Qualcomm chief rushes to India

IN A move to save CDMA technology from getting marginalised in India, Qualcomm CEO Dr Paul Jacobs will make a crucial visit to India this month end to meet its biggest partner Reliance Communications chief, Anil Ambani, as also the other operator, Tata Teleservices.
Jacob's decision to meet Ambani is significant, considering the recent decision of Reliance Communications to use GSM technology for expanding services in Delhi and Mumbai telecom circle. It needs to be mentioned that Reliance already operates a GSM service through group company Reliance Telecom.
Kanwalinder Singh, president Qualcomm India and SAARC told Hindustan Times, "Dr Jacobs would be visiting India to attend a seminar at our design centre and will also hold a meeting with Anil Ambani on June 29. He is also likely to visit Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran and meet up with Tata Tele."
Industry sources added that the CEO of Ericsson Carl Henrik Svanberg, too, is to visit India soon. Sources indicated that there is talk of Reliance Communications GSM opening a mega tender with a combination of Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens. It is reliably learnt that these companies are in touch with Ambani.
Concerned over losing its market share to GSM, if Reliance decides to go ahead with its GSM plans, were visible in comments of Singh. "India's spectrum policy needs to be immediately rationalised so it does not inadvertently end up influencing technology choices and limiting or limit the migration to top metros only. The current policy is shortsighted, not practiced anywhere in the world, and will cause distortions," said Singh.
Singh also highlighted that the current spectrum policy in India limits the ability of CDMA operators like Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices to pursue aggressive subscriber growth plans and to introduce next-generation wireless broadband services Commenting on the controversy relating to the royalty rate that Qualcomm gets for using its technology on every chip in the handset), Singh said that Qualcomm's worldwide standard royalty rate is a percentage of the wholesale net selling price of the handset and the percentage is in low single digits. Industry grapevine is that the royalty rate is pegged at about 2-5 per cent. “In absolute dollars, average royalty per CDMA handset in India is about 85 per cent of what it is in China. In fact, the India region enjoys the lowest royalty overhead of all regions in the world,” said Singh. He also pointed that competition from CDMA operators has resulted in Indian consumers enjoying the benefits of cheapest handsets and tariffs in the world, with both voice and data applications available throughout the country.
The GSM lobby, Singh alleged, would like nothing more than perpetuating a legacy GSM technology in India over the next few years, while in most developing and developed countries, the migration away from GSM to WCDMA is well underway already. He said, “Without CDMA competition, GSM operators in India will not migrate to WCDMA or limit the migration to top metros only. This is counter to Indian consumer interest and Indian government's goal of growing India into a developed economy."