Andrew Expands New Wollongong, Australia R&D Center For Growing Location Based Services Market: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance



location based services

WESTCHESTER, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 14, 2006--Andrew Corporation's newly expanded Wollongong, Australia, research center, already a global technical leader in the development of location technology, is growing to play a crucial role in the company's support for the expanding global market for mobile location services.

Company leaders, joined by local university and government officials, presided today over a ceremonial grand opening of Andrew's newest Australian facility and its first research and development center in the Asia-Pacific region outside of China. The Andrew Network Solutions Asia-Pacific facility, located on the University of Wollongong, has added a number of additional engineers and support staff since it was acquired by Andrew in August 2005. It expects to add additional resources to accommodate growth in the worldwide market for mobile location services that enable consumers, enterprises and public safety agencies to find people and objects using wireless devices.

"The members of this world-class Andrew team in Wollongong are innovators in wireless location services and recognized for their work in defining the new architecture and standards for secure user plane location (SUPL) and control plane location capabilities, as well as determining location in internet protocol networks," said Terry Garner, group president, Network Solutions, Andrew Corporation. "This is a significant addition to Andrew's presence in Australia, and the outstanding work here in Wollongong will resonate throughout the Asia-Pacific region and the world."

Andrew acquired the facility and approximately 40 employees, along with products and customers, in an agreement with Nortel last year for that company's wireless location business assets. Andrew also has approximately 55 other employees in Australia in Campbellfield, Victoria, (sales, operations, and administration) and in Padstow, New South Wales (engineering).

Garner, Andrew Network Solutions Asia-Pacific directors David Evans and Martin Dawson, and centre staff were joined at the ribbon-cutting ceremony by The Hon. David Campbell, MP minister for Water Utilities, Small Business, Regional Business, and the Illawarra, and Professor Margaret Sheil, acting vice chancellor, University of Wollongong.

"The adoption of the mobile location technology by telecommunications companies in North America demonstrates that NSW, Australia, has the skills to create, develop, and support products that compete in the global marketplace," said Minister Campbell.

Andrew is the world's most trusted supplier of high-accuracy mobile location systems. Andrew's Geometrix® location systems have been installed by more operators than any competing system. The research and development in Wollongong, Australia supports Andrew's popular Geometrix mobile location center (MLC) platform, which offers the world's most advanced array of standards-compliant, fully-interoperable locating options in a single carrier-grade system, including Serving Mobile Location Centers (SMLC) and Gateway Mobile Location Centers (GMLC). Andrew's Geometrix MLCs support all handset- and network-based wireless location methods and include the secure user plane location (SUPL) standard.

Operators and third-parties worldwide count on Geometrix MLCs to offer location-based services for:

Consumers, such as navigation, motorist assistance, child tracking, vehicle location, and shipment status
Enterprises, to enhance vehicle and service dispatch, follow fleet movement, and track valuable assets
Public safety, to help locate callers for emergency service centers.
Since the first Geometrix systems entered service in 2001, cellular network operators covering hundreds of millions of people have installed Andrew Geometrix systems to provide accurate location of mobile users for a wide range of advanced services.

About Andrew Corporation

Andrew Corporation (NASDAQ:ANDW - News) designs, manufactures, and delivers innovative and essential equipment and solutions for the global communications infrastructure market. The company serves operators and equipment manufacturers from facilities in 35 countries. Andrew (www.andrew.com), headquartered in Westchester, IL, is an S&P 500 company founded in 1937.

Geometrix is a registered trademark of Andrew Corporation.

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