WASHINGTON-Companies like Qualcomm Inc. that wish to enter the potentially lucrative Chinese wireless market now must wait for the United States and China to negotiate issues surrounding technology transfer, the Bureau of National Affairs Inc. reported Friday.
BNA, which publishes a daily newsletter on government regulatory, legal and economic issues, said the “recent and unpublicized Chinese policy could put a damper on U.S. firms seeking to introduce the next generation of mobile phones into the Chinese market, and already has hampered negotiations involving the U.S. firm holding the patents to the key technology in question.” BNA later identified the U.S. firm to be Qualcomm.
The Chinese government estimates there will be 40 million new subscribers for Code Division Multiple Access networks by 2002. Currently, the predominant technology in China is Global System for Mobile communications.
The stakes are high for second-generation as well as 3G technologies, which could be impacted by Chinese demand for technology transfer.
Qualcomm, Lucent Technologies Inc. and Motorola Inc. all hope to use cdma2000 technology in 3G systems, and the Chinese acceptance of this technology would go a long way toward international acceptance.
