Telecom Companies Form LTE Initiative

Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson said Monday they have teamed to form a framework for establishing predictable and more transparent maximum aggregate costs for licensing intellectual property rights (IPR) that relate to 3GPP long term evolution and service architecture evolution standards (LTE/SAE).

The framework is based on the prevalent industry principle of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms for essential patents. This means reasonable, maximum aggregate royalty rates based on the value added by the technology in the end product and to flexible licensing arrangements.

The companies said they support a reasonable maximum aggregate royalty level for LTE essential IPR in handsets is a single-digit percentage of the sales price. They said they believe the market will drive the LTE licensing regime to be in accordance with these principles and aggregate royalty levels.

The companies also are seeking others to join the initiative.

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