Having
put the Microsoft inquiry to bed, EU investigators have started the expected
investigation into US wireless technologies company Qualcomm for possible
abusive business practices.
Qualcomm may have violated EU competition
rules by refusing to share licensing terms for its mobile phone
technology. EU spokesman Jonathan Todd told reporters that investigators
had upgraded their probe to "priority status" to complete the investigation
as soon as possible.
The two year probe will look at complaints from
six mobile phone companies including Broadcom, NEC, Nokia, LM Ericsson,
Panasonic Mobile Communications and Texas Instruments. They claimed
that Qualcomm's royalty fees for next-generation mobile phone chips were too
high and thus broke agreements among patent holders to keep costs at a
reasonable level.