Royalities killing CDMA?

31 August 2006

Though 1.7-million new subscribers were added in July, yet questions are being raised on the future of CDMA technology in India specially since Reliance Communications dialled GSM, reports CNBC-TV18.

And these concerns have prompted James Person, the COO of the Global CDMA industry body CDG to pay India a visit. Person believes royalty rates are a commercial issue between operators and Qualcomm and the CDG doesn't have a role to play. However, he doesn't expect the existing royalty rates to spoil the CDMA growth story in India.

"We haven't seen it impact growth yet with the record number of CDMA users added in July. We are pleased with its growth; it is growing as fast as the overall telecom market," said James S Person, COO, CDG.

Person is believed to have met top Reliance and Tata Tele officials in Mumbai on Tuesday.

"When we talked to Reliance and Tatas, we tried to make sure they understand what is the CDMA roadmap. That's smooth migration path from EVDO to Rev A, Rev B and Rev C and then onto 4G. They have access to our programmes that will reduce cost of handsets and then of course, they can make their decisions," he added.