Qualcomm CEO, Paul Jacobs, in his visit to India said that the company would aim to make CDMA mobile services more affordable in India by encouraging local manufacture of handsets, and not through a reduction in royalty rates.
Jacobs met Union Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran, and discussed measures to make CDMA mobile services more affordable. They also discussed the contentious issue of spectrum allocation between CDMA and GSM service providers. Qualcomm's royalty on its proprietary CDMA technology was generally below five per cent, Jacobs said. The price of CDMA handsets has dropped below $40 (about Rs 1,800), and the company's royalty on it came to around $2. Qualcomm's aims to reduce the handset price to below $30. The company has already licensed its technology to a manufacturer in India, and was looking to work with Indian manufacturer. He added that the key issue with regard to affordability was the handset price, and not royalty.
