Seeking to cut costs, Freescale (Austin, Texas) said last year it would exit the wireless IC business, putting the cellular products group up for sale. But in January--after failing to find a buyer for the division--Freescale said it was considering other options, including selling it in pieces rather than holding out for a single buyer.

Freescale sold a very small part of its wireless chip business to Fujitsu Microelectronics, but that most of the resources associated with it have been let go.

Now, it has given up the plan, according to an analyst. ''Unable to get an attractive price for its Cellular Products Division, Freescale has decided to continue its cellular operations, but on a smaller level, through supporting its current iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) business with Motorola and RIM,'' said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, in a report.

''Staff reductions have brought the division down to a more appropriate size. Freescale's cellular revenues in Q2 were up 45 percent to the $138 million level, attributable to Sprint Nextel's promotion of its flat-rate 'Boost' (iDEN) service,'' he said.

''RIM serves the active Latin American iDEN market. iDEN is currently the only packet-based cellular network (but using frame relay, not Internet Protocol), popularized early on by Nextel for its push-to-talk capabilities,'' he said. ''We estimate that about 3.8 million iDEN handsets will ship in 2009 but the long-range prospects are not good as this market will continue to decline as 3G continues its worldwide build-out.''