India’s DoT has set US$385 million floor price of its broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auction for 2.3 GHz band. The WiMax camp thinks this spectrum is their family jewel. But Qualcomm threw a spanner in the wheel and said it will bid. Indian WiMax aspirants have, predictably, cried wolf and sought divine intervention from Intel. Nevertheless, Qualcomm and Intel, if the latter at all bids, will require a local partner to qualify in the auction.
Moral of the story: Qualcomm is taking a leaf out of Intel’s playbook in trying to acquire spectrum within which wireless systems for which it is a major advocate and supplier of chipsets will be deployed (WiMAX in Intel’s case). Welcome to the battle of standards.
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