Qualcomm concentrating on low-cost devices

New Delhi, June 25 (UNI) CDMA technology provider Qualcomm has said it is aggressively working to enable lower-cost devices, after India's major CDMA players including Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, have raised concerns over the seven per cent royalty fee on each CDMA handset.

''We have teams working on all the cost drivers and we work closely with device manufacturers to help them take costs out of the devices,'' QUALCOMM President (India and SAARC) Kanwalinder Singh said.

The low-cost devices, now available in the Indian market from Chinese manufacturers, are a direct result of QUALCOMM's focus on driving costs out of the devices, he added.

Mr Singh further said that because India had the lowest device prices globally, royalties on these devices are at the minimum as compared to those across the world.

''Royalties on devices are already so low that they do not contribute in any meaningful way to the wholesale price of handsets,'' he said.

The company also waived the possibilities of a royalty cut, saying it does not ''negotiate royalties with operators anywhere in the world''.

Qualcomm also announced it will begin sampling mid-tier worldmode chipsets in Q3 2006 and expects to see new worldmode handsets in India in 2007.

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