Hear what you are saying about some IPR licenses not being "locked" into a set rate for a given standard. Gotta say that my guess would be that NOBODY signs a long term license for specific IPR without including some provisions for future changes in the technology.
The tech content in a wireless standard is always subject to change as new developments come about over the years. Makes sense that licenses to use the IPR that is essential in a "current" version of any wireless standard would include provisions to modify the rate charged based on some definition of the relative value for that firm's IPR content in future versions.
Guess I'm agreeing with you about QCOM's 3G rates not being "locked", but adding a caveat that says the same thing about InterDigital's licenses. Will add a further opinion that my hope is to see things like IDCC's "seamless handover" get added to the W-CDMA standard in the future as a replacement for QCOM's "soft handover" method that appears to be an essential element of the current specification.