Qualcomm's 5G is so powerful, why don't you just collect patent fees and build base stations?

First of all, we have to straighten out one thing. This is not to say that Qualcomm has not built a base station. Qualcomm originally had its own base station, core network and other equipment, and also produced its own mobile phones, but they were all sold later. ?

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) was not favored by any communication company at first. At that time, the technology recognized by all communication enterprises was TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). In the 2G era, the most widely deployed GSM system in the world was developed based on TDMA technology. Qualcomm hopes to break through the encirclement by relying on CDMA and produce its own CDMA-related communication equipment and related terminals. Finally, through Qualcomm's unremitting efforts, CDMA was finally called the cellular mobile communication technology approved by the Telecommunications Industry Association of America, and Qualcomm began to supply network infrastructure and mobile phone chips to some partners, and authorized its own technology. Later, by calculating his income and profit, Qualcomm found that his biggest source of income and profit was to collect patent fees, but the communication equipment and mobile phone business did not bring any profit to the enterprise, so Qualcomm decided to do subtraction. Qualcomm sold his CDMA mobile phone business and CDMA network equipment.

In the 3G era, the three international standards of 3G are completely based on CDMA, and Qualcomm suppressed the whole communication industry. At that time, the patent fees collected by the whole communication industry in Qualcomm, including equipment vendors, operators and terminal manufacturers, could not be separated, so it was nicknamed "Qualcomm tax" by the communication industry. This also led to the degradation of 4G. The core idea of LTE is to evade Qualcomm's patents, which also led to the situation that Qualcomm was completely marginalized in the whole LTE system. In the 5G era, Qualcomm no longer has the monopoly advantage of 3G in the necessary patents of the entire 5G standard. Moreover, the 20-year patent protection period of 3G patents in Qualcomm has passed, and the proportion of 4/5G patents is not high enough. If it produces a specific communication base station or mobile phone, it needs to pay patent fees to other communication giants.

Of course, for Qualcomm, which is not developing well at present, the huge patent fees make them feel very embarrassed. Qualcomm has lost its former glory.