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Technology Stocks : Nokia Corp. (NOK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Labrador who wrote (55)	11/15/2000 8:28:35 AM
From: Puck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9255

In fact, Nokia has taken initiative in positioning itself in the mobile positioning market, as you suggest would be prudent. Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola recently formed the Location Interoperability Forum (LIF) to promote the "development of common interfaces" so that "differing applications will be compatible with all positioning and location systems." In fact, Nokia and Ericsson both invited to Cellpoint to join the forum in recognition of its leadership position in the mobile location industry, as Cellpoint's Corporate Update states: LIF - LOCATION INTEROPERABILITY FORUM CellPoint accepted an invitation to join LIF (http://www.locationforum.org/) at the Rome Mobile Location Services Conference. CellPoint welcomes the Location Interoperability Forum initiative and considers it very positive for an industry in which we are seen as leaders. The competence within CellPoint will make a positive contribution to the work that of LIF, in much the same way as our contributions to the WAP Forum, where we serve as Editor for parts of the location standards. The creation of LIF and the commitment from the major GSM infrastructure suppliers (Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola) confirms that CellPoint is on the forefront of an emerging growth market and will be looked to for guidance on the future direction of location services. CellPoint's applications and our Mobile Location System are in line with, and will support, the LIF recommendations. LIF plans to have representation from network operators and equipment manufacturers, plus the service providers responsible for deploying equipment using location solutions. By encouraging the development of common interfaces, differing applications will be compatible with all positioning and location systems. And in case you weren't aware, Nokia is currently providing phones to the Swedish operator TELE2 that allow for the provisioning of Cellpoint's services to TELE2's customers: cellpt.com Sprint's choice to use Snaptrack's technology really has no practical bearing on Cellpoint because Cellpoint's solution is GSM/WCDMA based. Cellpoint has, however, won the only two contracts in which it competed head-to-head with Snaptrack and the other contending mobile location companies. Cellpoint won a mobile positioning services contract for fleet management from France Telecom last summer at a time when France Telecom was known to be testing Snaptrack's solution: cellpt.com More recently, Cellpoint again beat Snaptrack for a contract with the Czech operator Eurotel for the same type of retail client services that Snaptrack will be providing Sprint: cellpt.com The mobile positioning market is estimated to become quite large on a global scale and no one company will dominate it--there will be a number of players in their various niches. Cellpoint's solution has come distinct advantages. Because it is software based, no hardware need be installed in the network as network based solution require, just a simple software overlay. Cellpoint's solution works with any GSM phone without the need for any additional hardware, as Snaptrack's solution requires. Furthermore, its open standard software based solution provides the flexibility network operators desire allowing for easy upgrades and interoperability and integration with service solutions from other companies, most of which haven't been created yet. Cellpoint's Corporate Update states that this flexibility of their solution is what ultimately influenced Eurotel to award them the contract: Eurotel stated that one of the reasons they chose CellPoint was our open interfaces that make it possible for us to work with other positioning technologies and integrate other applications into our platform - we are future-proof. It is also one of the reasons we completely support the Location Interoperability Forum (LIF) initiative launced two weeks ago by Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola. This is what the LIF initiative is all about, something that CellPoint has been working toward for a long time. The moment Nokia and Ericsson approached us about this, we decided to join and support LIF, gaining membership with Nokia as our sponsors. So while at the Rome conference, Ericsson and Nokia could inform delegates that CellPoint was also supporting LIF. Even though Cellpoint's handset based solution relies upon base station data, it allows for integration with GPS, so that when the user moves out from an area of high base station density, such as an urban center, to one with low base station density, such as a more rural area, the positioning service won't end, it will just switch to GPS from Cellpoint's as necessary. Cellpoint's service also allows for roaming between GSM networks. Aside from the fact that Cellpoint's solution is GSM centric, there is no substantive difference between SnapTrack's solution and Cellpoint's for the end user. You might also find Cellpoint's telematics Unwire subsidiary to be of interest. In the last couple months, Unwire has landed $20 mil. of contracts for its terminals. cellpt.com cellpt.com cellpt.com I think that in the coming years Unwire will become Cellpoint's most important revenue driver, and all of the contracts I mentioned demonstrate unequivocally that Cellpoint certainly can compete in this "competitive marketplace". Cellpoint's ability to hire two senior executives from the leading Swedish wireless operator Telia is a further endorsement of their leading position within this industry the high regard other companies within the industry hold them. To address your final point, the Nov. 3 article in which Tero advocated Cellpoint was, as you point out, less than two weeks ago. You appear to have overlooked the fact that the time frame for the recommendations was six months. Do you really thinks it's realistic or useful to judge a stock recommendations based upon its performance during a two week period, especially one in which technology stocks, of which Cellpoint is one, have been crushed globally because of strange events in the U.S. presidential race and poor earnings from a couple of personal computer vendors. Check back in six months, and thanks for giving me the opportunity to discuss this interesting and upcoming company! Good Luck-- P.S. I recommend you educate yourself about Cellpoint and the other players in this space. As good a place as any to begin is Cellpoint's Corporate Update: cellpt.com. Then I would suggest you peruse the website paying particular attention to their press releases during the last year to follow their progress.

To: Labrador who wrote (55)	11/15/2000 10:51:16 AM
From: Dave	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9255

Labrador, Why must Nokia address GPS? Verizon has tentatively decided to use a network based location. Isn't Verizon the largest CDMA carrier in the US? Only sprint has decided to go with GPS on CDMA.... dave

To: Labrador who wrote (55)	11/15/2000 11:18:44 AM
From: tero kuittinen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9255

Lab - I think network-based localization tehcnologies are going to be more attractive than GPS. Simply because it's not reasonable to expect that replacing current mobile phones with GPS models can happen in less than 3 or 4 years. There is little enthusiasm among phone vendors in putting a GPS chip in all model ranges. With a network-based technology, you don't need this huge upgrade cycle to get localization services running. Picking the winners among different localization companies isn't easy. These stocks are event-driven and speculative; pure momentum plays. I don't see much sense looking at weekly swings - if you make a medium-term bet on this stuff, you better just forget about it and then think it through again after a couple of months. You win or you lose - but that's not going to be determined by what the sentiment is this month. In the M-commerce space, the stocks will likely keep having 10-20% swings - even within one trading day. Investors either accept it or they're better off with large-cap companies. I don't think Snaptrack is the worst enemy of Cellpoint - I think the biggest worry is competing network-based solutions. This stuff isn't retirement fund staple - but what the hell; if you're looking for a six-month sizzler it ain't going to be General Electric. No six-month bet can be called investing - it's speculating. A "recommendation" including the phrase "carrion stock" should be interpreted as a signal about the risk level. Tero