Today, Qualcomm announced the initial shareholders for its LTE (long Term Evolution) service venture in India. It looks like Qualcomm will have 74 per cent stake in the venture while two other Indian companies named, Global Holding Corporation and Tulip Telecom with old 13 percent stake each. However, the deal still requires approval from the Indian government.

Tulip is a communications service provider while Global Holding is the shared mobile infrastructure business. According to BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange), Tulip will be investing about 1.4 billion INR (US$30 million) for the joint venture. However, Qualcomm has also indicated that it will sell part of its 74 per cent share to some other operators before it eventually leaves the joint venture.

Earlier this year in an auction of BWA spectrum earlier this year, the government auctioned two blocks of 20MHz unpaired spectrum in the 2.3GHz band in each of the 22 service areas in India. This auction gained attraction of 11 bidders. Qualcomm has got a total of four slots across the service areas and one of them is for Mumbai while the other for Delhi which are really huge markets for Broadband and Mobile services.

Qualcomm was entered the auction to promote the LTE standard in the country. In the form of a joint venture with Indian partners the company will set up a LTE network, in lines with the Indian rules and will later leave the venture.