Lucent Technologies Provides Speech-Coding Chip to Korean Companies For Cellular Equipment

Three Korean wireless communications equipment manufacturers are including Lucent Technologies' digital signal processor (DSP)-based compression and decompression (codec) technology in their code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless phones and base stations.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd., and LG Information & Communications, Ltd. (LGIC) are manufacturing their new CDMA phones with Lucent's DSP1627 chip and Enhanced Variable Rate Codec (EVRC) software. LGIC and Hyundai are also using Lucent's EVRC chip in their CDMA wireless base stations.

In a CDMA phone, Lucent's EVRC chip can serve as a coprocessor, interfacing with CDMA chip sets from other manufacturers. Manufacturers can use the chip to add EVRC capability to their existing terminal designs with minimal re-engineering.

EVRC uses a lower bit rate than most existing CDMA speech coders, while providing clarity of voice quality. The lower bit rate (8 kilobits per second peak) translates to increased network capacity for wireless service providers.

The Korean manufacturers will be supplying their EVRC-based products to Korean wireless service providers such as SK Telecom, the country's top wireless service provider.

Korea is seen by some as a global hotbed of CDMA technology. According to SK Telecom representatives, the country surpassed the million-CDMA-subscriber mark in March, just 15 months after introducing the service. Current figures indicate that new subscriptions are increasing by about 6,500 a day.

The deployment of Lucent EVRC software in Korea marks the first of several deployments of the technology around the world.

Use of EVRC technology for CDMA applications is expected to expand in the United States, China, Japan, Germany, Peru, Thailand, and Hong Kong.