobile WiMAX Vision

Global Mobile Corporation, and NextWave Wireless Inc. announced a joint technology collaboration to make end-to-end mobile WiMAX solutions a reality for the global market. The two organizations will set up a comprehensive WiMAX field trial and demonstration network that will leverage shared resources to provide Global Mobile’s end-users a robust, personalized mobile experience through the delivery of next generation mobile multimedia services, including mobile TV, interactive media services, and digital audio. This solution — powered by NextWave’s MXtvTM technology —incorporates NextWave’s WiMAX infrastructure equipment, including the V5 base station and Access Service Network (ASN) gateway platform, and supports the development of a full range of feature-rich devices, based on NextWave’s “No Compromise,” highly integrated WiMAX chipsets and innovative software provided by PacketVideo (PV), a NextWave Wireless subsidiary. This trial network will be deployed in Taipei, Taiwan.

Global Mobile was awarded its WiMAX operator license in October 2007 by the National Communications Commission of Taiwan, and is entering into this strategic cooperation agreement with NextWave to drive innovation and the delivery of next-generation mobile broadband communications in Taiwan; further strengthening the country’s role as a global leader in the mobile WiMAX movement. By conducting a mobile WiMAX field trial utilizing NextWave’s comprehensive WiMAX products and technologies, Global Mobile will accelerate WiMAX momentum through the delivery of new and innovative multimedia services to its customers while establishing its organization as a premier global WiMAX provider. This represents a win-win opportunity for both organizations, as it affords Global Mobile the ability to lend its WiMAX expertise in operations and device development worldwide, and grants NextWave the opportunity to expand its presence and relationships in the local Taiwanese market.

“A significant goal of our technology collaboration with NextWave Wireless is to establish a leadership position in delivering next-generation, WiMAX-based mobile multimedia services to end-users; further extending our international competitiveness in the WiMAX field,” said Rosemary Ho, chairwoman, Global Mobile Corporation. “We are dedicated to providing our customers with ‘anywhere, anytime, any device’ offerings that give them a more robust and innovative mobile experience. We believe that by working with NextWave, we will strengthen our core capabilities to speed our move to WiMAX.”

The solutions to be leveraged for Global Mobile’s WiMAX trial network will include NextWave’s MXtv technology, a breakthrough mobile multicast and broadcast solution that has the potential to drive greater revenue potential through higher ARPU (Average Revenue Per User). MXtv is completely compatible with the current IEEE 802.16e standard, and is designed to lower the cost of offering high-quality, mobile broadcast services to subscribers. Additionally, as part of the field trial, Global Mobile will implement a complete end-to-end system of NextWave’s new V5 base transceiver station and ASN gateway platform, providing both Business and Operational Support Systems (BSS/OSS) and a seamless migration path that supports Wave 2 WiMAX.

Critical to the end-to-end Mobile WiMAX vision is bringing innovative devices to market that are designed to maximize consumer multimedia consumption, and accelerate the pace for mobile WiMAX deployment. As part of the joint market development activities, Global Mobile and NextWave will identify and plan for innovative WiMAX-based devices designed around NextWave’s “No Compromise” NW2000 WiMAX chipsets. These devices will be in form factors that consumers are familiar and comfortable with – from fixed customer premises equipment, personal computers (embedded and/or add-on), mobile handsets and consumer electronics devices, including personal media players, mobile Internet devices, portable navigation devices, among others. NextWave’s WiMAX chipset offers optimized 4G silicon that delivers outstanding performance, very low power consumption, integrated Wi-Fi, global roaming and enhanced integration to enable mobile multimedia services and applications, including the MXtv service, streaming video, video conferencing, and Voice-over-IP (VoIP).

Additionally, to enhance the end-user experience and maximize the opportunity for incremental advertising revenue, Global Mobile will leverage PV's MediaFusionTM rich media content management and delivery platform discovery and CORETM embedded media application framework to provide an on-device portal that delivers an integrated mobile media experience, a unified content catalog, service presentation, and media player through a single client application. The integrated PV solution also includes a full Electronic Service Guide (ESG), which based on a combination of user surveys and usage profiles, can be customized for each subscriber. This level of personalization lends toward more targeted advertising models and greater advertising pull-through rates for Global Mobile. In addition, PV's MediaFusion capabilities expand beyond the user interface experience into Global Mobile’s service delivery platform, to help manage multiple content types and business models for services such as pay-per download, subscriptions, ad-insertion, among others.

The unique combination of capabilities provided by the PV and MXtv technologies can competitively and economically deliver all three value propositions of time, place and screen shifting to laptops, mobile devices and consumer electronics; delivering the same end-user experience across all platforms — anytime, anywhere and on any device. Additionally the opportunity exists to increase advertising revenue generated across multiple device platforms, while delivering the desired content to the end-user.

“We are reaching a critical inflection point for the global success of mobile WiMAX, making it timely for Global Mobile and NextWave to introduce a range of differentiated products, services and a business model that reflect our common vision of mobile WiMAX,” said Allen Salmasi, president and CEO, NextWave Wireless. “We have created a turnkey mobile WiMAX solution that we believe should transform the economics of deploying WiMAX globally. Offering a complete solution from network infrastructure to device components, we are igniting the international mobile WiMAX arena and enabling operators, like Global Mobile, to be at the industry’s forefront by rapidly and cost-effectively deploying solutions that can change the way end-users consume mobile broadband and multimedia.”

This trial comes on the heels of the recently formed Consortium of Mobile Broadband (CMB), a new group organized to facilitate and accelerate the development of WiMAX in Taiwan. Led by Rosemary Ho, CMB seeks to strengthen cooperation among WiMAX licensees through providing for a number of important objectives such as network sharing, including base stations, division of labor required for international cooperative projects and stepping up communications with Taiwan's regulatory agencies