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To: mightylakers who wrote (6915)8/7/2000 10:31:04 AM
From: carranza2  Respond to of 34857
 
Looks like you are starting to "get it". The problem with WCDMA is that there're way too many "distractions" in that direction. Q as a pioneer in CDMA, has been through a lot of growing pains during the course of that adventure. It not only knows how to make it work, but also knows what won't work. However there are a lot of very unnecessary efforts going on, trying to play some silly way not because they are the best solutions or faster approaches, just because the "hope" of getting to use less IPRs. For instance there're even people trying to take away the some very crucial close loop power control away. That is very ridiculous to say at least

Substitute "unnecessary" with "obstructionist", and I will agree 100% with your views, mighty.

I presume that Dr. J. is sanguine about WCDMA, and knows that despite all of Q's efforts and the fact that it has the better 3G technology, there are those who think that they will be able to sidestep Q's patents. Dr. J. knows that the only thing WCDMA can do is reduce to some degree Q's take on that technology. Still, a smaller part of WCDMA is better than nothing. He is correctly concerned that WCDMA may take too long to get to market, to the detriment not only of Q but also to the detriment of carriers, consumers, etc.

Aside to Mucho: You are a very smart guy. Surely you knew that Dr. J. was appropriately concerned about WCDMA's time-to-market.



To: mightylakers who wrote (6915)8/7/2000 10:34:06 PM
From: gdichaz  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 34857
 
mightlakers: Your comparison of battleships and aircraft carriers is brilliant. An image is worth a thousand words, and that does the job. Of course it works best for those who remember (not many left) or those who know a touch of history (not many of those either) but fortunately it works for the multitudes who have watched movies or TV about "action" prior and during World War II.

That the addition of GPRS to GSM is the same as adding extra guns and armour plating to a battleship GSM as opposed to adding 1xMC and HDR (1xEV) which are adding advanced airplanes to the aircraft carrier CDMAOne
is a beautiful analogy.

Congratulations for your insight and imagery.

Best.

Chaz



To: mightylakers who wrote (6915)8/9/2000 7:07:57 PM
From: Wyätt Gwyön  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 34857
 
Looks like you are starting to "get it". The problem with WCDMA is that there're way too many "distractions" in that direction.

I think you have the wrong idea of what I "get". The issue I am concerned about is not whether W-CDMA will soon be ready for primetime from a technological perspective; but rather, what the consequences will be of the demands for capital on the part of carriers. I will leave the alphabet soup geekspeak to the engineering nerds. Those who want to invest well need to follow the money.

Carriers in this country already have an enormous invested asset base while carrying tremendous debt and losing tons of money. AWE, PCS, and NXTL alone have capex of 9BB this year and more of same next. US Govt. hopes to raise an additional 70BB from spectrum auctions...even as the carrying cost of existing spectrum is some 17BB. Where do you think the money for this new stuff is going to come? Mostly from corporate issuance (NXTL had a huge secondary last fall, but may not find the equity markets so inviting next time 'round). The problem is, the sums are so massive, and are occurring simultaneously in so many parts of the globe, that it is likely to affect the entire market for corporate debt. This is seen in the widening spreads between govt. and corporate issues, both in the US and in Europe.

Ironically, the governments welcome these huge windfalls as a chance to whittle down domestic debt without gutting the taxpayers. But what's good for Uncle Sam is bad for Ma Bell and her ilk. The 70BB spectrum bill comes before the first 3G base station has been installed. It is too bad they don't do a beauty contest and basically give away the licenses, because nobody's going to have any money to build anything after the auctions. The other thing that's too bad is that everybody's not operating on the same standard, which would enable all kinds of economies of scale that are not currently being obtained in the US.* The point of all this is that slower rollouts will translate into delayed orders for equipment makers. Royalty shops are last in line.

* As an afterthought, this may account for a good part of W-CDMA's momentum (in addition to the oft-cited global roaming ability).