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To: Mark Laubach who wrote (1635)1/30/2000 6:09:00 PM
From: lml  Respond to of 2347
 
Excellent analysis, Mark. I learned a lot from your effort. Thanks.

As I have previously stated, not only is it evident that you "know your stuff," but also you have a remarkable ability to explain the nuances of communication technology to the layperson -- at least the technically-minded ones.

CDMA v. TDMA

I found interesting your comments as I switched from a AMPS to a CDMA/AMPS phone (Airtouch) just about a year ago. My main complaint, notwithstanding the power-saving benefits to the user & the capacity expanding benefits to the provder, is the abruptness with which CDMA can loose a signal. My analog phone was capable of holding onto to a weakening signal much longer than my CDMA phone. This is critical, especially where I live, where the terrain is rather mountainous. In contrast, I have on 1 or more occasion used a TDMA phone of a friend (AT&T), & got the impression that his phone might have a stronger ability to hold a weak signal than my CDMA phone. Don't know if this is a fact, but it has appeared so during the infrequent times I have used his phone.



To: Mark Laubach who wrote (1635)1/31/2000 2:06:00 PM
From: pat mudge  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 2347
 
Mark --

How do we find out what modems TERN has submitted to CableLabs? If they've only submitted their OEM products, how will their proprietary modems "migrate gracefully" to an S-CDMA DOCSIS version? I believe this has been their sales approach all along --- "buy proprietary and migrate when we receive certification." Would there be any case where a carrier would migrate from a TERN S-CDMA to the OEM product? I'm not an engineer, but I'm guessing this isn't possible.

Looking more closely at TERN's recent S-3 it appears they're downplaying their S-CDMA emphasis.

First, the "overview" from the latest 10-Q dated November 15, 1999:

ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION ANDRESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Overview

Our core line of business is to develop, market and sell
broadband accesssystems based upon our S-CDMA technology. Our objective is to be theleading provider of broadband access systems to cable operators seeking to provide broadband access services to residential and commercial end users.Since our inception in January 1993, we have focused on the development ofour S-CDMA technology, as well as certain other core technologies, to enable broadband
transmission of data over cable networks. We began the specification and design of our first ASIC in October 1994 and produced thefirst version of this ASIC in September 1996. At the same time, we developedan end-to-end broadband access system, the TeraComm system, around the ASIC.During late 1996 and through 1997, we began limited field trials of theTeraComm system with several cable operators. We commenced volume shipmentsto a small number of cable operators in the first quarter of 1998. We hadrevenues of $23.4 million for three months ended September 30, 1999 and$58.3 million for the nine months ended September
30, 1999. This comparesto revenues of $9.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 1998and $18.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 1998.
<<<<

And then their "overview" as stated in the recent S-3, dated January 25, 2000:

Overview

Our core line of business is to develop, market and sell broadband access systems that enable cable operators to cost-effectively deploy reliable two-way broadband access services. Our TeraComm system is designed to enable
cableoperators to maximize the capacity and reliability of broadband access services over any cable plant. This allows cable operators to minimize time-consuming and costly network infrastructure upgrades, achieve reduced time
to market andprovide a wide range of service levels to residential and commercial end users.Cable operators using the TeraComm system can provide additional revenue-generating services to end users. This enables cable
operators to competeeffectively in the emerging market for broadband access services.
<<<

I'm still trying to figure out what will happen if Rogers returns the products referred to in the S-3. Will TERN have to restate their earnings? Since they haven't been able to recognize them, will they have to re-state anyway?

I'm also trying to find out what responsibility TERN has in terms of alerting shareholders to material changes to business. It seems to me burying the Rogers information inside the Telegate-related S-3 isn't quite what the SEC had in mind. Perhaps we could do a survey to find out how many shareholders read SEC filings. :)

Thanks for the excellent discussion on CDMA and George Gilder's attitude towards S-CDMA.

Pat



To: Mark Laubach who wrote (1635)2/1/2000 7:53:00 PM
From: ftth  Respond to of 2347
 
Hi Mark, that was a fine critique you did of Gilder's report. I agree with your assessment of the flavor of Gilder's reports in general, as well as your points regarding TERN, which I, along with others like Bernard Levy, have also addressed in the past. His reports are more like a sell-side analyst report than a technology report in the true sense of the word. Since I don't have anything nice to say about the quality of their content I'll leave it at that.

It would be interesting to have some TERN investors email TERN Investor Relations and ask the status of S-CDMA relative to DOCSIS advanced PHY, and, more importantly, to state that ONLY a reply from a company officer (e.g. CTO) is acceptable (IR can always take the easy way out and just reply that they don't know).

In your post #1592 you retracted your statements regarding capacity of TERN S-CDMA headends. I don't believe you need to do so. I believe what's needed is more architectural detail and terminology clarifications from this person at Shaw, and what exactly they include in their headend cloud, e.g. how many CMTS's. Perhaps they oversubscribe their nodes to a greater degree that most. 1000 "subscribable connections" would be roughly assuming a 10% penetration rate, which is about the nationwide average currently. The “roughly 10% of 1000” figure is based on 128 64kbps channels subscribED per cmts, which would be 128 users assuming each user would be willing to pay 40 bucks a month for a single 64kbps up/down channel. Proportionately less if users buy more than one "unit," say 2 for example, so they at least have something noticeably better than a 56k modem, i.e 128k up/dn in the case of 2 units.

More details on the breakdown of the data stream for TERN's S-CDMA system is here:
Message 11348504
This is all taken from their patents, so anyone can check it. There is no way the math works out with anything close to 1000 subscribed lines per CMTS.