You are mis-interpreting the language, probably purposefully. Naturally, there is payment for infra, it is simply at a different rate than for subscriber equipment. This is nothing new. Infra and sub equipment rates are different.
The announcement clearly states that the license is royalty bearing for both subscriber equipment and infra. True, the semantics talk about an expansion of the previous license, and it is at the same rate, but this is simply another aspect of the face-saving to Nokia. It is incomprehensible that you misunderstand this simple point. I know, it hurts. Perhaps you should read it in Finnish.
The previous CDMAOne handset license is at "usual and customary" rates, i.e., no discount to Nokia like the one MOT enjoys. Now Nokia will pay "usual and customary" for its 3G subscriber equipment. In other words, Nokia waited too long, put itself over the Spinco barrel because it desperately needed the infra license in order to commercialize 3G, and lost the ability to demand a lower, volume-driven, royalty rate for 3G sub equipment. Plus, it gave away all the GSM IPR Spinco will need to get into the multi-mode chip business, and it gave it away completely gratis. It can validly be said that Nokia seeded Spinco instead of Q. You may recall that Q's plan was to assign sufficient CDMA IPR to Spinco so as to allow it to trade for whatever GSM IPR it needed to make multi-mode chips. Thanks to Nokia's munificence, Q gets to keep the CDMA IPR with which it planned to seed Spinco, making QClassic an even more formidable IPR house. All thanks to our new-found Finnish friends.
Nokia seems to have given up whatever leverage it had to demand volume 3G discounts, and gave away its IPR for nothing. This, in my opinion, all related to Spinco gambit and Nokia's desperate need for infra IPR.
Nokia benefits as well, naturally. It doesn't have the cloud of litigation over it. The Q will also presumably assist in Nokia's CDMA endeavors. From a financial and negotiating standpoint, Q is clearly the winner.
However, Illmarinen, telecom's Gen. Custer, signals a victory for Nokia. |
