US : The CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced that the 2003 CDMA Americas Congress will take place Dec. 8-10, in Miami, Florida. The Congress is the largest event for the CDMA pan-American community, and last year attracted more than 1200 delegates, representing the leading operators, equipment manufacturers, application developers, content providers, media and analysts in the region.

This year's Congress will explore business and technology strategies for increasing revenue with CDMA2000(r). The agenda will feature expert perspectives on emerging markets such as enterprise and youth, and services such as multimedia messaging services (MMS), location-based services (LBS) and push-to-talk. Presenters will share deployment experiences with CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO, development progress of 1xEV-DV, as well as plans for the integration of Wi-Fi with CDMA networks.

"CDMA is the leading technology in the Americas, with more than 102 million subscribers," said Perry LaForge, executive director of CDG. "CDMA2000 has given operators in the region the advantage of being first-to-market with 3G services and applications and has provided new revenue sources for them. This conference will explore the latest developments in CDMA technology and how it translates into business opportunities for the wireless industry."

Keynote and featured presenters at this year's Americas Congress are Ralph de la Vega, President, BellSouth Latin America; Cindy Christy, Chief Operating Officer, Mobility Solutions Group, Lucent Technologies; Soren Petersen, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Nokia; Dion Joannou, President, Caribbean and Latin America, Nortel Networks; Dr. Irwin Jacobs, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Qualcomm; Gilles Delfassy, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Wireless Terminals Business Unit, Texas Instruments; Dick Lynch, Chief Technical Officer, Verizon Wireless; and Mark Handler, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, International, Walt Disney Internet Group.

Additional speakers include senior executives from AOL, Bell Mobility, Boingo, IBM, iGillott Research, KDDI, KTF, Monet Mobile Networks, Nextel, Outlook4Mobility, SK Telecom, Sprint PCS, Telcel, Telefonica del Peru, Telstra, U.S. Cellular, Virgin Mobile, Warner Music Group, Yahoo! Mobile and the Yankee Group.

The CDMA Test Forum, in its ninth year, will be co-located with the Americas Congress, and will examine tools and techniques to ensure high quality and performance for voice and data services with CDMA2000. The Americas Congress will feature a number of half-day workshops, including one that will address the needs of small and rural carriers. The workshops will take an in-depth look at issues of concern to these carriers and the benefits that CDMA2000 can provide them.

Another highlight will be the announcement of this year's 3G CDMA Industry Achievement Award recipients on Dec. 8.

Sponsors of the 2003 CDMA Americas Congress include Airvana, Comverse, dynamicsoft, Ericsson, Huawei, Kyocera Wireless Corp., Lucent Technologies, Nokia, Nortel Networks, Qualcomm, Schema, SnapTrack and Texas Instruments.

The Americas Congress is organized by the Institute for International Research (IIR) (www.iirusa.com) in association with the CDG. For more information about the 2003 CDMA Americas Congress, please visit www.cdma-americas.com

The CDMA Development Group is a trade association formed to foster the worldwide development, implementation and use of CDMA technologies. The 110 member companies of the CDG include many of the world's largest wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers. The primary activities of the CDG include development of CDMA features and services, public relations, education and seminars, regulatory affairs and international support. Currently, there are more than 500 individuals working within various CDG subcommittees on CDMA-related matters.