Firms Trim Royalties to Fight Qualcomm

Nokia, Siemens, Ericsson and NTT DoCoMo Inc. agreed to reduce royalty payments for faster wireless technology to boost their chances of getting chosen by phone companies over San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc.

The companies aim to keep royalties related to wideband code-division multiple access technology at less than 5% of the price of the equipment. That’s less than companies must pay Qualcomm, which is the most significant single owner of patents for WCDMA and cdma2000, a rival technology.

Companies such as Nokia and Qualcomm are lobbying for phone companies to deploy their so-called third-generation technologies to offer mobile customers new services.

Qualcomm shares closed up 22 cents at $35.85 on Nasdaq.