South Korea's SK Telecom and broadband wireless chipmaker Wavesat have engaged in what the companies described as a "multi-million dollar agreement" to develop a system-on-a-chip based on WiBro and using orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technology for next-generation devices. The companies also will create system tools and a development kit based on the WiBro 802.16e S-OFDMA profile.

The new UMobile (Ultra-Mobile) family of OFDMA WiMAX products from Wavesat will allow WiMAX system providers worldwide to quickly develop and deploy full mobility WiMAX and WiBro solutions, according to Wavesat. Vijay Dube, vice president of marketing and business development at Wavesat, said the announcement is the first in a series that will further detail the vendor's mobile strategy.

The announcement comes just a few days before the WCA International Symposium and Business Expo in San Jose, Calif., next week. Wavesat will be an exhibitor there. Also, the announcement comes amid an agressive push by SKT competitor Korea Telecom to widely launch commercial WiBro services in April. KT showcased the technology in a limited commercial launch in November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation IT Summit in Busan, South Korea.