Qualcomm Incorporated which has won Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum in 4 circles in India, today announced a new India LTE Venture with Global Holding Corporation Pvt. Ltd. and Tulip Telecom Ltd. Qualcomm will have a 74 percent stake in the venture, while Global Holding Corporation and Tulip Telecom will hold 13 percent each
“Our objective was to secure initial shareholders who are operator-neutral, yet bring strong telecom and broadband experience, and we are extremely pleased we met that objective with Global Holding Corporation and Tulip Telecom,” said Kanwalinder Singh, president of Qualcomm India and South Asia and senior vice president of Qualcomm. He added “With our initial shareholders, and operators we intend to bring into the venture in the future, Qualcomm will facilitate accelerated deployment of LTE in concert with 3G HSPA and EV-DO networks, which protects and enhances the significant investment made by Indian operators in securing 3G and BWA spectrum.”
“We are delighted to collaborate with Qualcomm, a world leader in wireless technologies, to enhance the broadband penetration in India by making mobile broadband a mainstream phenomenon,” said Manoj Tirodkar, founder of the Global Group. “Global Group brings extensive experience and strategic advantage in the network services and telecom tower infrastructure space.”
“Tulip is extremely pleased to collaborate with a global technology leader like Qualcomm in this venture,” said Lt. Col. (Retd.) H.S. Bedi, chairman and managing director of Tulip Telecom Limited. “As one of the largest enterprise data service providers in the country, Tulip Telecom considers this as an opportunity to play a significant role in addressing the demand for high-bandwidth mobile broadband services in some of the highest density telecom circles in India.”
In the recently concluded BWA auction, Qualcomm won one slot of 20 MHz TDD spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band covering the key telecom circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. Qualcomm’s objective is to facilitate the deployment of LTE, which is best suited to address the demand for high bandwidth mobile broadband services in the 2.3 GHz band, and seamlessly interworks with current and upcoming 3G HSPA and EV-DO networks. Qualcomm will continue to play a central role in fostering the LTE ecosystem with a focus on enabling the creation of 3G/LTE multimode devices and services best suited for India.