W-CDMA is worth 12%. GSM is worth 16%. Therefore, CDMA2000 with upgrades is worth at least 12% because Au is whacking Foma. Au is CDMA2000, Foma is W-CDMA. Telecom NZ is whacking Vodafone [CDMA2000 vs W-CDMA].
So, how to increase the royalty from the silly, low 4% which CDMA has ended up at?
To be FRANDly, which is apparently an obligation, the same deal has to offered to everyone, scummy, slimy hag-fish who cause huge litigation costs included, even if they steal intellectual property and have stinky feet.
So, how about all new intellectual property agreements from now on be offered at 16% [the industry standard rate], with a countervailing discount for patents in return according to the value those patents add? If CDMA2000/OFDM and new stuff is being licensed, make it 16%. If W-CDMA is offered in return [the parts which aren't already QCOM's], give a 1% discount. Some cute W-CDMA bells and whistles perhaps add a bit, or even a byte, of value, though I haven't yet seen something in W-CDMA which does a better job than QCOM's CDMA2000.
The main reason W-CDMA isn't selling like GSM is because it's in 2GHz and infrastructure is costing a fortune. Also, the service providers over charge for megabits per second because they are greedy. Also they lock people up into secret gardens instead of selling a fat pipe using "current price is..." p-----g.
[Shhh, can't mention "pricing" in company of MBAs. Stacking it high and selling it cheap is anathema to marketing people - it's uncool and only losers do it. Losers like Wal-Mart, biggest, most profitable company ever in the "selling stuff" business].
I don't understand all the talk of QCOM REDUCING royalties even further, as though there is a gravitational effect or law of nature, which means royalty rates can only go down, not up.
It is perfectly FRANDly to say "From now on, all new agreements will be at this new, market-set, rate". It is collusion on price to always offer the same price to all comers, with the market defined by a collusion of companies in SETI, which excludes other's technology, tying the market up into a bundled trust [a standard is effectively a trust in which property is pooled in a conspiracy to force markets into a single entity].
I think from 1 April 2007, all new agreements should be at 16%. The market has proven how good CDMA is. OFDM should be even better. Maybe from 1 April 2009, OFDM should be licensed at 20%. The would be a good April Fool's surprise for Nokians, who are NOT thinking along those lines.
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