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The alliance and development program will combine Parthus' 2G/2.5G technology with UbiNetics 3G technology.
The companies are working to develop core technologies including a so-called "multi-mode" wireless roaming platform. This technology will make it possible for 2.5 generation and third-generation mobile phones to be usable on the current networks, so that anyone using a new phone can still make calls outside urban areas where high-speed coverage isn't yet available.
The companies will then license the core intellectual property to makers of semiconductors and mobile handsets, primarily using Parthus's own sales channel, and the companies will split revenues earned from the jointly-developed technologies.
Parthus is making a small equity investment in UbiNetics, and although no figures were disclosed it is believed the Irish company has invested more than USD2 million for a stakeholding of less than 5 percent in the UK firm.
The deal will see Parthus and UbiNetics combine their comparative strengths, particularly Parthus's abilities in 2.5G and UbiNetics' experience in 3G. The companies have already been working together for more than a year on various projects, a company spokesman said.
As part of the deal Parthus will transfer between 15 and 25 of its own staff who are currently based in Florida and are already working on wireless platform roaming technologies. The staff will become members of UbiNetics' employment staff, effectively reducing Parthus's headcount, but the spokesman said Parthus would correspondingly increase its workforce as it scaled up its own R&D and sales operations to support the new alliance.
UbiNetics is a spin-off of PA Consulting Group's Wireless Telecommunications Practice and has more than 300 employees in six international offices, including its headquarters in Cambridge, UK.
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