Epson Offers Licensing for its World-Class A-GPS Receiver Technology for Mobile Phones

- TOKYO, Japan, November 29, 2006 - Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”) today announced that it has begun offering licensing for its world-class A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) reception technology for mobile phones and portable information terminals. This technology is designed for the SH-Mobile G21 single-chip LSIs used in mobile phones, and is licensed to Renesas Technology Corp.

Epson will provide licensing for technology and information regarding GPS baseband processing and A-GPS-compatible software that will allow detection capabilities significantly better than those of existing GPS technology through an extensive signal detection range extending from strong outdoor to weak indoor signals. By integrating this technology with the high-performance mobile phone platform realized in the SH-Mobile G2 and optimizing it for use in W-CDMA2 mobile phones such as FOMA3 models, it will become possible to obtain high-speed and high-precision positional information from locations indoors, outdoors, or within moving vehicles. This will provide mobile phone users with access to emergency support and location-based services that fully meet their needs and safety requirements.

In the future, Epson plans to continue forging ahead with technological development in the positional information technology field in order to provide a wide variety of superior, original technologies to the mobile phone industry and contribute to the expansion of the location-based service market.

Notes
1. SH-Mobile G2 is a single-chip LSI for dual mode communications terminals under joint development by Renesas Technology Corp., NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Fujitsu Limited, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and Sharp Corporation.
2. W-CDMA is a third generation (3G) mobile phone system.
3. FOMA is a registered trademark of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. All other company, product, and brand names mentioned are the exclusive properties of their respective owners.

About A-GPS
GPS is a satellite-based positioning system that was originally developed by the United States for military purposes. GPS was also made available to the private sector, and is now used widely for navigational support in airplanes and ships, as well as in car navigation systems. GPS receivers work by calculating positions after simultaneously receiving signals transmitted from multiple GPS satellites. However, conventional GPS receivers take several minutes to calculate a single position. Receivers using the A-GPS system, on the other hand, use signals from GPS systems collected remotely over networks such as the mobile phone network to complete positional calculations in a much shorter time.

The standard requirements for this system are those established for the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project).

About Epson
Epson is a global leader in imaging products including printers, 3LCD projectors and small- and medium-sized LCDs. With an innovative and creative culture, Epson is dedicated to exceeding the vision and expectations of customers worldwide with products known for their superior quality, functionality, compactness and energy efficiency.
Epson is a network of 102,025 employees in 120 companies around the world, and is proud of its ongoing contributions to the global environment and to the communities in which it is located. Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corp., the Group had consolidated sales of 1549.5 billion yen in fiscal 2005.