Japan’s largest WiFi maker signs up for latest WiFi technology

* Japan’s largest WiFi equipment manufacturer signs up for Ericsson’s WiFi patents
* Ericsson holds industry strongest patent portfolio in GSM/HSPA/LTE
* Ericsson also holds essential WiFi patents

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), the leading patent holder in mobile telecommunications, has signed an agreement to license its patented WiFi technology to Melco Holdings, parent company of Japanese digital equipment manufacturer Buffalo. Buffalo is the largest WiFi manufacturer in Japan with a market share of about 60%.

Ericsson holds the industry’s strongest patent portfolio covering technologies like GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA and LTE.

Ericsson’s early research on GPRS and HIPERLAN/2 has been the basis of packet technology for later mobile standards such as HSPA, and more recently the latest WiFi standard, IEEE 802.11n. As a result, Ericsson holds essential patents that are key to developing products in a wide range of mobile technologies, including WiFi.

More and more people use heavy data applications like HD video and gaming wirelessly at home, on their laptops and set top boxes. Since many homes are connected to fiber optic networks, the bottleneck of data streaming is now in the wireless link, between the fiber and the devices like TV and laptops. The latest high capacity WiFi standard, IEEE 802.11n, provides a solution to this problem by offering significantly greater download speed. It enables several users to simultaneously access heavy data applications with high quality over the same wireless link.



Kasim Alfalahi, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson says: “There are signs of an industry shift in focus from connecting places and people to connecting devices and applications. Supporting this shift, we make our technology available to others and create an eco-system where all manufacturers who develop devices can get a license to use our technology with reasonable conditions. Many of the major manufacturers of laptops and other devices with the latest WiFi are in the process of negotiating a license with Ericsson.”


Our multimedia material is available on www.ericsson.com/broadcast_room

Ericsson is the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has a leading position in managed services. The company’s portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices.

Ericsson is advancing its vision of being “the prime driver in an all-communicating world” through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 80,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 206.5 billion (USD 27.1 billion) in 2009. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on OMX NASDAQ, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

www.ericsson.com

www.twitter.com/ericssonpress

www.facebook.com/technologyforgood