Qualcomm, the world's largest fab-less chip supplier, is planning to sell 26 -per cent stake in its broadband unit in India to a yet to named Indian partners for Rs306 crore.
 
The potential partners are believed to be New Delhi-based Tulip Telecom, a leading enterprise data connectivity service provider and Global Holdings, holding company of telecom infrastructure subsidiaries, GTL and GTL Infra promoted by Manoj Tirodkar.

"We will announce our local partners for selling a 26-per cent stake of our broadband unit tomorrow," Kanwalinder Singh, Qualcomm India and South Asia president told reporters in Delhi, where he was present at the launching of Huawei's Android platform mobile handsets in India, based on Qualcomm's chipsets.

San Diego-based Qualcomm successfully bid for 20 MHz of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum in four circles, Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala for Rs4912 crore.

Foreign investors are barred from owning a full stake in telecom bventures in India. However, the Indian government allowed Qualcomm to bid for the spectrum auction on the understanding that the company would take in a local partner before launching its service.

Though Qualcomm had recently established its India unit, it is still required cap its investment at 74 per cent.

Although Qualcomm is also a leading global wireless telecommunications provider, it lacks the experience as a broadband service provider.

Tulip Telecom and Global Holdings are believed to be prepared to acquire a 13-per cent stake each in Qualcomm' India unit, while the remaining 74 per cent will be held by Qualcomm.

Tulip Telecom is a supplier of leased lines and broadband connections to corporate sector like banking, IT and BPO, but this venture will be Global Holdings and Tulip Telecom's first foray as wholesale service providers.

Qualcomm is pinning its hopes that this Indian venture will enhance its sales by deploying its advanced LTE products on a large scale in India.

LTE is far more fast and superior compared to Wimax, which although is slower, but operators have preferred the Wimax because it has a stable platform and is cheaper than LTE.

Qualcomm is betting that Indian operators will change over to LTE sooner or later if they hope to avail of the latest technology. Since 3G is expected to boom in India, Qualcomm's 3G/LTE chipsets will find a huge market in India for the smartphones that require such chips to operate them.

(See: Tulip Telecom, Global Holdings buy 26% stake in Qualcomm's India unit for Rs300 crore)