Qualcomm Inc. announced the company’s product support for the Russian GLONASS satellite system and the capability to utilize both the GPS and GLONASS networks simultaneously for greater location performance. Qualcomm says the additional signals from this expanded satellite network provide more accurate location information for the growing number of location-based applications and services.
The first GLONASS capable phone is the MTS 945 from ZTE,powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon MSM7x30 chipset. The Snapdragon MSM7x30 chipset and software solution allows this smartphone to take advantage of both the GPS and GLONASS satellite systems. Support for both satellite networks currently is integrated into Qualcomm’s Snapdragon MSM7x30 chipset and software solution and will be supported moving forward on select Snapdragon and feature phone chipsets with Qualcomm’s latest GPS engine.
“Supporting both positioning technologies gives users of ZTE’s latest smartphone the benefit of up to 55 different satellites when calculating their global position for navigation or any location-based application,” says Raj Talluri, vice president of product management for Qualcomm. “The result is more accurate location performance, all over the world, particularly in challenging urban environments where the combination of narrow streets and tall buildings can degrade accuracy.”
