Qualcomm embroiled in anti-trust row

CHIP COMPANIES Texas Instruments and Broadcom have complained to South Korea's antitrust watchdog accusing US mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm of abusing its market dominance in the country.

The KFTC says that it is investigating the complaint that Qualcomm flogged handset chips bundled with other chip products by using its market dominance. Qualcomm has a monopoly control in South Korea of handset chips using code division multiple access (CDMA).

Texas Instruments and Broadcom claim that when they tried to enter the market Qualcomm blocked them by bundling multi-media chips with its CDMA chips.

It is the second time Qualcomm has been accused of playing monopoly in South Korea. The outfit was raided after several South Korean firms accused Qualcomm of selling mobile phone chips bundled with other software. µ