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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: subcontinent who wrote (53037)	7/1/2006 8:44:29 AM
From: kech	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197001

[June 30, 2006] 'Problem is with handset prices & not spectrum policy' Government sources said communications & IT minister Dayanidhi Maran, during his meeting with Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, had emphasised that his ministry did not subscribe to Qualcomm's view that it was the present spectrum policy that was hampering telecom growth in the country. The government, on the other hand, has maintained that it was the handset costs that was the primary barrier to customers opting to go mobile. Government sources said Mr Maran had also suggested to the visiting CEO that Qualcomm remove all bottlenecks, like the higher royalty fees in India, in order to make CDMA handsets more affordable in the country. However, after the meeting with Mr Maran, the Mr Jacobs told the media the issue was discussed and the minister had been convinced that the royalty charged was minimal. Industry sources also said the company was concerned about the royalty issue being blown out of proportion despite Mr Jacobs clarification on Wednesday that the rates in India was below 5 percent and not 7 percent royalty, as was being commonly reported. "The US ambassador to India David Mulford is scheduled to meet Mr Maran to offer additional clarifications on this issue," said an industry source. However, sources in the ministry of communications and IT did not confirm this development. Spectrum issue was also discussed during Mr Jacobs's interaction with Mr Maran as Qualcomm in a recent letter to the minister had said that India's "current policy, which allocates GSM operators double the spectrum available to CDMA operators under the same licence was allocation unique to the country as no other country favoured 2G over 3G in this manner". "There was no meeting of minds on the spectrum issue," Mr Jacobs said after his meeting with Mr Maran. "The policy artificially influences operators' technology considerations by actually rewarding the selection of the less spectrally-efficient technology and is causing distortions in the marketplace, such as the present case in which Reliance Communications reportedly must consider GSM so it can stake claim to double the amount of spectrum limits the ability of CDMA operators to pursue aggressive subscriber growth plans and introduce next-generation wireless," the Qualcomm letter added.