There is a conscious move to focus on the consumer: Sunil Lalvani, Qualcomm India CEO

Qualcomm is betting on the increasing demand for 4G smartphones to regain its leadership position in the Indian market, the chipmaker's new India chief executive, Sunil Lalvani, said. Qualcomm is working closely with Reliance Jio Infocomm and handset vendors on developing and expanding the VoLTE (Voice over LTE) technology that delivers voice in data form for India, Lalvani told Danish Khan in his first media interaction since becoming the country head. Edited excerpts:
How has been the journey so far at Qualcomm?

Qualcomm for me is a very important part of my aspirations to work for a company which is at the heart of the mobile ecosystem. Our objective is that how do we get more of our silicon into Indian and global players' devices. We are doing a lot of work with the carriers through our custom engineering team on planning the road map for 4G and 5G from a network stand point. We also have solutions like carrier aggregation which is very relevant for the Indian market.

Qualcomm globally and in India is facing a challenging time. There has been an erosion of market share due to competition.

I came in at a time when 4G networks were just beginning. The opportunity on the upside is tremendous for any company who quickly innovates, and rolls out. There is competition – I wouldn’t deny that. As a company, how do we differentiate ourselves over competition, how do we increase our market share and profitability is the question. It is not about just selling volume-based chipsets, it is about the right mix. Rather than a market share race, we are working towards a nice healthy mix of profitability as well as definitely increasing our market share.

Will 4G help you regain market leadership?

4G has taken off really well. Price difference between 4G handsets and 3G is also coming down. That’s where we are actually seeing significant number of wins. Our strengths are clearly articulated to the operators and to the handset OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) of 4G.



Going forward, would there be more focus on VoLTE or Vo-Wi-Fi on the devices?

It depends upon how the carrier rolls it out.

Operators who are pure-play 4G will enable VoLTE to offer voice services, which is HD quality. From Reliance Jio’s perspective, their network could be VoLTE ready, from day one.

We have extensive experience on enabling VoLTE, and have tested this on global operator networks over extensive time and also at Reliance Jio.

Is there a certain tactical shift from an absolute B2B (Business to Business) player to increased consumer connect?

Yes, there is a conscious move to also focus on the consumer the B2C (Business to Consumer) part of it. We definitely would like to be a lot more visible. The way we take it to the market might be a little different, may not be like a TV commercial or something like that, but the idea is creating more awareness for the consumer about what Qualcomm’s technology does.