Fabless semiconductor company Magnolia Broadband, Inc. has successfully completed field trials of its mobile transmit diversity solution, DiversityPlus, with South Korea’s wireless telecom service provider SK Telecom. For the first time, the test results showed similar performance gains in commercially designed handsets as previously experienced in test platforms, according to Magnolia Broadband. As seen in this and prior tests conducted by SK Telecom, mobile transmit gains of 4 to 5 dBs have shown to significantly improve capacity, coverage and data throughput in commercial cdma2000 1xEVDO networks. Pre-deployment tests also indicated that by deploying Magnolia's technology, network operators can significantly save on capital and operating expenses.

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The field testing, which took place the week of July 18 in Seoul, was attended by more than 70 wireless industry leaders including other telecom carriers, handset OEMs, UMTS and WiMAX baseband chip suppliers. This test was a major interim milestone on SK Telecom and Magnolia's road to offering handsets in 2006.

The commercial deployment of Magnolia's DiversityPlus chips in dual antenna cell phones will enable wireless carriers to significantly serve more subscribers within the same wireless infrastructure, eliminating the need for additional cell towers, while boosting coverage, data throughput and battery life. Additional benefits for carriers and consumers will be improved quality of service, include more reliable connections, fewer "dead zones," improved quality of service and a substantial lowering in the amount of energy cell phones emit.

"We are very pleased with the results of the field testing with Magnolia's Mobile Transmit Diversity technology, and we will continue to work with them closely so that we can realize the significant benefits in our network" said Myung Sung Lee, CTO and executive vice president of SK Telecom.

The successful results of these tests have encouraged Magnolia Broadband to offer solutions to other protocols such as UMTS and WiMAX.