SnapTrack Awarded Patent for Locating or Tracking Wireless Devices Via Internet and ClientServer-Based Computer Networks - Brief Article

Wireless Internet, March, 2001

SnapTrack, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, announced the award of a broad-based wireless location and asset-tracking patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patent, No. 6,131,067, describes methods for remotely locating or tracking a wireless device via client-server systems that use a computer network or Web browser to initiate a request of a wireless device's position, and receive the device's position either as data or a graphic display using maps or other reference tools. The award of this patent enhances SnapTrack's leading position in next-generation tracking systems and implementations.

SnapTrack pioneered an advanced form of GPS technology known as wireless assisted GPS that uses the US Government GPS satellites to locate wireless phones and other wireless devices with high precision for emergency purposes and commercial location-based services SnapTrack's system enables carriers to meet the demands of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) E9-l-1 mandate, and also enables the design of cellular phones, pagers, and PDAs that provide users with a host of new mobile location services and e-commerce applications such as personal directions and mobile yellow pages.

In the past six months, SnapTrack has received approximately 10 new patents for inventions that improve the sensitivity and performance of its Wireless Assisted GPS system. SnapTrack now holds 24 patents, with more than three dozen additional patents pending. These patents are critical to the efficient, cost-effective deployment of Wireless Assisted GPS location systems.

Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) has integrated SnapTrack technology into its own gpsOne solutions. QCT has already sampled the MSM3300 Mobile Station Modem (MSM) integrated circuit to a range of handset manufacturers, with handsets expected to be available later this year. The MSM3300 GPS-enabled digital baseband integrated circuit is complemented by QCT's RFR3300/IFR3300 GPS-enabled RF chips.

In addition, Qualcomm has announced that it plans to integrate SnapTrack technology into upcoming gpsOne 3G products, including its MSM5200 WCDMA baseband integrated circuit and other future products supporting cdma2000 lx, cdma2000 lxEV, and WCDMA. SnapTrack technology is the handset-based position location solution of choice to address the US FCC E9-l-1 emergency wireless calling mandate. More than 30 US carriers have filed for a handset-based approach to meeting the E9-l-l mandate. Qualcomm wireless assisted GPS position location solutions are also widely adopted by major Japanese carriers.