Date:19/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/19/stories/2006081900881600.htm

Business

Qualcomm acquires Qualphone for $18 m

Anand Parthasarathy

Mobile TV trials this year in U.S., U.K. and Japan; may happen in India in 2007

Qualphone software to drive multimedia content to mobile devices
Leverages Bangalore research team's work to deliver flagship products

Qualcomm has laboratories in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai

VIEWING WHILE MOVING: Close-up of a mobile-TV-ready phone to be launched in the U.S. by Verizon. The technology to make it happen was substantially developed at the Indian R&D labs of Qualcomm. — PHOTO: ANAND PARTHASARATHY

BANGALORE: Qualcomm, the U.S.-based leader of Code Division Multiple Access or CDMA phone technologies, has announced the acquisition of another American company, Qualphone, which is a key provider of software to drive multimedia content to mobile devices over the Internet, for $18 million in cash.

While Qualcomm has laboratories in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai where Indian engineers are helping the company to create tomorrow's TV-on-mobile-phone solutions, Qualphone leverages its smaller research team in Bangalore to deliver flagship products in the area of IMS (that is, Internet Protocol-based Multimedia Systems).

With the coming together of the two companies, their Indian R&D teams will soon coalesce into an unbeatable combination of talents, feels Qualcomm's India and SAARC President Kanwalinder Singh.

He was speaking to The Hindu, in a special briefing on the occasion of the acquisition announcement made on Friday, in San Diego, California, which is home to both companies. Qualcomm has created MediaFLO, a technology that will help mobile phones of both streams — CDMA and Global Services Mobile (GSM) — to go `3G' or third generation. This means they can exchange text, data and pictures — and TV — at broadband speeds.

The mobile TV technology that had been adopted by a global consortium of 44 handset makers and telecom providers is being test-run in the U.K., the U.S. and Japan and is likely to be offered to customers starting next year.

Unlike terrestrial TV, the FLO technology was interactive — that meant viewers could respond with requests for additional feeds or order supplementary services, Mr. Singh explained.

And when can Indians hope to view TV on their mobiles? That depends on the telecom companies and how soon they go `3G' — but it may happen within a year of its global availability: that is Qualcomm's estimate.