Telecom Trade Group Opens Shop in Town

Orange County likes to toot its horn as a major technology center. Adding volume to the symphony, a major telecommunications technology trade group has opened a new office in Costa Mesa.

The CDMA Development Group, with eight employees under the direction of digital wireless guru Perry LaForge, represents the interests of companies like AirTouch Cellular in Irvine and Qualcomm Corp. in San Diego, which rely on CDMA technology. It’s one of several competing technologies used in developing and delivering digital wireless signals.

The trade group is headquartered in Orange County, says LaForge, because the CDMA technology had its roots here. LaForge worked with AirTouch (then PacTel Cellular) and Qualcomm in 1989 to develop it. Wireless systems using CDMA now claim 16 million customers.

LaForge started CDMA Development Group in 1994, originally housing the trade group in the offices of the Costa Mesa-based management consulting firm in which he is a partner. He moved the trade group into its own office this summer because its membership has grown from just the dozen manufacturers and service providers who started with it to more than 100 throughout the world.

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John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com.