Qualcomm may sell stake to Tulip to roll out wireless services

Mobile chips maker Qualcomm, which has bagged spectrum for offering broadband wireless access services in a few circles, is learnt to have finalised a deal for selling stake to telecom networking firm Tulip.

Sources said the deal could be signed next week. The US- based Qualcomm will have to form a joint venture with a local company with a minimum 26 per cent stake as per the existing laws to be able to offer broadband services.

But it could not be ascertained whether the sale could be for the entire 26 per cent or not.

When contacted Kanwalinder Singh, president of Qualcomm, India and South Asia, said, "We cannot comment on our partner strategy and related details at this point". Last week Singh had said the company planned to announce its new partner or partner(s) within a month.

A Tulip Telecom spokesperson in an email statement said, "As a company policy we do not comment on any such speculation. We will update once we have an official announcement on the same".

The Bombay Stock Exchange-listed Tulip has a market cap of Rs 2,507.92 crore.

Sources said Global Group of India, which is the holding company of telecom infrastructure company GTL and GTL Infrastructure Ltd, could also be roped in as an investor.

A GTL Infrastructure spokesperson, when contacted declined to comment on the issue.

Qualcomm sells chips used in cellphones and is the pioneer of the CDMA based wireless technology. It recently won spectrum to offer BWA in four areas of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala and Haryana at a total cost of about $1 billion.