Qualcomm announced that it will enable a dramatic reduction in the cost of WCDMA (UMTS) mobile broadband handsets with the introduction of Qualcomm’s new Mobile Station Modem (MSM) MSM6246 HSDPA and MSM6290 HSUPA chipsets.

The products, sampling now, are designed to enable devices that break new price barriers for HSDPA and HSUPA handsets. The two chipsets also feature new power-saving features that will enable better performance and longer battery life, with standby time of more than 37 days.

“With more than 140 mobile operators in 65 countries now offering commercial HSPA services, mobile broadband is quickly gaining economies of scale,” said Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer of the GSMA. “We are pleased to see the mobile ecosystem making HSPA ever more affordable, enabling more and more people to enjoy high-speed access to multimedia services while on the move.”

“The proliferation of HSPA is helping drive the growth of popular Internet and social networking applications in the mobile space, and we have made great strides in ensuring that these technologies are accessible to a wide base of consumers,” said Alex Katouzian, vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “With these latest additions to our roadmap, we are working closely with our device manufacturer customers, carrier partners and the GSMA to actively help drive down the costs for new mobile broadband handsets that users everywhere are increasingly demanding.”

The MSM6246 chipset will support 3.6 Mbps HSDPA for advanced services such as high-resolution video downloads and Web 2.0 browsing. It features: 3 megapixel camera support, QVGA video playback, Integrated Assisted-GPS and high-speed USB support. The MSM6290 HSUPA chipset supports speeds up to 7.2 Mbps on the downlink and 5.76 Mbps on the uplink. It features: 5 megapixel camera support, WQVGA video playback, Integrated Assisted-GPS, 3D graphics and high-speed USB support. The two products are drop-in replacements for each other, with power management, software and RF compatibility. Both products interface with the RTR6285 single-chip CMOS transceiver.

In addition, the two products both feature 10mm x 10mm package sizes that represent a nearly 50 percent reduction in package footprint from previous-generation baseband solutions.