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To: Ruffian who wrote (35207)	7/16/1999 2:04:00 AM
From: DOUG H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Q in Japan: Top News Fri, 16 Jul 1999, 1:57am EDT Toyota Eyes IDO, DDI Merger to Take On NTT Docomo in Japan Cellular Market Toyota Seeks IDO, DDI Merger; Boosts Net Investment (Update2) (Rewrites lead to emphasize effect on NTT DoCoMo; adds details in 4th paragraph about support for merger from DDI's top shareholder.) Tokyo, July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. indicated it may seek to merge Japan's third-largest phone company and fourth-largest cellular service provider, creating a powerful rival to NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc., the world's largest cellular phone company. Toyota ''sees merit'' in merging its cellular phone subsidiary IDO Corp. with DDI Corp., which provides both mobile and domestic long-distance phone service, Toyota senior managing director and head of information technology, Susumu Miyoshi, told Bloomberg News. ''If the two companies merged, they would be able to combine marketing, research and development, and advertising, resulting in cost savings,'' Miyoshi said. A DDI-IDO merger is also supported by Kazuo Inamori, the founder and honorary chairman of Kyocera Corp., the largest shareholder in DDI with a 25 percent stake. ''DDI and IDO should merge,'' Inamori was quoted as saying yesterday by the Mainichi newspaper. Such a merger would create a company offering cellular phone service nationwide, neutralizing one of NTT DoCoMo's major sales points: currently it's the only company to provide mobile phone service throughout Japan. That has enabled NTT DoCoMo to quadruple its number of subscribers to 43.1 million over the past three years and grab 58 percent of the market. NTT DoCoMo this year surpassed Toyota to become Japan's second-largest company by market value as its shares doubled in value. Yet a merger between IDO, in which Toyota owns a 63 percent stake, and DDI would wipe out NTT DoCoMo's major competitive advantage at the stroke of a pen by creating a rival nationwide cellular network. DDI has eight regional cell phone subsidiaries providing service everywhere except in Tokyo and Nagoya, the only two areas in which IDO operates. The move would also deliver another blow by Toyota to the domination of the Japanese telecommunications market wielded by NTT Corp., the nation's former domestic phone monopoly. NTT owns 59 percent of NTT DoCoMo. Last month Toyota thwarted NTT's attempt to take over International Digital Communications Inc., Japan's second-largest overseas phone service company. Toyota sold its 17.7 percent in IDC to rival bidder Cable & Wireless Plc., giving the British suitor control of a company it hopes to use to penetrate Japan's 13 trillion yen telecommunications market, the world's second largest. NTT wanted to buy IDC to speed its expansion abroad following the lifting last year of a Japanese government ban on the company operating internationally. cdmaOne DDI controls about 13 percent of the Japanese cellular phone market, IDO about 8 percent. A merger would create a company with a 21 percent market share, increased marketing clout and reduced operating costs. DDI and IDO already cooperate in providing a new cellular phone technology, cdmaOne, nationwide. CdmaOne, or code division multiple access, a technology developed by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc., provides clearer sound than the technology used by NTT DoCoMo. That has boosted DDI and IDO's subscriptions at the expense of NTT DoCoMo in recent months, according to analysts. DDI's shares rose as much as 54,000 yen, or 7.1 percent, to 759,000 in morning trading. Some 5,600 shares traded by the lunch break, surpassing the full-day average of 5,196 the past three months.

To: Ruffian who wrote (35207)	7/16/1999 7:39:00 AM
From: JohnG	Respond to of 152472

Michael P.--Just a review of where things are headed for up simi-technical types who forget acronyms. JohnG From the May 17, 1999 issue of Wireless Week Qualcomm To Bolster 3G Products By Peggy Albright Against a backdrop of continuing third-generation wireless debates, Qualcomm Inc. reminded the industry last week that it is committed to cdma2000 by developing chip sets and software for the technology. What it all came down to is that Qualcomm launched a promise. "It is more of an image release than a product release," said Johan Lodenius, vice president of marketing and product management for CDMA technologies at Qualcomm. The company said it will produce mobile station modem and cell station modem chip sets and system software that will enable manufacturers and operators to develop cdma2000 handsets and infrastructure. The first release, representing the first phase of cdma2000, referred to as 1XRTT, will provide data speeds of 144 kilobits per second. The data rate will increase to 2 megabits per second with the final phase, referred to as 3XRTT. The company reiterated the maturity of its CDMA chip sets, which are now in their sixth generation. Qualcomm emphasized the seamless and more cost-effective migration path to 3G that cdma2000 offers current CDMA operators compared to wideband CDMA options that would require installation of a whole new line of equipment. Why did Qualcomm, the inventor of CDMA and the prevailing chip set developer for CDMA, need to underscore its position? For one, chip sets and associated software are the core of Qualcomm's business. The company is focusing its overall activities more on semiconductor products since reorganizing earlier this year and selling its infrastructure division to Ericsson Inc. as part of a settlement with that company of intellectual property rights. Further, the company supplies its semiconductors not only to outside markets but also to its own handset division-the company's other line of business. Despite its dominance, Qualcomm is hardly alone in the marketplace. BT Alex. Brown reported last week that it thinks DSP Communications Inc., which supplies chips to wireless phone manufacturers, "has an opportunity to take market share away from Qualcomm." VLSI Technology, for another, is working on several advancements that will extend its current CDMA product lines to meet 2.5 and 3G market requirements. Bryan Daellenbach, marketing manager of the CDMA product group, said his company is developing similar advancements for global system for mobile communications systems. Beyond chip sets, other vendors are providing cdma2000 products. Late last month Nortel Networks and Sprint PCS demonstrated cdma2000 services using Nortel Metro Cell modular CDMA base stations and Nortel wideband software radio technology based on cdma2000 3XRTT technology. Lucent Technologies Inc. has already contracted with Sprint PCS and Bell Atlantic Mobile Inc. to test cdma2000 1XRTT products. It also has prototype 3XRTT system that it will trial in late 1999 or early 2000.