Qualcomm Beginnings

Instructor directions are listed to below:

1. Share with students the history of Qualcomm: "In July of 1985, seven industry veterans came together in the den of Dr. Irwin Jacobs’ San Diego home to discuss an idea. Those visionaries—Franklin Antonio, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen, Irwin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi and Harvey White—decided they wanted to build “Quality Communications” and outlined a plan that has evolved into one of the telecommunication industry’s greatest start-up success stories: Qualcomm Incorporated."
    
2. "In 1985, Qualcomm landed its first contract and began working with CDMA.  CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access, meaning it is a cell phone service that can take multiplex voice, text, graphics, Internet/Broadband, etc. and let those signals go through a single transmission channel."
    
3. "In 1989, Qualcomm made wireless history by demonstrating CDMA to 50 of the wireless industry’s most influential leaders."
    
4. "In March 1993, Qualcomm introduced its first dual-mode CDMA-AMPS mobile phone."
    
5. "In July 1993, the U.S. Telecommunications Industry Association adopted CDMA as a cellular standard, validating Qualcomm’s business model."
    
6. "The third generation wireless communication (3G) uses CDMA."
    
7. "CDMA was developed by and is controlled by Qualcomm, which means there is a licensing fee for others to use the technology."
    
8. Share the following video with students:

At the Thinkabit Lab, we give a brief overview of Qualcomm's beginnings in CDMA due to time constraints.  If you have time to go deeper, have your students research CDMA technology and its effects on the wireless industry and present their findings in a poster or power point presentation in groups of 2-4.