Qualcomm secures local investors for India LTE project

Qualcomm has signed up local investors for its Indian wireless broadband venture. The US-based chipmaker won spectrum in four regions of India last month and plans to roll out a LTE network. Global Holding Corp and Tulip Telecom have now agreed to become shareholders in the venture with 13 percent each, and Qualcomm at 74 percent, in line with Indian foreign investment rules. Tulip said it will pay INR 1.4 billion for its stake. Global Holding is the holding company of the Global Group, which provides network services to India's mobile operators and owns telecom tower infrastructure. Tulip Telecom is an enterprise data connectivity service provider with experience in creating and managing large networks across industry verticals. Qualcomm said its objective was to secure initial shareholders who are operator-neutral, yet bring strong telecom and broadband experience. It plans to bring one or more existing mobile operators into the venture in future, and then exit the company. In the recently concluded BWA auction, Qualcomm won one slot of 20 MHz TDD spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band covering the telecom circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. The company paid a total INR 49.125 billion (USD 1.045 billion) for the spectrum rights.