Qualcomm is set to lose BWA licenses it paid 49.13 billion rupees (€737 million) for in India, because it missed the deadline for license applications.
The country’s Department of Telecom has confirmed a preliminary decision to reject Qualcomm’s bid for three out of the four licenses the firm applied for. It claims awarding all four licenses would break local regulations that stipulate only one of the four local firms nominated by Qualcomm can apply for a license.
Qualcomm claims there is nothing wrong with its application, and vowed to work closely with the DoT to overturn the decision, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The firm forked out for BWA spectrum in four circles in auctions last year. It plans to use the spectrum to facilitate TD-LTE deployment, but will be forced to forfeit its payment if an agreement isn’t reached.
Qualcomm has offered to merge its four local partner companies into one business, to bring the deal inline with India’s regulations.