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— Kamal Narang

Bullish on India: Mr Irwin Jacobs (left), Chairman, Qualcomm Inc, with Mr Azim H. Premji, Chairman, Wipro Ltd, and Mr Salil Singhal (centre), Chairman CII (NR) and Chairman Secure Meters Ltd, at a seminar on ‘Diffusion of wireless innovation - Enriching lives’, in the Capital on Friday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 7 Terming India as an important market, the Qualcomm Inc Chairman, Mr Irwin Jacobs, on Friday said the company is eyeing significant growth opportunities in India as the country looks to introduce 3G services.

Qualcomm holds a large number of patents in 3G technologies, which is expected to be rolled out in India early next year.

“India will be a very important market. A lot of developed countries are slowing down and consumers would not be turning in their phones for a new phone as frequently. But in India which is just introducing 3G, we will be seeing many unmet needs in villages and cities. We will see a significant growth,” Mr Jacobs said on the sidelines of a CII event on wireless technology.

He said that Qualcomm would continue to invest and grow in India, but did not give any details.

“Overall as a company, even when things are slowing down, we try to continue to develop research and development activities because economy will be coming back and you want to be prepared for growth when that happens. When you look at a country like India, growth will continue, maybe a little slower but clearly growth will continue.

“With 3G coming here, it is very important to be able to support these subscribers and companies, and manufacturers. So we will continue to be active here,” he said. Mr Jacobs is known to be the pioneer in making CDMA technology available for commercial mobile services.

He said Qualcomm Inc is talking to existing operators in the country to leverage the 3G opportunity. “We are talking to all existing operators. There are all sorts of new operators who may be obtaining spectrum…So we ourselves try to look out and find the potential operators interested in 3G, provide them information on technical and business aspects, so they can make a decision on how best to invest…where to put resources amongst other things.”

The Wipro Chairman, Mr Azim Premji, who also attended the event, said needs of rural India, such as education and healthcare, will be the key drivers of wireless applications.

“While the mobile subscriber base sounds big for a population of over 1 billion, the perspective changes when we see the penetration of mobile telephony in rural India,” Mr Premji said.

The Wipro chief pointed out that while mobile penetration in urban India was about 60 per cent, it is under 10 per cent in rural areas.

More Stories on : Outlook | Telecommunications

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