LONDON — The IPWireless name is to disappear as new owner NextWave Wireless Inc. reorganizes and the specialist developer of mobile broadband and mobile TV technologies is assimilated into a separate division dubbed NextWave Network Products.

The head of the new division will be former IPWireless chief executive and founder Bill Jones. IPWireless (Chippenham, England) was acquired for a minimum of $100 million last April.

IPWireless was founded in 1999 and became a pacesetter as a supplier of TD-CDMA mobile broadband technology. Its TDtv mobile TV technology was last year being tested by the U.K's leading mobile network operators.

NextWave (San Diego, Calif.) also said it would create a Mobile Products division, comprised of the company's PacketVideo (PV) subsidiary and semiconductor development group.

The realignment sees NextWave operating with two business units.

"This will help us sustain our rate of growth and will make it much easier for us to provide our customers with solutions that seamlessly integrate our wide range of innovative products and technologies," commented Allen Salmasi, NextWave Wireless CEO and a former president of Qualcomm's wireless division.

Last June, the company moved into IC development for WiMAX and Wi-Fi networks though earlier generations of the company included IC design engineers. The acquisition of PacketVideo Inc. by NextWave Wireless in 2005 gave the company another entry point into many phases of handset design.

NextWave was originally a holding company for government 1.9-GHz PCS spectrum. It was intended to be a carrier, but NextWave Wireless aimed from its inception to own spectrum blocks for licensed broadband while assembling a system-level infrastructure business and a dedicated component business offering baseband and RF chips for the merchant market.

The company went public in 2006, acquired basestation manufacturer GO Networks in February 2007 and IPWireless two months later. GO develops basestations for WiMax and municipal Wi-Fi mesh networks.

NextWave Broadband's focus on combined Wi-Fi/WiMax chips matches the parent company's system-level hardware plans.

The group now employs 1,100 workers in the U.S., Israel and U.K. The Mobile Products division will incorporate the group's PacketVideo subsidiary and its semiconductor development team that develops multimedia software and content management solutions, baseband and RF chipsets, and device reference designs to network operators and mobile device manufacturers.

Products will be sold under the NextWave Wireless brand and will continue to market its software and media content solutions under the PV brand. The business unit, which is headquartered in San Diego, will be headed by James Brailean, who will also remain CEO of Packet Video.

NextWave Network Products will group the IPWireless and GO Networks subsidiaries, whose designs will be sold under the NextWave Wireless brand. The new business unit, which also includes NextWave's network services and systems development businesses, will focus on providing network operators with wireless infrastructure equipment and end-to-end, wireless broadband and mobile broadcast network systems.

The division will also be based in San Diego.