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To: Jill who wrote (5208)2/26/2000 5:41:00 PM
From: Ruffian  Respond to of 35685
 


Trade Update by WSH 2/25/00 8:00 AM PST

Buying QCOM here 138-140. There are a number of factors that favor a buy of
QCOM at this
point. First, the China deal being postponed presents a buying opportunity for QCOM.
This deal
postponement by China is a classic Chinese negotiation tactic. With all the investment in
CDMA by
local manufacturers, China has far too much to lose if this deal were to fall through.

The second factor is CITA's wirless tradeshow next week in New Orleans. Expect the
introduction
of various new CDMA products at the tradeshow.

The following is an article from Pete Peterson at Prudential released today:

QCOM: Postponement Activity on China Should Only Be Temporary
- Recent news stated that the deployment efforts of CDMA in China have been
postponed
- We do not believe that the postponement was based on CDMA or on renegotiations
tactics, but
rather on political issues
- Our Washington analyst concurs with our expectation that the postponement should
be short-term
- We expect a new date for the bidding process to be set shortly
- Our estimates remained unchanged -- our China estimates have been conservative
- We believe that China will deploy CDMA based on its spectral efficiency and cost
benefits
- Our thesis on QCOM and CDMA remain intact - Reiterate our STRONG BUY
rating

A recent story in the Asian Wall Street Journal stated that the China government has
postponed the
CDMA deployment process in China. The article stated that bids by multinational
companies such as
that put in by Ericsson are not being accepted. Ericsson confirmed that they had
received the update
from the Chinese State Planning Department. We believe that the postponement was
not based on
any technological issues but more on political issues. The move maybe associated with
China's entry
into the World Trade Organization and China may be using CDMA as a bargaining
tactic over its
negotiations with the United States. Our Washington counterpart concurs with our
expectation that
the postponement would be short term. Ericsson has been notified that a new date for
bidding
process would be set shortly.

We do not believe that this activity is part of China's tactics for renegotiations royalty
rates with
QUALCOMM. QUALCOMM had gone through months of negotiations with China
during which the Chinese government was very involved and had given its approvals.
Furthermore,
one of the specific terms set by QUALCOMM in awarding China with a lower royalty
rate was that
China Unicom would need to deploy a network to support 10 million subscribers by the
end of
2000. Any delay in this would affect the lower royalty rate offered. We also believe that
China
Unicom would not want this setback and would not want to be behind in 3G
deployments as well.
Ericsson has been notified that a new date for bidding process would be set shortly. We
believe that
this postponement should only be temporary.

Our estimates remained unchanged-our China estimates have been conservative. Our
model reflects
the opportunity in China, though we are still on the conservative side adding only 1.5
million Chinese
CDMA subscribers to fiscal 2000 and 7 million subscribers to fiscal 2001 numbers. We
recognize the political risks associated with China but we do not see this activity
affecting our current
estimates. The opportunity in China could be large and completes CDMA's
encirclement of the
Pacific Rim. While the initial ramp in China may be slower than the immediate 10 million
new
subscribers projected by China Unicom, the market still presents outstanding
opportunity. The
wireless
subscriber penetration in China (approximately 3%) is very low compared to other
markets such as
North America (approximately 30%) and China has four times the population.

Our thesis on QCOM and CDMA remain intact - Reiterate our STRONG BUY rating.
We believe
that China will deploy CDMA based on the technology's spectral efficiency and cost
benefits.
CDMA is the fastest growing wireless digital standard in the world, competing with
GSM technology
for global network deployments. CDMA is considered the best digital wireless
technology in terms of
capacity, sound quality, and data throughput with a projected 5-year CAGR of 74%.
Fast product
cycles in CDMA only help to strengthen QCOM's ownership of the handset as well as
challenge
slower evolving GSM technologies.