The right step

This first step is the right one. Excessive 3G IPR licensing and the dominant position of very few patent holders have hampered and delayed the development of the 3G technology. So vendors do not want to duplicate the same situation with 4G. Seven vendors (ALU, Ericsson, Nokia and NSN, Sony Ericsson and Nextwave) have committed to fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms for essential patents related to 3GPP LTE/SAE. The move is “a step towards establishing more predictable and transparent licensing costs in a manner that enables faster adoption of new technologies,” said Nokia' s IPR head. The companies invite all interested parties to join this initiative which is intended to stimulate early adoption of mobile broadband technology across the communications and consumer electronic industries. Interestingly, Qualcomm is for the time being absent from the group. It is one of the main recipient of 3G royalties. It is also interesting to notice that no chip maker is part of the deal, as well as Motorola, Samsung and Nortel.