By SHUBHAJIT Chakraborty

New Delhi, March 17: – An US based technology developer, Qualcomm is set to ready to enter India’s Internet market as they filed an application with the department of telecom to offer broadband wireless spectrum. It is noted that if Qualcomm enter the Indian market it would be the first overseas firm in the auction.

“We are planning to bid for one broadband wireless spectrum slot. Over a five-year horizon, it is an attractive proposition for us to invest,” Kanwalinder Singh, president of Qualcomm (India and South Asia), said.

If Qualcomm wins the tender, it will take Indian partners in accordance with the rule of the foreign direct investment regulations.

The government plans to auction two slots of broadband spectrum in the 2.5 gigahertz band in April at a base price of Rs 1,750 crore for one pan-India slot. Wireless broadband technology is still a far cry in Indian market. However, with the advent of technologies this will present a high speed data communication and provide good coverage than fixed line broadband systems.
The government will start 3G spectrum auction from April and the bidding of broadband radiowaves will start after once 3G spectrum ends.

There are big players like Vodafone and Telnor in the competition for 3G radiowaves, while Google is planning to bid for broadband spectrum. The last day of applications is March 19. Qualcomm had cleared that they are ready to take Indian partners if succeeded in bidding. Indian foreign direct investment in telecom allows 74 per cent.

“Qualcomm and its partners will decide the venture’s strategy. Qualcomm’s goal is to attract an operator partner or partners at the appropriate time for construction of a TD-LTE (time division duplex long-term evolution) network in compliance with the government’s rollout requirement for broadband spectrum and then to exit the venture,” Singh said.