Beceem Communications, a leading provider of chipsets for Mobile WiMAX technology has announced that mobile phone manufacturer Sanyo has chosen their BCS200 chipset as the foundation for a WiMAX handset.

Sanyo will be using the chipset and systems software for the development of a dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX mobile phone with wave 2 functionality. Although Sanyo hasn't officially announced this, it's very likely that the new mobile phones will be heading on to Sprint. Aside from Sanyo, mobile manufacturers including Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have committed to rolling out dual-mode devices for the mobile operator. Sanyo, that has been working for some time with Sprint, is expected to do the same.

"We are very pleased to be working with SANYO, a recognized leader in the CDMA handset market in both the United States and Japan," said David M. Patterson, Vice President of marketing at Beceem. "Our BCS200 solution is ideally suited for the CDMA/WiMAX dual-mode handset being developed by SANYO."

"SANYO has chosen Beceem because of its continued leadership in mobile WiMAX," said Tetsuhiro Maeda, Vice President of SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. and Personal Mobile Group Telecom Company. "We believe that the BCS200 is a vital component in our ability to develop CDMA/802.16e handsets that deliver the features and performance that operators and consumers expect in a SANYO handset."

Sprint will begin testing the new WiMAX services across three cities soon, and is expected to officially launch them later this year. However, the mobile operator hasn't announced the devices that will be made available during testing and at launch, so it isn't very clear whether the device list will include Sanyo's handsets or not.