Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR) announced that it has shipped in excess of 100 million Global System for Mobile (GSM) based wireless chipsets for mobile phones operating on more than 70 networks worldwide.  Agere is a leading provider of baseband chipset solutions addressing the high-end, mid-tier and low-end segments of the mobile phone market.
 
 Agere’s solutions combine leading-edge hardware and software ensuring that manufacturers are able to quickly design end products across the broad spectrum of GSM technologies, including 2.5G/GPRS, EDGE and 3G/W-CDMA.  The company began supplying solutions for GPRS mobile phones in limited quantities in 2000, achieving its highest shipment levels over the last two years.  According to industry analyst firm IDC, 1.6 billion GSM based phones, including voice-only GSM, GPRS, EDGE and W-CDMA devices, were shipped worldwide from the first quarter of 2002 to the third quarter of 2005.*

 “Reaching the 100 million mark in GSM chipset shipments proves the strength Agere brings to the marketplace,” said Denis Regimbal, executive vice president of Agere’s Mobility Division.  “We expect we will easily ship our next 100 million units in half the time as we look ahead to increasing levels of demand for EDGE and 3G technologies, including HSDPA, in the future.”
Agere offers a full portfolio of 3G (W-CDMA) and 2.5G (EDGE/GPRS) solutions based on its Vision™ and Sceptre® mobile handset architectures.  Recently, the company announced a 3G offering that combines W-CDMA and EDGE technology, as well as its first chipset solution based on the Vision mobile handset architecture, called the X115, delivering rich audio and video capabilities to mainstream feature phones and Smartphones.  All of Agere’s GSM products include the company’s proven and tested baseband processing technology and protocol software stack, both of which are optimized for the size and low power consumption that consumers expect for mobile devices.