'Spectrum policy needs changes'

Qualcomm has told the government that if the current spectrum policy remains unchanged, it will perpetuate over the long-term a digital divide in India by keeping consumers largely limited to voice services.

Qualcomm, which has proprietary rights over the CDMA technology, is unhappy with the current spectrum policy which gives the alternative GSM-technology users twice the spectrum available to CDMA operators.

The current spectrum policy would have an adverse impact on the roll out of 3G services, the next generation wireless broadband technology, Qualcomm told the government in a letter last week. Qualcomm believes its 3G CDMA is well placed to support e-government and e-education projects, among others.

COAI, the association formed by mobile service providers using the alternative GSM technology, today issued a media release which said that CDMA technology benefited from lower licence fees and taxes. The COAI has contested CDMA's belief that the current situation is unfair.

Qualcomm's CEO, Paul Jacobs, met Union Minister of Communications, Dayanidhi Maran today to discuss India's spectrum allocation policy, among other things.

Following the meeting, Jacobs told the media that the government's view on spectrum allocation was not in perfect sync with the company.

Other than spectrum allocation, Jacobs also spoke about ploughing back royalty money from India into R&D that would be of direct use in the country. Qualcomm already has R&D centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad, but engineers there work on projects relevant to its global operations.

In countries such as South Korea, Qualcomm ploughs some of its royalty into government-controlled institutes. The company is open to the idea of doing the same here.

"We are hopeful that in India we can replicate other markets in the world such as South Korea and China," Jacobs said.

In the immediate future, however, Qualcomm plans to hike investment in its own R&D centres in India. Investment in this case would largely take the form of increasing the skilled-manpower headcount.

At present, the company has 400 engineers on its rolls. During his meeting with Maran, Jacobs said the possibility of looking at Chennai as an R&D centre had come up. Qualcomm would take a look at the opportunity there, he added.