The company said it has had trouble with base station providers before. Around 2001, base station vendors had developed their own positioning technology that they included in their products. But according to TruePosition, once the technology was deployed, it failed to meet accuracy requirements set by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

TruePosition's technology could meet those requirements, but there was no standard way to connect its equipment with the base stations. TruePosition created a way to do so, but it was expensive and opposed by Ericsson, TruePosition said. As a result, operators asked the base station providers to get together and create a standard and thus inexpensive way to interface with TruePosition's technology. They agreed, and that standard interface was then included in future mobile standards, including for 3G, TruePosition said. That standard enabled TruePosition to sell its technology to operators.

It's with the move to 4G that the base station makers are trying to include only their technology, which is based on the same system that failed initially, TruePosition said.

Alcatel-Lucent declined to comment on the lawsuit. Qualcomm said that it only learned of the complaint on Wednesday and is in the process of reviewing it. Ericsson did not reply to a request for comment.

TruePosition is asking for damages and protection against further anticompetitive activity.