QUALCOMM Keeps On Truckin'

QUALCOMM , looking to expand its market share in Europe, has purchased the fleet management division from French-owned telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel .

The deal could help the mobile satellite data communications improve its position in the European trucking market with the Alcatel Space assets. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In a statement, Alcatel said selling off some "non-core operation activities" would let its Alcatel Space business "refocus its engineering force on new location based services applications for individual mobility in relation to the service of EGNOS and Galileo."

Under the terms of the agreement, San Diego-based QUALCOMM Wireless Business Solutions Europe will service and support the customer base of Alcatel Mobicom, which is headquartered in the Netherlands.

Conversely, QUALCOMM called the acquisition a feather in its overseas cap, noting that the deal helps catapult its Wireless Business Solutions Europe into becoming among the largest providers of fleet management solutions across Europe.

The wireless giant has been at the forefront of keeping the transportation industry connected since 1988, when the introduction of its OmniTRACS platform.

The satellite-based mobile communications and tracking system uses QUALCOMM's CDMA technology to give real-time messaging and position reporting between fleets and their operations centers. Messages are sent via satellite through Eutelsat's Network Management Center to dispatch centers across Europe. The EutelTRACS system is an interactive, information management system that includes two-way mobile communications, satellite tracking and fleet management software. To date, QUALCOMM has shipped over 480,000 OmniTRACS mobile communications system units worldwide.

Recently, QUALCOMM inked a deal in the U.S. to use its OmniTRACS platform as part of the National Missing Child Alert program (AMBER Alert) with retailing giant Wal-Mart .

"QUALCOMM and Alcatel will cooperate fully to ensure that this transition is seamless for the customers that QUALCOMM will now support," said QUALCOMM vice president and general manager Tom Armenti. "By consolidating the systems that exist today, we can continue to invest in our high-quality, pan-European service and support network and increase our ability to provide state-of-the-art wireless solutions for European transportation companies now and well into the future."