On the occasion of Mr. Jing Wang, Senior Vice President and Chairman, QUALCOMM Asia Pacific, visit Vietnam, Ms Kim Phuong - Journalist of ViB Forum had an interview with him. Mr. Jing Wang was elected by major media in mainland China and Hong Kong, China to be one of the “Ten Most Valuable CEOs” in China in 2005. He currently serves as senior vice president of QUALCOMM and chairman of QUALCOMM Asia Pacific. He is responsible for managing QUALCOMM's operations in Greater China, South East Asia and Pacific regions, and is also responsible for QUALCOMM’s overall strategies across Asia Pacific. He defines and implements strategic plans to promote the adoption of 3G CDMA across Asia Pacific and also develops initiatives that create synergies across QUALCOMM's Asia Pacific operations, bridging the gap between the vendor and carrier communities and enhancing the 3G CDMA ecosystem.
What do you think of the potential of 3G in Vietnam?
QUALCOMM is very excited about the potential of 3G in Vietnam. While much of Vietnam has low tele-density rates, there are many opportunities for wireless growth as an increasing percentage of the population achieves economic growth and demands more advanced services. QUALCOMM believes 3G will assist Vietnam in meeting its ICT goals and provide affordable, high capacity mobile data and voice services in urban and rural areas, bringing social and commercial benefits to the local community.
The development of mobile telecommunications has long been associated with the economic growth of any market. For every one percent increase in mobile penetration, GDP per capita increases by US$240. 3G is the right path for Vietnam to meet its goals of increasing tele-density and Internet penetration. QUALCOMM encourages the Government of Vietnam to pursue its plans for 3G licensing and deployment which will bring proven, affordable voice and data services to its citizens (ITU World Telecommunications Database Statistics, 2003).
As part of our long-term commitment to Vietnam, QUALCOMM will continue to help drive the growth of the 3G CDMA industry. For example, earlier this year we established a joint venture partnership with Vietnamese handset vendor IQLINKS to develop, manufacture and sell CDMA2000 and EV-DO devices and modem cards. The partnership is a significant milestone, as IQLINKS becomes the first CDMA450 handset manufacturer in Southeast Asia to develop devices. This agreement is testament not only to IQLINKS’ technical and industry leadership, but also illustrates the rapid progress that Vietnam has made in wireless mobile technology development.
Also, we will continue to enable technological advancements, like our single-chip solution, so CDMA operators can offer low-cost 3G devices with advanced chipsets that support different tiers of market needs and attractive applications for broad consumer and enterprise use.
3G is advanced technology, provides more cost effective and more innovative services to consumers. The Vietnam’s economy is taking off and people are very happy to enjoy the benefit of the economy’s growth, a better life. Therefore I think the mobile services will be very attractive to consumers. As people’s living conditions improved, they would accept to have a better communication. They want to enjoy more dynamic services from telecommunications not only for voice or short messages but they want also other multimedia applications, such as mobile TV, mobile commerce, gaming, and position location services. As 3G will provide much better communication services, it will be very welcomed by consumers.
I also believe that 3G CDMA will provide more competitive economic development to Vietnam, because communication is very critical to the country’s economic development. In many advanced - economic - development countries such as the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, 3G services have become the reality. In developing countries, such as China, India, they are quickly embarking on 3G services because they see 3G technology is a key driving force for economic growth. 3G is a key element of IT. IT industry is a key driving force for economic development. Therefore, I think Vietnam would very soon deploy a lot of 3G services which have a tremendous potential development
Do you have any insights on mobile data service offerings in developing countries, especially on mobile TV and mobile commerce? What are the most popular applications in these emerging markets?
Advanced mobile data services and applications, such as mobile TV and mobile commerce, are gaining popularity in the developed markets including Korea, Japan and Singapore.
Depending on the different needs of mobile consumers in developing and developed countries, it is understandable that consumers in those markets might be willing to pay different fees for these services. QUALCOMM supports a wide range of applications that enhance mobile users’ everyday lives and are designed to meet the needs of growing markets.
In that regard, while cost-effective voice services will continue to be a mainstream feature in the early stages of 3G development, data applications will be the key driving force for 3G services in the emerging markets such as Vietnam, China and India. QUALCOMM believes that mobile TV and mobile commerce will eventually draw consumer interests in these emerging markets as 3G networks will have much more capacity for data services, such as content-rich multimedia.
While these emerging markets are only beginning their development in offering advanced mobile data applications, we firmly believe there is significant potential within these markets. 3G services have been introduced for a number of years and we have seen steady subscriber growth and promising ARPU levels, indicating consumer interest in data applications and services.
How will Qualcomm support Vietnam market for development of CDMA in Vietnam?
3G technology is pioneered by QUALCOMM. QUALCOMM is the technology developer of 3G, which is a very advanced and complicated technology. Countries that have already deployed this service have gone through different stages of development. When you deploy 3G services you could need technical support in terms of network premium, construction, optimization, service premium, applications, development and then into operability issue, connection issue and roaming issue. Those issues are going to be worked out as 3G services are rolled out because it is operator’s benefits to have these issues to be solved out as quickly as possible. QUALCOMM is the technology enabler/developer of 3G CDMA, which is established with very complicated technical expertise. We have worked with and helped operators around the world in premium and offering of 3G CDMA services, for both 3G CDMA 2000 and WCDMA. QUALCOMM has a team in Vietnam and Asia Pacific that would be ready to provide such a technical support to operators in Vietnam when they deploy 3G services. CDMA 2000 service is available in Vietnam provided by 3G operators in 800MHz band and 450MHz band. 3G services can be fully extended and in hand when 3G licenses are issued in VN, soon as expected.
QUALCOMM also has strong local presence in Vietnam. We have worked out a good relationship with leading operators here. We work with them closely to help them succeed in 3G services because QUALCOMM business model is that when our partners / operators succeed QUALCOMM will succeed.
QUALCOMM has recently invested in a JV company, IQLINKS, which is the first company in South East Asia that is licensed by QUALCOMM to manufacture and sell CDMA 2000- 450 equipment. That is very significant in our view to deploy 3G services in Vietnam. 450MHz band is proven to be very effective to provide in wide area mobile card, in connectivity coverage and enjoyed quick successes in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Africa, India and I think it will be very successful in Vietnam. I think with this band the service can reach a wider area and it is very cost-effective, especially for rural areas. And IQLINKS is the first vendor in South East Asia to manufacture equipment with technology licensed from QUALCOMM. QUALCOMM not only has decided to licence its world leading-edge 3G technology but also has invested here. QUALCOMM also has recently come out with an initiative call of “TOPIC64”. It is a part of our worldwide wireless - reach program that provides CDMA 2000 technology for Internet access to the under-developed and under-served communities so that they can have wireless Internet access and educational resources. This is proved to be valuable to these communities. That is part of QualComm’s overall commitment in Vietnam.
QUALCOMM is ready to support BREW development in Vietnam. BREW is wireless platform that can generate a lot of innovative wireless applications that are not only valuable to operators in providing services but also more values to consumers in enjoying a wide range of innovative mobile applications. QUALCOMM also has done some works to help Vietnam’s IT industry in terms of software application development. Even before 3G licences are issued in Vietnam, QualComm has continuously engaged in wide range of activities that help Vietnam’s wireless industry to grow very healthily.
What do you think about IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) in Vietnam?
As in other countries, QUALCOMM certainly respect IPR no matter where we do business. QUALCOMM also certainly expects its own IPR to be respected in what whatever country we do business. In term of actual IPR practice in Vietnam, as I just said, earlier we have licensed IQLINKS, which is a JV. company in Vietnam between QUALCOMM and other partners. And IQLINKS is licensed to use QUALCOMM’s patents and technology. We have an initial agreement, a license agreement in place therefore we have not seen any problem so far. Certainly I hope QUALCOMM IPR will be well protected when 3G licenses are issued this year in Vietnam. QUALCOMM, as the good corporate citizen, will also respect local IPR owned by other partners. IPR is not only important to QUALCOMM as a public listed company but it is very important to countries like Vietnam which is embarking a fast economical growth and industrial globalization. Without good IPR policy, foreign and domestic companies cannot be motivated enough to innovate and to provide better services and products to consumers. I believe IPR is the most important element of the national economic development. QUALCOMM is known not only because it owns a lots of IPR but also known by its respect of others’ IPR.
Thank you very much!
Vietnamese
