Spirent Communications is getting a new partner in the lab. Specifically, the company this week announced it will work with testing lab SGS Wireless to provide Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) testing services to the cellular handset industry.

Spirent has established relationships with other test labs as well. “For us to be in these test labs is very useful,” said Nigel Wright, vice president of product marketing at Spirent. 

Spirent started in the CDMA space and it’s pretty much impossible to buy a CDMA device that hasn’t seen a Spirent test solution at some point in its life cycle, he said. But now GSM carriers and manufacturers are getting into the act with A-GPS. In September, AT&T announced it had deployed A-GPS technology to enhance existing and planned location-based services (LBS) used with A-GPS capable devices.

A-GPS dramatically improves the performance of GPS, especially in satellites’ hard-to-reach areas like urban canyons or inside buildings. Wright said he was carrying a device with A-GPS and when the technology was activated by AT&T, he saw a noticeable improvement in the location accuracy.

Spirent’s customers generally fall into one of four categories: chipset technology providers, handset manufacturers, carriers and independent test labs like SGS.

SGS acquired Wireless Test Systems (WTS) in San Diego in 2006 and has bought other smaller labs around the world to build a global test group. Spirent also had worked with WTS in the past.