Spirent Communications Extends Market Leadership in A-GPS Over-the-Air Testing through Collaboration with SATIMO

Spirent ULTS and PLTS Now Supported by SATIMO's SAMT Antenna Measurement Software


Sunnyvale, Calif. - May 11, 2009 - Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT), a global leader in mobile device, application and wireless network testing, today announced that SATIMO's  SAMT Antenna Measurement Software now supports Spirent's UMTS Location Test System (ULTS) and CDMA Position Location Test System (PLTS) for A-GPS Over-the-Air (OTA) testing. SATIMO is a leading supplier of high speed-antenna measurement systems, including multi-probe antenna measurement solutions for mobile telecommunication equipment.

The combined solution of Spirent's A-GPS test implementation and SATIMO's multi-probe antenna measurement system advances the development and testing of A-GPS enabled mobile devices in several important ways as it:

·         Extends the capability of SATIMO's existing cellular OTA solutions to include GPS antenna performance

·         Delivers greater accuracy and reliability to A-GPS testing

·         Provides support for multiple air interface technologies including GSM, W-CDMA and CDMA.

·         Enables the testing of A-GPS enabled devices in full compliance with the 3.0 release of the CTIA's Test Plan for Mobile Station Over-the-Air Performance which was published in early May.

"Offering an integrated solution with SATIMO gives Spirent tremendous leverage in supporting the segment of the market with the most advanced A-GPS OTA testing needs," said Ron Borsato, solutions architect at Spirent Communications, who also chairs the CTIA's GPS OTA Subgroup. "SATIMO has a market-leading multi-probe antenna testing features that can take measurements with multiple antennas almost simultaneously. This enables our solution to be extended to customers looking to test a higher volume of devices or to those who need advanced test capabilities beyond CTIA Test Plan coverage."

As highlighted in a recent Spirent white paper entitled "A-GPS Over-the-Air Test Method:

Business and Technology Implications," poor GPS antenna performance often leads to a disappointing user experience of location-based services (LBS) and can reflect negatively on an operator's revenue. However, adding a GPS antenna to a densely-packed mobile device form factor can be a major challenge. Because the industry's existing certification standards for A-GPS do not include OTA testing, GPS antenna performance issues are not always caught prior to commercial deployment. This has led the CTIA to broaden the scope of its existing Test Plan for Mobile Station Over-the-Air Performance to include A-GPS.

Built upon the expertise gained from Spirent's PLTS which was introduced into the CDMA market in 2001, the ULTS is the first commercially-available UMTS A-GPS test system. Since then, most of the world's largest network operators, together with all the major mobile device and A-GPS chipset manufacturers, have relied on the Spirent ULTS and PLTS products to design, test and certify their LBS solutions. For more information please visit www.spirent.com/go/ults and www.spirent.com/go/plts.

 

About SATIMO

SATIMO specializes in the design and manufacturing of antenna measurement systems, including OTA measurement solutions for mobile telecommunication equipment. The company has moved antenna measurement techniques forward with a unique, innovative multi-probe technology. The technology is based on the use of arrays of probes that are electronically scanned to measure almost instantaneously electromagnetic fields. SATIMO is part of Microwave Vision SA, which includes ORBIT/FR and AEMI, and offers full turnkey systems to measure a stand alone antenna or antennas integrated into complex structures.

Additional information about SATIMO is available at www.satimo.com.

 About Spirent Communications plc

Spirent Communications (www.spirent.com) is a global provider of integrated performance analysis and service assurance systems that enable the development and deployment of next-generation networking technology such as Internet telephony, broadband services, 3G wireless, global navigation satellite systems, and network security equipment. Spirent Communications' solutions are used by more than 1,700 customers in 30 countries, including the world's largest equipment manufacturers, service providers, enterprises and governments. Based in Sunnyvale, CA, Spirent Communications has 1,500 employees worldwide. For more information visit http://www.spirent.com/news/about_spirent.cfm.