Another country is pressuring Qualcomm to lower its royalty rates for CDMA. The Indian government and Reliance Communications are complaining that CDMA is not the most affordable one for India, prompting Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs to pay a visit to India to meet with the Indian communications minister. Reliance is India's largest CDMA operator with about 8 percent of the global CDMA subscriber base, and it is reportedly considering a shift to GSM.
Qualcomm may have shot itself in the foot when it negotiated with China several years ago to substantially lower the royalty rate in that country so that CDMA could get a foothold there. Now other countries are angry. Korea has long complained about Qualcomm's royalty fees. Of course Jacobs would take the next flight out to India. The country is fueling a lot of the growth for Qualcomm right now.
To read more about India's dissatisfaction with Qualcomm's royalty rates:
- check out this article from EE Times