US : Spirent Communications announced the release of the first commercially available single-source solution for automated testing of GSM and WCDMA handsets that support Assisted GPS (A-GPS) location technology.

Inset is the new UMTS Location Test System (ULTS).

Spirent's new product, UMTS Location Test System (ULTS), builds on Spirent's location test expertise, gained through global leadership in GPS simulation solutions for receiver performance evaluation and through the market-leading Spirent Position Location Test System (PLTS) for CDMA.

"ULTS widens our capabilities in the analysis of location technology performance," states Richard Catmur, wireless business development director at Spirent Communications. "Thorough evaluation and qualification of this new capability in mobile devices is critical for successful deployment. As we did in the CDMA marketplace with our PLTS solution, we are offering our GSM and UMTS customers a platform to help assure the A-GPS performance of their mobile devices before they get to market."

GSM and UMTS network operators around the world are beginning to deploy high-accuracy location technologies, one of the most popular of which is Assisted GPS (A-GPS). This effort is driven by commercial Location Based Services (LBS) opportunities as well as government emergency service requirements, such as the American E911 mandate. As part of the deployment effort, the location accuracy performance of the network and mobile devices must be established.

Spirent's ULTS product is fully integrated and enables comprehensive A-GPS performance analysis of GSM/GPRS mobile devices in the lab, helping to reduce the time and cost associated with extensive field trials. With Roadmap WCDMA support the product will enable full A-GPS performance analysis of UMTS terminals. ULTS performs both physical and protocol layer analysis and supports user and control plane implementations. The open architecture of the system allows for future upgrades, enabling support of Location-Services test cases as they are developed by the 3GPP.

Spirent Communications' wireless test solutions aid in all phases of mobile handset development and deployment for the world's leading chipset, handset and infrastructure manufacturers and mobile service providers. Spirent is considered by the industry the "one-stop-shop" for CDMA handset performance and certification testing. Among its accomplishments, Spirent has introduced the first and only integrated solution available to test location-capable CDMA phones, a critical element of assisting manufacturers in meeting the U.S. FCC E911 requirements. Spirent has leveraged its success in mobile performance and certification testing in the CDMA market to also bring comprehensive performance analysis to the GSM and WCDMA market.