Qualcomm Hold Out on 3G IPR Could Stymie Key ETSI Agreement
What does the ericy thread make ot this? Has ericy commeted?
from totaltele.com
By Jeremy Scott-Joynt
30-JAN-98
This week's hard won agreement on a standard for the next generation of mobile phones could yet come unstuck because a key manufacturer has still to officially meet ETSI's requirements on sharing intellectual property rights (IPRs).
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ So far 29 companies from around the world have pledged to ensure their intellectual property is available, affordable and in a non-discriminatory way to other vendors. However, Qualcomm, the US cellphone-maker which holds certain key IPRs in CDMA technology, has still fully satisfy the European Telecomunications Standards Institute's demands.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ ETSI says universal adherence to its IPR requirements, is vital to ensure that the market for equipment for the universal mobile telecoms system (UMTS) benefits from the greatest possible economies of scale.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ According to Fred Hillebrand, the chairman of ETSI's Special Mobile Group which oversees the standards process for next generation, or UMTS, mobile systems, the IPRs held by Qualcomm lie at the heart of the new UMTS terrestrial radio access (UTRA) proposal.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ However, although "They [Qualcomm] accept some of the [IPR] criteria," said Hillebrand said, "but it's not as complete as we need." Qualcomm submitted an IPR declaration earlier this week, but given the misgivings it has not been published by ETSI alongside those from the other companies.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ Hillebrand would not go into details, citing confidentiality. "This is nothing that ETSI can do much about," he said. "But Qualcomm has said it will make efforts (to come into line) and will report back at the next plenary meeting in March."
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ A Qualcomm spokeswoman said that the problem was simply that Qualcomm had yet to complete its own in-house discussions on the issue. "ETSI asked us two questions," she said. "The first is, do we have IPR, to which the answer is yes, we do, for both W-CDMA and TD-CDMA. We couldn't give an answer until yesterday, because the proposal wasn't settled.
ÿÿÿÿÿÿ "The second is, if so, will we license it and under what conditions. We haven't concluded our discussions on either of those points yet."
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