Ruffian, if you noted my wording in my post to the author, I made it sound as though I was interested in tracking GSM rather than an advocate of CDMA. I can be clever too, you know.
My take is the investment bankers are GSM buddies and could possibly twist an arm using the IPO as leverage to "encourage" Unicom to stick with GSM. Considering the USA position and stake in CDMA, the politico, economico, mafioso, extortionoso and in general behind the scenes bullying could all go one way or another. Seems to me the Chinese are pretty intelligent, clever, and know how to work both sides from the middle. Just like Westerners, eh? Money talks, and could be the $280 million minimum the investment bankers will take from the IPO of $4 Billion for Unicom just may be enhanced with grease from the GSM players et.al. My concern is the way the article was worded. It was a direct shot at CDMA, kind of like "oh by the way your house is on fire" after talking to your neighbor for 5 minutes about the local sports teams....we shall see.
The Street never gave much credibility to the China deal, even when the heavy weight politicos from China assured the press they were going ahead with CDMA deal. Again, we shall see.
As well, China needs EU support for WTO, and we need to remember China is the loser in this deal. They want in to the club, and must pay the fee. Banking and telecoms were cited as the only 2 major sticking points in the WTO approval by EU. Interesting, eh? Banking, telecoms. As though they are on equal footing. The game is not over till its over, and my feeling is there will be some fence sitting and working both sides of The Street to get max benefit for their Chinese Buck (what is their currency called, Yuan?)
I respect the intrepid and austere character of the Chinese, and I do not in any way believe the GSM system can possibly be cheaper once "total cost of ownership" is figured. Anyone else with better info, please correct me.
Thanks,
Martin Thomas |
