Qualcomm, through one of its Indian subsidiaries Wireless Broadband Business Services Pvt Ltd, which won BWA spectrum in the auctions held earlier this year, yesterday demonstrated LTE TDD at 2.3 GHz in Gurgaon, India. The demo, done with Ericsson, live streamed multiple high definition video feeds to a mobile van in Gurgaon, using Qualcomm chip-set based USB dongles. Qualcomm has won 20 MHz of spectrum in Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala and Haryana, at a price of Rs. 4912.54 crore in total. Among these circles, it has paid Rs. 2292.95 crore. Qualcomm is looking to exit this venture now. Interestingly, Kanwalinder Singh, President (India and South Asia) at Qualcomm told Business Line that Tulip Telecom and Global Holdings may also exit the venture. Qualcomm had brought in the two companies into the venture since it needed an Indian partner: foreign entites are allowed to own a maximum of 26% in telecom ventures in India. In our opinion, Tulip and Global Holdings' exit will probably depend on whether the buyer in Indian or foreign: an Indian entity is likely to want to own the entire business, while foreign entity will need Indian partners. In any case, if Qualcomm never wanted to compete in this space, all it wanted to do was buy and sell, then the government should look at introducing a penalty to prevent this kind of trading. Additionally, Reliance Industries also showcased LTE-TDD technology at the Reliance Corporate Park, in Navi Mumbai. In the test environment, the company says it got…
