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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (51660)	11/24/1999 3:07:00 PM
From: limtex	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 152472

Maurice and Thread - *** THIS IS NOT IN JEST **** There is one thing the Europeans dohave that is better than the US in mobile telephony... One of my colleagues was in the US and wanted to buy a mobile phone. He is from Europe and is used to being able to go into any phone store and buy an IC which is in fact a phone number. It usually comes in a CD plastic package and you give them your hundred and fifty DMs or Francs or what ever ( usually about $100 or so) and you get an IC chip about 1.5cm x .9cm, you put it in your GSM handset and Hey Presto you have your very own phone line. Anyway my colleague was asked for two forms of ID and an address in the US which was not a hotel and a US fixed line phone number. He didn't have any of this on him at the time and so didn't bother to buy a phone. He said that there was a computerized form that the sales assistant had to fill in and that the assistant tried to sell him a phone but got stuck having to call his head office who point blank refused to sell a phone to anyone who didn't have all the appropriate ID and addresses etc. Further every customer took at least fifteeen minutes to get set up even after all the time spent in selling the actual handset and service. My colleague had a go at me for always going on about how the US market is far more efficient. Thestore was full of customers waiting just like the old food lines in the USSR except here it is in the US and it is costing the Q, PCS, Prime etc a whole bunch of lost sales. Sprint therefor lost a customer and my guess is that they are in that way losing hundreds of thousands of customers. Buying a phone should be no different than buying a loaf of bread. What on earth is the difference. Best regards, L