Qualcomm scrambling to keep up
with orders
Production of phones in Mexico considered
By Mike Drummond
STAFF WRITER
March 6, 1999
Qualcomm is looking to boost production of its phone handsets in the face of
brisk demand.
The wireless phone maker said this week that it is producing at near-capacity,
or almost 625,000 phones a month, the vast majority of them rolling off its
San Diego assembly line.
The company is looking at ways to squeeze more production from its factory
in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and is exploring options to have phones manufactured in
Mexico, including the possibility of partnering with another company, said
Jeffrey Belk, vice president of marketing.
Company officials say such moves are to expand production, not move them
out of San Diego.
"We are selling all the handsets we can make," Belk said, noting that the
company's San Diego facility is producing phones 24 hours a day, seven days
a week.
In 1994, Qualcomm and Sony entered a $52 million partnership to jointly
produce digital mobile phones in San Diego. Qualcomm owns 51 percent of
the joint venture; Sony owns the rest.
Qualcomm was the first to commercially deploy digital phone technology
based on code division multiple access or CDMA. The technology first had
been used by the military because it is virtually impervious to jamming and
electronic eavesdropping.
From January through September last year, Qualcomm said it sold about 1.8
million CDMA digital handsets to wireless carriers in the United States.
Copyright 1999 Union-Tribune Publis |
