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

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (3913)	12/3/1999 6:01:00 PM
From: puzzlecraft	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

Maurice, The president of Wi-LAN rebutted the Cisco story. ----- "I had been too busy the last few weeks planning for the OFDM Alliance meeting. I have no idea why Cisco generated confusion about whether they would attend the meeting or not. Wi-LAN had contacted Cisco a year or so ago to see if they are interested in licensing our technology. When we approach a big company, we go to the top of the division. In Cisco's case, we ended up at the desk of Peter E. We talked for some time and even met Peter in an IEEE 802.11 meeting. Peter was the one that explained to us about Cisco's relationship with Clarity. Peter explained that they were aware about the Wi-LAN patent and that Cisco will approach Wi-LAN with its position before they launch any product. We were not surprised by the launch; we were surprised that they did not make their position clear before the announcement. When we thought of inviting companies to the alliance, we immediately invited our Cisco contact, not as an individual, but as a company. Many Cisco employees registered for the event. It appears that the invitation did make it to different people in the company. In any case, if there was any confusion with any company about the invitation and whether it was personal or corporate (LOL), it was with Cisco. As to Calrity's claims, I am uncertain if they really have enough wireless experience to say that their product is any different than what is available on the market already. We have to remember a number of things: 1. The MMDS band allows a higher output power than the ISM bands. 2. The IEEE802.11a which is based on WOFDM is meant for mobile terminals (contrary to Cisco's Peter E's remarks about that it is meant for the desktop). This means that it is meant for applications with obstructed line of sight. So what is the big deal about Clarity's product. 3. Cisco followers jumped to hail the non line of sight claims of Clarity and immediately reminded unaware readers about the difficulties LMDS operators are having with line of sight. LMDS operates at frequencies that make glass difficult to penetrate. MMDS is in frequencies similar to cellular phones and hence MMDS products follow similar physics. There are more issues but I cannot be too specific for marketing purposes. All the best, Hatim" ----- Message 12180320 ----- Interestingly CSCO purchased Clarity Wireless for $157 million, and Wi-LAN is already valued U.S. $500 million. John

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (3913)	12/3/1999 9:10:00 PM
From: cfoe	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 13582

From the 12/13 issue of Forbes: Digital Tools by Stephen Manes. Article on Sprint PCS and the "Wireless Web." Notes that Sprint, while not the only or last to offer wireless data service, is the only one offering a national network right now. Says most of the Sprint "data-capable phones work at a pokey but serviceable 14.4 kilobits per second" and can be used as a wireless modem. Article also briefly mentioned AT&T's PocketNet but said data speed on 10KB and service is not available in major cities. Most of article talks about the various phones that are being sold with this feature. Here's the list and Manes' evaluation: Sanyo SCP-4000 - Manes' favorite Denso's Sprint Touchpoint - Close to Sanyo with one major "gaffe" (no "end" key is major in convenience) Samsung's SCH-3500 - Cute features, navigation buttons are maddening Qualcomm's QCP-1960 - Mostly negatives, including it had problems making connections. Neopoint NP 1000 "Most promising - and maddening" and also had problems making connections pdQ - Can surf the real web and collect e-mail from your regular mailbox, and connecting was no problem. But has a number of drawbacks. Seemed more like a "shotgun marriage" of Palm and Q-phone. As I read the article, and especially his comments about the pdQ, I thought of Christensen's work on disruptive innovations. They always start out too slow, too big, too this too that...and start out addressing a "small" market that is not being served by the current technology. This is how they get their foot in the door. Then as they improve, they attack up market. Watch out laptops and laptop makers, here come the handheld computers!