Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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3G will put CDMA in lead: Qualcomm


Posted online: Saturday, November 12, 2005 at 0035 hours IST

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=81802

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 11: Over 1 billion 3G devices will be delivered worldwide by 2010 and more than half of these will be based on CDMA technology, Irwin Jacobs, the founder and CEO of CDMA pioneer Qualcomm, said on Thursday.

Jacobs, on a visit to India to address a CII summit on leadership, said the surge in CDMA usage will create new opportunities for Indian engineers, who can help improve upon the technology. ‘‘CDMA still does not have enough engineers. In India, we are keen to work with small software companies and improve our own R&D facilities to provide the right talent to the industry,’’ Jacobs said. Worldwide, more than half the equipment shipped by 2010 will be 3G-ready, since GSM operator’s 3G networks will also be based on wCDMA, one of the flavours of CDMA. According to Jacobs, service providers will then need to focus on rapid growth in revenues from non-voice services.



‘‘I believe the average revenue per user (ARPU) will very well continue to drive down entry level costs and a range of services and initiatives will be needed to make volumes last,’’ Jacobs said.

As the average handset cost of a CDMA or GSM phone are also roughly nearing the same, operators will also need to focus on altering their networks to the internet protocol. ‘‘IP is where all the growth is coming from, and from testing and certifying the technology,’’ Jacobs said.At present, Qualcomm has 200 people at two centres in India. In Hyderabad, it designs chipsets and software that runs them.