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Wireless Utopia

The journey towards a free wireless world.

QC Penalised

Friday, April 14, 2006

Techdirt points us to a news item of the Justice Department penalising Qualcomm for its haste in acquiring Flarion Technologies. Flarion was the inventor of FLASH-OFDM technique which lay claim to more effiecient use of OFDM compared to the Intel backed WiMAX technology. Qualcomm viewed it as the competitor to WiMAX which itself was a competitor to 3G telecom technologies!

Although insignificant as it may seen, it does raise a question on was it intentional on part of QC? QC would have surely known about the Justice Department restrictions but it was ready to pay a fine rather than wait. Was there a business urgency for that? Or was it just a mistake? We'll the Justice Department thinks so!

The games people play!

Tags: QC Flarion OFDM WiMAX Intel
posted by Rajiv, 5:53 AM

2 Comments:

Qualcomm is unbelievably notorious for using patents as a way of constricting other companies. I guess, in this case it is more profitable (as compared to paying a fine) for them to buy the company because the company has some valuable patents AND the company cannot move forward because Qualcomm holds patents to stuff that the company needs. Just a thought.
Said Anonymous Anonymous, 9:40 AM  

Methinks, its more of a WiMAX vs 3G game. QC needed to put some OFDM in the the 3G roadmap and it needed the engineering talent of Flarion to do that, to show that it is serious.

More importantly QC played hardball with the laws. Just show's how confident and agressive it is. It wants to become the Microsoft of Wireless!
Said Anonymous Anonymous, 11:30 AM  

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