Qualcomm has a two-day hearing before the International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. to argue against a ban on importing mobile phones using its chipsets brought by Broadcom, reports the WSJ. “Broadcom is asking the agency to bar imports of EV-DO cellphones, as well as phones using Qualcomm chips that use a different technology called WCDMA…(but not) networking cards used with laptop computers or in smartphones such as Palm Inc.‘s Treo or Research in Motion Ltd.‘s Blackberry.”
Obviously this would have some pretty bad effects for the telco industry, and Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless, Motorola, Samsung and LG have all made an appearance to argue against the ban. The Journal notes that if the ITC ruling (expected by May 8) does impose a ban it could be overturned by President Bush on public-interest grounds.
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