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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gdichaz who wrote (1381)	9/10/1999 7:25:00 AM
From: Ibexx	Respond to of 13582

Friday September 10, 5:17 am Eastern Time INTERVIEW-Telecom group offers China mobile standard By Jeremy Page BEIJING, Sept 10 (Reuters) - An international consortium of telecommunications firms said on Friday it had joined the battle for China's potentially vast mobile phone market by offering a new technology standard. The Universal Wireless Communications (UWC) consortium met Chinese officials and telecommunications firms this week to promote the Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) standard, UWC president Sheila Mickool told Reuters in an interview. China has 22 million cellular phone subscribers, mainly using the European GSM standard, but Beijing has said it is ready to adopt the rival U.S.-backed Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard. Mickool said she was confident there was room for another player in the market. ''I would escalate our activities in China based on what I've seen and heard over the last few days,'' she said. UWC is a non-profit international association of more than 100 carriers and vendors supporting TDMA, including AT&T Wireless Services and BellSouth Cellular Corp of the United States. TDMA is the dominant technology standard in the Americas, with 18.5 million subscribers at the end of 1998, UWC said. TDMA offered greater capacity and flexibility and the ability to switch wireless users automatically between analogue and digital channels without disruption to service, said UWC vice president of marketing Chris Pearson. But more significantly, it was an open standard -- with no patent -- and would soon be compatible with GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) networks, he said. From the second half of 2000, a single mobile phone would be able to switch automatically between a GSM network in China and a TDMA network in Brazil, for example, he said. "There's an opportunity, even if they (China) don't deploy TDMA, to be involved in the process of its development and manufacturing of the telephones, Pearson said. ''Because there is no IPR (intellectual property rights) issue, there is also a possibility that it would be good for the manufacturing development and economic development of China.'' Pearson said UWC hoped to avoid the growing pains of CDMA in China. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji told U.S. officials in March Beijing would allow China Unicom, one of China's two telecommunications service providers, to build CDMA networks. But two ministries have since barred the rollout, according to industry sources who said China was trying to force firms into divulging CDMA technology in exchange for market access. CDMA was developed by Qualcomm Inc (Nasdaq:QCOM - news) of the United States, but Sweden's Ericsson bought its infrastructure division in March this year. U.S. officials have also said China was holding CDMA hostage until Washington and Beijing reached a deal on entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Mickool said WTO entry would be helpful, but not crucial, to the success of TDMA in China. She said she expected China to have 35 million cellphone subscribers by the end of 1999 and that number would grow by at least one million per month over the next few years. Meetings with the Ministry of Information Industry and Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, and with telecommunications firms China Mobile and China Unicom had indicated Beijing was interested in multiple standards, she said. ''We may be late, GSM may be the dominant platform and Unicom may have chosen CDMA, but we have a groundswell of global support for GSM TDMA interoperability,'' said Pearson. biz.yahoo.com Ibexx

To: gdichaz who wrote (1381)	9/10/1999 10:38:00 AM
From: bananawind	Respond to of 13582

Japan, Datasubs, cdmaOne subs - This ought to make US carriers sit up and take notice [18% of subs on data after only a few short months]- also, cdmaOne subs pass 2 million - 64K data service by year-end. WAP Users in Japan Number 350,000 at the End of August September 10, 1999 (TOKYO) -- The number of wireless application protocol (WAP) users in Japan reached approximately 350,000 as of the end of August 1999. At a conference for specialists of the next-generation mobile communications called "3G Mobile Systems Japan," which was held in Tokyo on Sept. 1-3, Eiichi Matsumoto, managing director of IDO Corp., revealed that the number of contracts for "EZ Access," the company's WAP services, "now accounts for 17-18 percent of the total number of cdmaOne subscribers." IDO has provided its cdmaOne mobile phone service since April 14 this year. The number of users under the contract of cdmaOne service, which the company and the DDI Cellular Group are providing, reached 2 million at the end of August 1999. From this figure, the number of WAP users is estimated at around 350,000. NTT Mobile Communications Network (NTT DoCoMo) Inc.'s "iMode" mobile telephone service, in direct competition with the cdmaOne service, acquired more than 1.2 million users by the end of August (the total number of users as of Aug. 29 was 1,265,000). The number of users had been increasing by 80,000 per week for the month of August, which means that at this pace, the number of users is expected to reach 1.5 million by the end of September, and 2 million by the end of October. The iMode service was launched Feb. 22, 1999. The target number of iMode users set by the company in the first year in service is 2 million to 3 million. According to the estimates, it is highly likely to be achieved. Although it seems as if iMode's popularity is stronger than that of WAP at the moment, the IDO-DDI cdmaOne camp will attempt to take on NTT DoCoMo by launching 64kbps packet communication services towards the end of 1999, injecting new models of WAP-compliant terminals (currently the only available ones are Hitachi Ltd.'s C201H), as well as improving the contents. Related story: IDO, Cellular Telephone Group to Offer WAP Services Subscribers to cdmaOne Services Exceed 2 Mil. in Japan (Nikkei Communications)

To: gdichaz who wrote (1381)	9/10/1999 10:43:00 AM
From: bananawind	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13582

Is Taiwan Next for cdmaOne Samsung Keen on Accessing Taiwan's Communications Market September 10, 1999 (TAIPEI) -- Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is actively making inroads into Taiwan's communications market by making plans to transfer code division multiple access (CDMA) technology to domestic operators. It also is planning to team up with Korean counterparts to win CDMA orders from Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. Samsung Electronics reports annual operational revenues of US$16.6 billion, mostly from sales of semiconductors, home appliances and communications products. While the company already enjoys close ties with Taiwan in the semiconductor sector, it has been less successful in the field of telecommunications. Yet, recently, Chunghwa Telecom's decision to target CDMA has provided Samsung with a niche. A Samsung executive said that his company places great emphasis on technology transfer. As its first step in accessing the local market, he added, Samsung hopes to set up a technology support center in cooperation with local partners to help reinforce maintenance and technology in Taiwan. Although CDMA was developed by Qualcomm Inc. of the United States, Samsung possesses core technology related to the switching system, which is said to be the most important part. Samsung only needed to apply Qualcomm technology in the areas of handsets and base stations in order to develop CDMA. Chunghwa Telecom is taking quite some time to upgrade its mobile operations from analog to digital. The company plans to unveil specifications of its upcoming purchase in November, and open bids in February next year. Official service is slated to be available in March 2001. (Commercial Times, Taiwan)