Andrew Corp., a global leader in communications systems and products, has won a strategic multiyear contract from a Tier 1 operator in the Middle East for a major geolocation system deployment.


The agreement, valued in excess of $10 M for the first phase of deployment, calls for Andrew to install the first fully operational uplink time difference of arrival (U-TDOA) system outside of North America and the Caribbean. The Andrew Geometrix® U-TDOA system will cover a network of thousands of cell sites, and initial shipments of product already are underway.

"The choice of Andrew for the first installation of a U-TDOA system outside of North America and the Caribbean confirms Andrew's leadership and innovation in geolocation," said Terry Garner, group president, Andrew Network Solutions. "Geometrix delivers unrivaled capabilities in supporting the global mobile location requirements of operators anywhere in the world."

U-TDOA is a network-based means of determining a mobile device's position by comparing and calculating the difference in time required for its signal to reach different base station transceiver sites. Andrew Geometrix also supports the other handset-based and network-based wireless location methods—assisted global positioning system (A-GPS) in both mobile-based and mobile-assisted versions, Matrix, cell identity (CID) and enhanced cell identity (E-CID) technologies—and includes the secure user plane location (SUPL) standard. In addition, Andrew employs hybrid location methods that combine features from the individual locating technologies.