I should have known an article like this would come out on such a good new day for QCOM. Just another attempt by Ericsson to rain on QCOMs parade.
***********************************************
Ericsson LMEb.ST not changing position on CDMA
By Birgitta Forsberg
STOCKHOLM, Jan 20 (Reuter) - Swedish telecoms group AB LM Ericsson LMEb.ST is not changing its decision regarding
the mobile telecoms standard Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), the company said on Monday, despite media reports to
the contrary.
"We are still not interested in developing systems for the IS95 CDMA," Per Bengtsson, spokesman for Ericsson's mobile
telecoms division, told Reuters.
"Regarding wide band CDMA applications, we have already demonstrated our capability and we are looking at that as a
possible technology for the future, along with other possible solutions," Bengtsson said.
Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet said on Monday Ericsson was increasing its efforts in CDMA, partly by recently submitting
a tender for a wide band system in Japan.
But Ericsson said it will not enter the markets of CDMA IS95, a system promoted by U.S. companies Lucent Technologies
Inc , Northern Telecom Ltd and Motorola Inc .
"We see that the technologies that we represent and develop have a high potential for further development," Bengtsson said.
He was referring to the systems Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM), Digital Advanced Mobile Phone
Service (D-AMPS) IS136 and Pacific Digital Cellular (PDC), the Japan standard.
These technologies are all based on Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), which competes with CDMA.
Thus far, CDMA only exists in South Korea, Hong Kong and the U.S, while the other standards prevail elsewhere.
Bengtsson estimates that worldwide there are around 20-30 million GSM subscribers, five million D-AMPS subscribers and
somewhat more than 500,000 CDMA IS95 subscribers, most of whom live in South Korea.
Many analysts say that CDMA is not yet tested with a full capacity of subscribers as networks are still being built.
"In 1998, most of the CDMA systems in the U.S. will probably be up and running and we will see how much of the market
they will take," said Ulf Hellzen, analyst at Swedish banking group Swedbank.
He estimated that CDMA would get a market share worldwide of around 10 percent early next century.
Several analysts say that CDMA will play a more significant role than Ericsson had expected, but they did not criticise the
company's strategic decision not to step into CDMA IS95.
"Nothing in Ericsson's and (Finnish rival) Nokia's order intake so far indicate that they have made the wrong choice," said
Gunnar Andersson, analyst at Swedish bank Handelsbanken.
Ericsson could not develop all standards without research and development costs rising, analysts said.
"Look at Motorola -- its share price has partly been negatively affected by the costly development of CDMA," Andersson
said.
The battle between CDMA and TDMA will be settled by operators, determined by which one succeeds in attracting the most
subscribers, Andersson said.
"If CDMA turns out to be big, Ericsson should have been in it from the start. If not, Ericsson made the right choice," an
analyst said.
-- Stockholm newsroom +46-8-700 1006 |
