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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JGoren who wrote (3300)	9/28/2000 10:52:53 AM
From: LJM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197604

ANALYSIS-China shoots for global cell phone market By Matt Pottinger and Tony Munroe BEIJING, Sept 28 (Reuters) - A darkhorse technology intended to turn China into a titan of the global cell phone equipment industry is making headway at home and finding credibility abroad. If the home-grown technology is widely adopted, Chinese state-owned companies could earn billions of dollars selling next-generation mobile phones and network equipment -- taking business from global giants Nokia <NOK1V.HE>, Ericsson <LMEb.ST>, Motorola <MOT.N> and Qualcomm <QCOM.O>. Next-generation mobile services that promise to deliver high-speed Internet and video are still a few years away. But competition between the technologies that will carry such services is already fierce, since creators of the winning standards will earn royalties on each handset and piece of equipment sold. Two foreign standards, one pushed by European firms and one by U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc, already have broad support from equipment makers and phone companies. But momentum appears to be building for a third: China's TD-SCDMA. BIG DREAMS, BIG OBSTACLES On Wednesday, the head of the government-funded TD-SCDMA project said Beijing will license Chinese phone companies to begin network trials of the technology, developed with Germany's Siemens AG <SIEGn.DE>, in the second quarter of next year. That means they could be tested before foreign standards. Last week, big North American equipment makers Motorola Inc and Nortel Networks Corp <NT.TO>, both of which also support the European and Qualcomm standards, joined a Chinese consortium to promote TD-SCDMA. And this week, Scandinavia's Nokia Corp and Ericsson -- champions of the European WCDMA standard -- also said they were cooperating on the standardisation of TD-SCDMA, although neither is a member of the consortium. Li Shihe, the engineer who is spearheading the TD-SCDMA project at the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology, told Reuters he envisions that by 2010 one-third of the world's wireless network equipment will run on his standard. Many foreign analysts dismiss this as fantasy. But China, which will soon have more cell phone users than any other country, could prove a sufficient market for the technology by itself. ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS Connie Hsu, an industry analyst with Pyramid Research in Hong Kong, said she considers it a given that Chinese carriers will adopt the home-grown standard, although China will hedge its bets by also using a mainstream standard. "We expect China to adopt two 3G standards, of which one will be TD-SCDMA," Hsu said. Europe's WCDMA would be the other standard since it is the successor technology to the type used on most Chinese networks now, she added. A top industry regulator said this week China would not force its phone companies to adopt any particular standard. But the Chinese carriers are state-controlled, and the government has already invested $60 million on developing its home-grown standard. By allowing TD-SCDMA network trials ahead of foreign technolgy trials, the Chinese government would be sending a strong signal about about its preferences. FASTER, CHEAPER? Li said his standard would win market share on its technological merits: it can use the airwaves more flexibly, and thus more cheaply, than its competitors. While mobile phones on the foreign standards will use equal amounts of precious spectrum for uploading and downloading data, TD-SCDMA can allocate all its spectrum to one or the other in the wink of an eye -- an advantage when surfing the Internet. Early TD-SCDMA flaws, such as a tendency to lose its signal in fast-moving cars, have been solved, Li told Reuters. But if TD-SCDMA is to avoid the fate of other also-ran technologies -- like the Beta video cassette players that was a commercial flop despite acknowledged superiority -- it will have to market iteself aggressively. TD-SCMDA has its work cut out. Executives from several foreign phone companies attending a wireless technology conference this week in Beijing said they had never heard of it. REUTERS Rtr 04:46 09-28-00 //Begin Meta Data// Selector Code: reutr Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service

To: JGoren who wrote (3300)	9/28/2000 8:55:24 PM
From: limtex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197604

JG - I bought the magazine at an airport news store. Its a great magazine. The article is by Andrew Sebold the technical correspondent. BTW there is a similar article in this months PC Magazine, the one with digital cameras on the cover. Wireless connectivity for PCs and laptops is coming but not quite here yet. Most people my guess is don't even realize what is about to come. IMHO we Q lovers sohuld focus on one thing andthat is the date of the start of 1X service in the US. Best regards, L