Broadcom Corporation, announced that the Broadcom Wi-Fi phone platform now supports Skype software and will be available to consumers in new Wi-Fi phone handsets from Buffalo. In the past, Skype users needed a PC to make Skype calls. Now, with the availability of wireless Internet phones, users can make calls at open Wi-Fi access points all over the world without being tied to a PC.

"A Wi-Fi phone is more flexible and useful than a traditional analog phone because it uses Internet Protocol (IP) as the underlying technology and can communicate with other devices on the network," said Monika Gupta, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Broadcom's Consumer VoIP products. "Consumers can now be part of the Skype community -- scroll through their contacts, see who is online, make free Skype-to-Skype calls -- all without sitting in front of the PC."

"Wi-Fi access is everywhere -- in homes, offices, campuses, coffee shops," said Manrique Brenes, Director of Hardware for Skype. "A Skype Wi-Fi phone gives people the freedom to connect to the 136 million family and friends already using Skype anywhere in the world."

"Broadcom is the ideal chip vendor to unite Wi-Fi and VoIP on a single platform, given the company's leadership and continued innovation in both technologies," said Hajime Nakai, General Manager, Broadband Solutions Business Unit, Buffalo Inc. "The Wi-Fi phone platform delivers best-in-class battery life, voice quality and range and is a logical choice for Buffalo, as several of our existing wireless networking products are supported by Broadcom Wi-Fi solutions."

Buffalo's Wi-Fi Phone for Skype

The Buffalo Wi-Fi phone for Skype enables free Internet calling to other Skype users and supports traditional calling to and from the public switched telephone network (PSTN) through the SkypeIn and SkypeOut offerings, using IEEE 802.11b/g wireless LAN connectivity and a high-speed Internet connection. The handset features include a high-resolution color display, speakerphone and Buffalo's AOSS easy configuration protocol. The Buffalo Wi-Fi phone will be Skype Certified and available for the Japanese market in November 2006. The handset comes with everything built-in to connect to Skype via any personal, business or free public Wi-Fi access point that does not require browser authentication.

Broadcom's Wi-Fi phone reference design consists of the BCM1161 mobile VoIP processor and BCM4318E AirForce One 54g chip. The BCM1161 integrates an ARM9 CPU, an analog voice codec with a direct microphone and high-output speaker interface, a 2 megapixel camera interface, a 262k color LCD display interface, a polyphonic ringer and USB interface into a single-chip solution. The BCM4318E is Broadcom's smallest and most cost-effective 54g client solution, integrating a high-performance 2.4 GHz radio, IEEE 802.11a/b/g baseband processor, medium access controller (MAC) and other components onto a single chip.

Broadcom xChange VoIP software enables the BCM1161 VoIP processor to transport toll-quality voice through the use of sophisticated algorithms, which are field tested and proven for robustness and quality. The software architecture is a key differentiator for the Broadcom Wi-Fi phone platform, because it leverages the company's years of VoIP experience and includes specialized enhancements for delivering VoWLAN. xChange is a modular software architecture that is used across all of Broadcom's VoIP silicon platforms including Wi-Fi and desktop Ethernet IP phones, residential terminal adapters, and voice-enabled cable and DSL residential gateways, and is widely adopted in the industry with millions of units shipped to date.

The BCM4318E and BCM1161 devices are shipping in production today, and together with Broadcom xChange VoIP and OneDriver software, feature support for the latest quality of service (QoS), security and power save standards (e.g. WMM, WPA2, WMM-UAPSD), and enable a complete Wi-Fi phone solution.