"Under these agreements, a licensee pays the same royalty rate to QUALCOMM for WCDMA and cdma2000 equipment as for cdmaOne infrastructure, phones, semiconductors and other equipment. Companies with licenses for WCDMA include Samsung, Lucent, Ericsson, Nortel, Hyundai, LG, Sony, Hitachi, ALPS,Matsushita, Maxon, OKI and Philips.''
No mention of NOK or NEC (both companies, I believe, are working with NTT).
``By 2003, the Company expects one billion digital wireless subscribers in the world, the majority using GSM with CDMA second. For the next billion subscribers, the Company expects CDMA to be the dominant 3G standard."
I dont mean to ignore the silver linings of the FUD fog we are in, BUT, the second sentence does not, to me, mean that the second billion subs referred to by Dr. J. will be 3G. What Dr. J is saying is that OF THE SUBS USING 3G (number unknown), the majority will be CDMA. So, of the two billion subs referrred to, how many will be using CDMA (including 2G, 2.5 G,or 3G)? 1 billion? 500 million? 150 million? And what time frame will the 2 bill. mark be reached? 2004? 2005? 2006?
So, while this is a very nice PR, one better believe that the lawyers had a big hand in its wording.
P.S. How many billion people of the right age (10 - 80)will there be in the developed and developing world by 2005? Throwing around terms like 2 billion subs is mind boggling (sure, in the U.S. every one will have 2 CDMA devices by 2005, but to believe that countries like India and China will evolve that quickly invites disappointment) and it sure makes Walt P.'s predictions seem tame (and remember that he was ridiculed when that prediction was made at the end of 1999).
P.P.S. The WDCMA chip set announcement was IMHO very interesting. |
