Friday, July 07, 2000
Qualcomm spurned by Korea
--9:23 am - By Tomi Kilgore
Qualcomm (QCOM: news, msgs) is losing 4 1/16 to 57 5/8 in pre-market trading. SK Telecom (SKM:
news, msgs) and Korea FreeTel, an affiliate of Korea Telecom (KTC: news, msgs) will choose
wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA), which was developed by Japan's NTT DoCoMo
and other European phone makers such as Finland's Nokia (NOK: news, msgs) and Sweden's Ericsson
(ERICY: news, msgs), rather than Qualcomm's CDMA, if awarded licenses from the government. "We
decided to use W-CDMA technology for our service because it has much bigger market size," said
Chul Keun Kuon, a spokesperson from SK Telecom, South Korea’s biggest mobile phone service
operator. The Korean government is expected to announce next week the criteria for telecom
companies to be granted third-generation wireless licenses. Applications will be accepted in September;
decisions are expected by the end of the year.
Separately, The Korea Herald reported that the Korean government is pushing to have all the parts that
are used in CDMA wireless handsets made domestically. The move, coupled with the government’s
earlier decision to ban subsidies on handsets, is an attempt to alleviate the weight on the country's trade
balance. |
