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Technology Stocks : Interdigital Communication(IDCC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gus who wrote (4039)	2/23/2000 7:01:00 PM
From: Gus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5195

OUCH! Damn, the folks at Siemens (Infineon to IPO soon) are starting to get contagious. First, they declare that they're going to make a semi-official decision on CDMA by the second quarter now the Chinese have decided to put the CDMA network on hold indefinitely. Reading foreign tea leaves can be a very unpredictable endeavor. China Postpones Project To Build Mobile Network By MATT FORNEY Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BEIJING -- Less than a week after China announced it would deploy a new type of mobile communications relying heavily on U.S. technology, the government has postponed the process indefinitely. The delay order, which hasn't been made public, stunned foreign firms, some of which had already bid on the project that would build a national mobile-phone network. Executives at several multinational companies say their bids to supply equipment aren't being accepted. Some speculate the move is a bargaining tactic as the U.S. Congress prepares to debate whether to support China's entry into the World Trade Organization. "We've been told that our discussions will be delayed," said Michael Ricks, president of Ericsson China Co., a subsidiary of Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, the Swedish telecom giant. He said officials from the Chinese operator of the planned network told him the order had come from the government. "There's no commercial reason why that would be, so that leaves political," Mr. Ricks said. China's second-biggest phone company, China United Telecommunications Corp., or China Unicom, announced last week that it would build a mobile network using CDMA, or code division multiple access, technology licensed from Qualcomm Corp. of the U.S. Many big technology companies had cheered the move, which promised lucrative supply contracts in one of the world's fastest-growing mobile-phone markets. While it is highly unlikely the delay will be permanent, the confusion underscores the heavily politicized nature of CDMA, which has been a bargaining chip over the past year in China's WTO negotiations with the U.S. Some observers also think Chinese leaders are unhappy with the deal that Qualcomm struck with China Unicom and will try to rewrite the terms of the agreement. The biggest loser at this point: China Unicom, whose impending listing of shares overseas could be complicated by the change of plan. A spokesman for China Unicom said he was unaware of the delays. The move is sowing confusion in other quarters. Lucent Technologies (China) Co. is going ahead today with discussions with China Unicom about a commercial bid, according to spokesman H.T. Kung. Motorola China Electronics Co., which had planned to bid next week to supply the new network, has dropped the idea for now, according to a company official. The postponement has even affected the People's Liberation Army, China's military, which partly owns a small commercial CDMA network. The PLA canceled meetings this week in which it was to discuss expansion of its network, according to Ericsson's Mr. Ricks. "We'll have to wait and see what happens," says Leo Zhang, Qualcomm's general manager in China. He says he canceled a previously scheduled trip to company headquarters in San Diego this week after learning of the postponement. Write to Matt Forney at matt.forney@wsj.c