WCA March 2008

After paying the licence fee, each letter-of-intent holder is entitled to 4.4 MHz of GSM (global system for mobile communications) spectrum per circle, subject to availability. The New Delhi newspaper said that the ‘complete turnaround’ by the agency apparently reflects a decision in favour of ‘an easier and safer option’ for promoting mobile services in India. China Netcom Group Corp, the smaller of the two Chinese fixed-line carriers, has begun selling a combined package of telecommunication and computer services to companies to help accelerate growth of sales to businesses, it was announced by Netcom’s Hong Kong unit on 10 th January. Beijing-based Netcom also said it may set up overseas offices in addition to those it now operates in Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, and Los Angeles. The dominant Chinese fixed-line operator in ten northern provinces and cities including Beijing, Netcom is following rival China Telecom Corp in seeking fees for designing and managing the networks of corporate clients. The two carriers are losing phone customers to wireless companies as lower prices prompt consumers to switch to mobile-phone services. The government of China has approved a plan to build an improved wireless broadband cellphone network to elevate the country’s competitiveness with homegrown technology. The plan is ‘a major thrust in the future of China’s information technology,’ China’s State Council said on 11 th December, but it provided no details. Wireless chip maker Qualcomm Inc (San Diego) said that an unfavourable ruling in a patent dispute with Irvine-based Broad- com Corp would hurt its business in the short term. A federal judge in California ruled on 1 st January that Qualcomm could sell, through January 2009, some chips whose designs infringe three patents held by Broadcom, but must pay royalties. After that, Qualcomm is permanently barred from infringing the three Broadcom patents. The court also issued an immediate injunction on WCDMA products that were found to infringe Broadcom’s

video encoding patent. Qualcomm said that it expected to have new WCDMA chips in cell phones before the end of March. Nokia Siemens Networks said in Helsinki on 2 nd January that it had agreed to buy Apertio Ltd, of Britain, for $205 million. The deal, which was expected to close in the first quarter, would result in a new Apertio business line within the Nokia Siemens Converged Core business unit. Closely held Apertio, a provider of real-time subscriber data applications for telecom operators, had sales 2007 of around $41.2 million. Motorola Inc (Schaumburg, Illinois) said on 4 th January that it plans to offset revenue losses from its declining handset sales by offering a portable pocket-size television set. The device, powered by a four-hour battery, can receive live TV signals and play saved programmes and video clips on its 4.3" screen, said Motorola. It is available from phone companies, broadcasters and retailers. The Mobile TV DH01 will compete with media players that include Apple’s iPod Touch, which has a 3.5" screen and sells for as much as $399. Motorola did not give a list price for its unit. Sales of mobile phones, which account for more than half of Motorola’s revenue, dipped after the company failed to match the success of its Razr model. More than 110 million units of the Razr have been sold since its introduction three years ago. According to Bloomberg News , 900,000 units of the thinner Razr 2, which went on sale in the US in August, were sold in the third quarter of last year. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on 6 th January that it is studying the feasibility of challenging its bigger rival Nokia in emerging markets with a low-cost ($40-$50) mobile phone that comes in a choice of colors. Nokia, of Finland, enjoys a lead in these markets. Samsung, of South Korea – No 2 in the mobile phone industry worldwide in the third quarter of 2007 – gained market share for the year by moving away from premium models to offer more medium- and low-cost phones. The average selling price of Samsung’s mobile phones was $151 in third-quarter

2007, compared with the average for 2006 of $176. Its market share is estimated at 14% or higher in 2007, up from 11.4% in 2006. phone-service provider Vonage Holdings Corp (Holmdel, New Jersey), said on 1 st January that it had resolved a patent dispute with Nortel Networks Corp (Toronto, Canada) that had threatened to shut down some Vonage calling features. The companies are to drop claims relating to past damages; give up claims related to other patents; and each will license three patents to the other. The agreement leaves Vonage with one major patent dispute in the works, according to a list of cases the company included in a 14 th November regulatory filing. After it lost an infringement trial to Verizon Communications in March 2007, Vonage, which has never reported a profit, said it could face bankruptcy. The company settled that case after an appeals court upheld most of the verdict. In September, it lost a suit brought by Sprint Nextel Corp and settled the following month, just before the Verizon agreement. Vonage also settled litigation brought by AT&T and the patent holding companies Klausner Technologies and Rates Technology. Wang Jianzhou, president of China Mobile, said on 11 th January that the company had completed its construction of the homegrown TD- SCDMA (time division-synchronous code division multiple access) large-scale technology application testing network in eight cities and would begin network application testing shortly. Referencing the Chinese news agency Xinhua, Telecomasia.net reported Mr Wang as saying that China Mobile is in the lead in releasing the TD-LTE (long-term evolution) standard, which is now the sole post-3G TDD (test-driven development) standard and has been accepted by the major telecom operators of next- generation mobile networks. Telecomasia.net also noted China Mobile’s pledge to provide special mobile telecom services during the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, to be held 8 th -24 th August, as well as to advance the development of overseas markets. The Internet

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2008