SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc. announced a joint venture with Vietnamese handset vendor IQLinks to produce CDMA450 handsets in the Southeast Asian nation. The JV, to be known as IQLinks Joint Venture Co., will be the first CDMA450 handset maker in the country.
Under terms of the agreement, Qualcomm will invest in the JV as well as supply chipsets to it. The JV will produce CDMA 3G handsets, particularly 450 MHz wireless local loop terminals with remote electricity power, meter-reading capability.
In Southeast Asia, commercial CDMA450 networks have already been deployed in Vietnam, as well as Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos. With a population of about 84 million people, Vietnam is larger than many European countries, including Germany (82 million), France (61 million) and Spain (40 million), thus an obvious element of Qualcomm’s interest in investing in the market.
Due to its low-frequency, wide-coverage characteristics, CDMA450 is also being deployed by carriers in other emerging markets in Africa, South America and Eastern Europe.
