Agere Systems (AGR) says that its TrueAdvantage Wireless Access Solution hardware and software wireless platform has been selected by Huawei. Huawei is using Agere's platform in its converged, next-generation, multiservice, multiprotocol wireless infrastructure equipment to be deployed around the world.

By adopting Agere Systems' Advanced PayloadPlus APP300 network processor and LLP (Link Layer Processor) device, Huawei will build next- generation wireless platforms that integrate Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks and Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This will enable wireless communications to enter a new era of better performance and higher reliability.

Both companies will focus on accelerating 2G/3G deployments worldwide.

Huawei has a strong commitment to rapidly deploy flexible, scalable software and hardware wireless platforms worldwide. The company's products support all current wireless standards and protocols. By mid-2005, Huawei had won 11 Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) business contracts and 10 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO business contracts. 3G solutions have been successfully applied in countries and regions such as the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.

The number of worldwide mobile subscribers is expected to grow from 2.1 billion in 2005 at an annual growth rate of 11% through 2009. To capitalize on this market growth, many service providers and equipment manufacturers such as Huawei are looking to unify their wireless platforms to converge 2/2.5/3G standards.

Currently, the number of 3G basestations represents about 28% of the worldwide total, but this is expected to balloon to 55 percent by 2009. With both the legacy 2G and emerging 3G deployments, multistandard platforms are essential.