Earlier this year, Intel officially sold off its 5G mobile modem business to Apple to the tune of US$1 billion (~RM4.18 billion), signaling the semiconductor maker’s exit from the 5G modem business. However, Intel says that the sale was “grossly undervalued” and describes it as a “multi-billion dollar” loss to itself.
If that wasn’t enough, Intel is openly blaming rival semiconductor maker, Qualcomm, stating that the latter’s anti-competitive behaviour had created the conditions that forced its hand. Causing them to sell off their 5G mobile modem division to the Cupertino-based giant.
Intel’s alleged revelation of Qualcomm’s anti-competitive business was brought to light when it filed a brief at the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeal that, as luck would have it, bears support to an on-going FTC antitrust probe against Qualcomm. Specifically, the document says that Qualcomm had tailored its licensing arrangements for its CDMA and LTE IPs in such a way. Any OEMs that bought its chips had to agree to a patent deal that would punish them, should they decide to seek out business with rival chipmakers.
Despite no longer having a 5G modem division, Intel is still clearly interested in continuing development of 5G solutions for the PC industry. To that end, the company recently partnered up with the Taiwan-based fabless semiconductor maker, MediaTek, to further its 5G endeavour.
(Source: Techspot)
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