Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. has signed up a 3G and 4G Chinese Patent License Agreement with China's Vivo Communication Technology Co, helping establish its position in the country.

Under the new agreement, Qualcomm will give Vivo a royalty-bearing patent license to develop, manufacture, and sell 3G WCDMA and CDMA2000 and 4G LTE (including '3-mode' GSM, TD-SCDMA, and LTE TDD) compatible devices for use in the world's largest phone market. The deal comes just a week after Qualcomm and Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp. sealed a similar agreement.

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"This license agreement will allow us to have access to the latest technologies from Qualcomm and will enable us to continue to create innovative and high-quality devices for our customers," Shi Yujian, Vivo's vice president, said, adding that both companies have already partnered on some of Vivo's devices including X7, X7 Plus, and Xplay 5.

Meanwhile, Alex Rogers, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Technology Licensing, has said he is pleased with the new licensing agreement with Vivo. "Qualcomm is committed to the continued success of China's wireless industry. It is exciting to see our technology enabling many large Chinese mobile device manufacturers such as Vivo to become successful global players," he said.

According to Bloomberg, both Vivo and OPPO account for about 30 percent of the phones shipped by the top ten phone manufacturers in China.

Achieving success in China is important to reignite its growth since most of its revenues come from selling rights to use its technology, Steve Mollenkopf, Qualcomm's CEO, said. After dealing with an antitrust investigation that pulled its revenues down for four consecutive quarters, the San Diego-based firm is now back on track posting sales growth and reporting higher profits than experts predicted in its most recent earnings report.

TagsQualcomm, vivo, Oppo, china, Smartphone