Backman
31-10-2005, 06:14 AM
A number of the biggest names in the mobile industry have lodged a complaint with the European Commission accusing Qualcomm of anti-competitive behaviour.
Companies including Ericsson, Nokia and Qualcomm's arch-rival Broadcom – the pair have already clashed in the courts - filed the complaint today, which alleges Qualcomm has violated EU competition law with regards to the use of its 3G patents.
The six companies behind the complaint have told the EU they believe Qualcomm is not licensing its "technology on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms" and have called on the EU to investigate the company's business practices.
Qualcomm is an intellectual powerhouse in the mobile industry, having pioneered the CDMA technology behind most 3G networks, and also sells chipsets that go in phones.
Qualcomm's pricing structure in particular has drawn the ire of the other mobile vendors. The six - also including NEC, Panasonic and Texas Instruments - labelled Qualcomm's chipset pricing "excessive and disproportionate", due to the lack of discrepancy in cost between W-CDMA and CDMA2000 royalties.
Read more (http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39153753,00.htm)
Companies including Ericsson, Nokia and Qualcomm's arch-rival Broadcom – the pair have already clashed in the courts - filed the complaint today, which alleges Qualcomm has violated EU competition law with regards to the use of its 3G patents.
The six companies behind the complaint have told the EU they believe Qualcomm is not licensing its "technology on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms" and have called on the EU to investigate the company's business practices.
Qualcomm is an intellectual powerhouse in the mobile industry, having pioneered the CDMA technology behind most 3G networks, and also sells chipsets that go in phones.
Qualcomm's pricing structure in particular has drawn the ire of the other mobile vendors. The six - also including NEC, Panasonic and Texas Instruments - labelled Qualcomm's chipset pricing "excessive and disproportionate", due to the lack of discrepancy in cost between W-CDMA and CDMA2000 royalties.
Read more (http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39153753,00.htm)