Qualcomm gathers more support for BREW

China Unicom and Qualcomm signed an agreement that calls for China’s second largest wireless operator to commercially launch Qualcomm’s Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) solution over its CDMA network by the end of the year.

BREW will enable China Unicom to offer customers downloadable data applications. The two companies also plan to establish a joint venture in China to foster a domestic BREW developer community and manage BREW applications produced by this community.

“The combined offerings of CDMA2000 1X, BREW and gpsOne position-location services will be differentiating factors for China Unicom and a catalyst for the adoption of CDMA in China,” said a Qualcomm spokeswoman.

The success of China Unicom’s CDMA network continues to influence Qualcomm’s stock. Earlier this year, China Unicom reported slower-than-anticipated customer growth as the operator struggled to differentiate itself in a market dominated by GSM operator China Telecom. In July, China Unicom began picking up momentum by offering pricing promotions and aggressive handset subsidies. UBS Warburg expects China Unicom to add about 3.5 million subscribers this year, about 1 million more than its previous estimate.

In related news, Qualcomm and Siemens announced they have modified terms of an existing CDMA cross-license agreement. The expansion gives Siemens IC Mobile a royalty-bearing license to make and sell infrastructure and subscriber equipment for CDMA systems. Qualcomm also receives royalty-free rights under Siemen’s patents to market and sell CDMA components, including multimode chipsets.