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

To: cfoe who wrote (3197)	11/13/1999 6:26:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 13582

Qualcomm Hot On Data Path> From the November 15, 1999, issue of Wireless Week Qualcomm Hot On Data Path By Peggy Albright CDMA vendor Qualcomm Inc. has been talking about its High Data Rate technology for some time. Last week it demonstrated the service in San Diego and announced a production schedule for chip sets that will support the emerging technology. Qualcomm says HDR, scheduled for commercial availability in early 2001, will give CDMA operators an efficient, no-hassle upgrade path to high-speed data services. If released as scheduled and proven to perform in commercial applications, the technology could challenge competing wireless data alternatives. Given the heady projections for demand for wireless data services in the near future and HDR's relatively modest cost and advanced capabilities, this innovation may be closely watched to see if it delivers on the company's promises. Chris Pearson, spokesman for the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium--an industry group supporting Interim Standard-136 TDMA and IS-41 wireless intelligent network technology--says his members will believe it when they see it. "The sooner you give high-speed data to the masses the better. However, you really need a groundswell of support from the carriers, not from vendors making product announcements." Qualcomm's demonstration showed HDR delivering video, data and live Internet broadcasts in a mobile environment at 1.8 megabits per second. When commercialized, the peak data rate on the forward link is expected to reach 2.4 megabits per second per cell site sector. The peak rate on the reverse link is expected to be 307 kilobits per second. Qualcomm will promote the technology as options for wireline customers in desktop, laptop and handheld devices for use by small office/home office and consumer markets. The HDR transmission speeds are competitive with other asymmetrical data services, including integrated services digital network and digital subscriber line systems, which can reach 128 kbps and 384 kbps, respectively. "It really is, we hope, going to launch a whole new business area," says Irwin Jacobs, Qualcomm's chairman and CEO. But deployment convenience may be the key attribute of the technology. HDR, optimized for packet data and based on an IP-based architecture, is designed for installation in an existing carrier within a 1.25-megahertz channel of any cdmaOne base station. Qualcomm also is touting the ability of HDR to work in conjunction with the first phase of cdma2000, called 1XRTT, which doubles voice capacity over current CDMA standards. Or HDR can be deployed as a stand-alone system, using off-the-shelf IP backbone equipment. Handset providers wanting to upgrade their phone designs need only use Qualcomm's new mobile station modem chips. The iMSM4500, a dual-mode chip, will support both HDR and IS-95A or IS-95B. The iMSM5500 will support CDMA 1X multi-carrier and HDR technology. Brian Modoff, an analyst with Deutsche Bank Alex.Brown, said the HDR demo worked well, and he sees it as a good technology option for Sprint Corp. and its potential merger partner MCI WorldCom Inc. Barney Dewey, an analyst with Andrew Seybold's Outlook, says HDR will compete not only with DSL and related services, but with emerging GSM and TDMA technologies. "Essentially what [Qualcomm is] doing is offering all the capabilities of any of the third-generation technologies for essentially the cost of a minor modification of an existing CDMA operator," he says. General packet radio service will eventually give GSM customers symmetrical data rates of 57.6 kbps but it won't be commercially available until mid-2002, his firm estimates. Enhanced data rates for global evolution or EDGE, which offers up to 384 kbps bi-directional speeds, will not be available for TDMA customers until mid-2002 or later. How many HDR users can be handled on a CDMA network? Kimberly Kleber, director of product marketing for Qualcomm's HDR, says the answer comes next year, when Qualcomm conducts a series of capacity tests, technical and market trials. Until then, "Giving projections today is virtually impossible," she says.