Qualcomm IR response
By steter on RB
Finally had a talk with Nancy M., here we go.
They are once again very upset at the misinformation being put out to the media, especially now in regards
to the Bloomberg story. Their media relations dept. is working on it right now and will correct Bloomberg on
the point they made about WCDMA being a NOK and ERICY product and this being a blow to QCOM.
Nancy reiterated to me once again that QCOM does not matter which flavor of CDMA is deployed in the
sense that they will receive the same royalties, period. They have a lock on the essential IPR's, period. She
said once again how crazy this and bad all this is regarding the confusion on CDMA and WCDMA. The
only difference is that CDMA2000(which is a 3G product) will be ready for deployment (with HDR) at the
end of next year and WCDMA won't be until the end of 2002 or 2003 at the earliest.
In regards to the Korean decisions she stated that they don't have a clear picture yet of what is happening
since ther is so much involved.
In regards to the NOK/Teleson deal. It is their understanding that NOK is going to use Teleson for
CDMAone chips, which is 2G. Teleson has a 3G license with QCOM, but NOK does not, therefore NOK
cannot buy 3G chips from Teleson until they sign a 3G license. I aksed Nancy why NOK just doesen't
capitulate on needing QCOM and she said they really have since they do have a 2G license and the fact
that they are investing so much money on producing their own chips says that they believe there is a huge
market for CDMA. I told her that the day we hear about a 3G deal between NOK and QCOM IMO would
have a similar effect as the NOK/ERICY agreement last year.
She also stated that people forget that QCOM has at least a year's lead in technology in developing these
chips. She also reconfirmed what they mentioned in their last conference call that they are looking at
developing 3GCDMA chips ie:DSCDMA or WCDMA, whic are the same thing. QCOM still believes that
CDMA2000 is a better technology than WCDMA. The choice of WCDMA only means that the deployment
is further in the future, nothing to do with royalties.
I asked her if they would again bring all this up during the July 19 conference call, and she said they were
all very aware of the confusion and will clarify some things.
The bottom line is that QCOM is as upset about all the misinformation as we are, to them it reminds them
of the days a few years ago when everyone said CDMA wouldn't work, then they all signed up for it. In the
long run, CDMA will be deployed worldwide and we will get our royalties. Hope this helps, hang in
everyone.....
Scott |
