And on Aug. 29, a U.S. District Court judge in San Diego will announce sanctions in a different case where Qualcomm was found to have engaged in "aggravated litigation misconduct" and "intentional abuse of industry-standards bodies." Broadcom also has filed claims and complaints against Qualcomm in Europe and South Korea.
Handset makers are looking around for second and third sources of baseband chips amid concern their ability to supply handsets to the U.S. and other nations could be impaired because of the ITC decision. Meantime, carriers are fretting over the possible disruption of handset supply.
So Verizon Wireless has struck an unprecedented, multiyear licensing deal directly with Broadcom to circumvent the ITC ban. And analysts believe that, as other carriers follow suit, they will encourage their handset suppliers to use Broadcom's chips. Seal of Approval
To be sure, Qualcomm and TI aren't betraying worry. "We've had eight consecutive quarters of record shipments, so if our customers are shying away from us, they can't be shying away from us that much," says Terry Yen, vice-president of marketing for Qualcomm CDMA technologies.
Still, Broadcom is gaining a loyal base of customers of its own. On Aug. 8, Nokia named Broadcom as a supplier for its EDGE baseband chips, the largest Nokia business by volume. Orders could be expanded to include other baseband chip technologies.
"This has been an extensive technical evaluation done by our teams on relative performance, size, availability, commercial terms," Niklas Savander, Nokia's executive vice-president for technology platforms, said during a call discussing the arrangement. "In that process that we have been running for quite some time, Broadcom came out as the best supplier."
The Nokia seal of approval could help Broadcom win business elsewhere. "All of a sudden, they've got a credible customer, the top wireless handset company," says Will Strauss, founder of Forward Concepts, an electronics market researcher. "That customer said that [Broadcom's chips] were the best. This is going to give them tremendous credibility."
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