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Fuzzy Logic 3G to suffer because of Nokia and Qualcomm stoush?
Fuzzy Logic 3G to suffer because of Nokia and Qualcomm stoush? | 3G to suffer because of Nokia and Qualcomm stoush? |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Wednesday, 30 May 2007 | |
  
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Qualcomm, who make 3G chipsets for mobile phones, allege Nokia owes it money for patents it uses in creating its phones, with a licensing agreement having expired in April after Nokia made a US $20m payment to Qualcomm. Now Nokia doesn’t want to pay anymore, saying it owns a raft of patents that Qualcomm is using without license or payment, with the statement a clear attempt at creating some leverage with which to repel Qualcomm’s patent claims. Reuters reported Nokia’s Chief Technology Officer, Tero Ojanpera, saying at the Seoul Digital Forum news conference that, in relation to Qualcomm and the ongoing legal battles, that: “We are in negotiations but there's no agreement”, and that “this whole discussion might have an impact on 3G technology”, saying there was a risk WiMAX technology could “gain momentum”. Ojanpera continued, saying in a response to a Reuters question that “3G is not about cheap price but about new capabilities. It's not the first priority to have a cheap phone. We are addressing the emerging markets and that's where the next billion users is coming, but those are lower-priced phones with maybe not that many capabilities at the beginning”. Currently, 3G and now 3.5G technologies are commonplace in many parts of the world, with research underway on the successor to 3.5G technology offering even faster download and upload speeds over a cellular wireless connection. The threat remains that Intel’s plans to have WiMAX blanketing the world will create massive competition to cellular providers, although given that a number of cell phones now offer Wi-Fi connections as standard, it’s a given that future cell phones will include a future WiMAX wireless option in addition to everything else. The big worry for major cell phone manufacturers is that they also manufacture the towers and other equipment that cell phone carriers must buy and install to provide service to customers, and if WiMAX wins the race, that part of Nokia’s business could suffer materially. As always, with patents, it’s all about the money. There’s no clear winner in this fight – we’ll just have to wait and see what the courts decide – or what arrangement the lawyers can come to, to settle the fight. Until then, it’s cell phones at 10 paces, as the cell phone giants fight over market control, while all consumers really want is phone calls that don’t drop out, more affordable pricing and ever faster data speeds. {moscomment} |
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