Feds impose "partial ban" on Qualcomm-powered phones
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 7th 2007 5:26PM
posted Jun 7th 2007 5:26PM
Stock up on those 3G handsets, folks -- they could become very valuable commodities here in the next few weeks. As part of an ongoing series of spats between wireless giants Qualcomm and Broadcom, the US International Trade Commission has ruled that handsets containing Qualcomm 3G chipsets (and that's a whole heck of a lot of handsets) that are manufactured starting today may not be imported into the US. By all accounts, this appears to be much more than legal posturing on Broadcomm's part -- a ban is a ban -- and we've gotta believe this'll resolve itself right quick. But if for whatever reason it doesn't, get ready for an eBay free-for-all in a gloomy, scorched-earth future where the only high speed handsets are pawned for thousands of New Dollars on the black market. [Warning: subscription required]
Looks like the HTC Kaiser is going to have to wait...
yeah thats the first thought i had when i was reading this but they are already manufactured arent they?
That sucks. HTC Titan here I come when Sprint releases it week after next. I was waiting for the Kaiser before I get rid of my ancient Nextel plan but with no Kaiser, the Titan will have to do.
Of course I will wait a few days and see what the verdict of this is and pray that it can be resolved before then.
From the sounds of the PhoneScoop story, it applies to any phone that hasn't been released by a carrier as of yet (for example, at&t got the Samsung A717 out under the wire but the Samsung A727 is blocked) - and uses a Qualcomm chipset.
If I'm Nokia, I'm giddy right now.
This doesn't actually go into effect for the carries for 60 days and trust me both VZW and Sprint will be fighting this tooth and nail to prevent it.
This effect GSM handsets as well, WCDMA Chips for the 3G will be banned so, Every Carrier will probably try and fight it. Except for maybe t-mob :)
Verizon has more scary laywers than most network operators have engineers, they're not just going to roll over people... remember what they did to Vonage? Scorched earth.
And will Broadcom or Qualcomm just roll over to Verizon?
Good thing the iPhone doesn't have 3G!
I hope HTC regrets using the crappy Qualcomm chipset for their phones now. Because of Qualcomm's supposedly cheap deals on multi-function chips, we couldn't get real GPS chips in the HTC phones.
It doesn't affect too much of AT&T. Most of 3G AT&T phones use Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (FSL) and Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN). This only affects future phones. If the phone has been imported already, it's in. A727 is safe (if they started importing it). This is a major blow to Verizon and Sprint. ALL EVDO is affected. This makes me happy. I hate CDMA :)
So, if I get the HTC Mogul Sprint, will it work? Will it be useless? I am really slow. I don't get it.
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