Is LTE a loss for QualComm or can we say it was developed for the same purpose

Question

Slitely off the track and my first query here - Was LTE developed through 3GPP to avoid paying Qualcomm even more licensing fees?

Comments

Many handsets will be need to be dual mode, or multimode, so Qualcomm's 3G technology will be needed anyway and Qualcomm have always had excellent knowhow in CDMA chipset design/implementation. Qualcomm are very smart both technically and commercially. Although part of the intent of major participants in 3GPP was certainly to dilute Qualcomm's share of the IPR, Qualcomm went out and bought IP (e.g. Flarion) and have been busy ever since.

---

QCOM fought hard for CDMA in LTE at 3gpp rab1 but lost overwhelmingly to ofdma. Nevertheless they have tons of LTE ip and are the leading chipset vendor for LTE

Answer 1

Qualcomm has a strong IPR position in CDMA/WCDMA. However, 3GPP decisions are normally driven by the common business interest of the telecom community in which IPR is accepted as a normal part of life. LTE has performance benefits over WCDMA. The performance simulation results (agreed by consensus) can be downloaded for free from the 3GPP website. In specific cases where decisions will create essential-patent-issues / unfair (expensive) license conditions, 3GPP might avoid specific options.
There are several fora (e.g. NGMN IPR board) where the major telecom IPR stakeholders intend to set common IPR conditions, cross-licensing models and patent pools, creating an IPR regime that's healthy for the telecom industry as a whole. Qualcomm is not an 'average' member, but participates in these fora as a good citizen supporting a healthy ecosystem.

Patent trolls, who have nothing to gain from healthy industry growth and fair pricing, are a more difficult issue.

BTW: with the acquisition of Flarion, Qualcomm acquired a strong OFDM (WiMAX/LTE) portfolio too.

Answer 2

No Qualcomm was not the case rather LTE was developed for more of a wireless high speed packet data service. 3GPP was responsible for this because its a direct evolution of UMTS. OFDM used in LTE does have some advantages like the carrying of high bandwidth.

Answer 3

OFDMA was of course for higher data rates, loss to QC is a mere consequence!