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

To: alburk who wrote (5439)	12/13/2000 1:52:12 AM
From: lkj	Respond to of 197271

I would think that Nokia is more interested in CDMA infrastructure than anything else from Lucent. Here is an update on the US auction: Posted at 5:57 p.m. PST Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2000 Telecom companies bid for slice of the nation's airwaves BY HEATHER FLEMING PHILLIPS Mercury News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Telecommunications companies anxious for an extra slice of the nation's airwaves bid more than $501 million Tuesday, the first day of what is expected to be one of the most lucrative auctions held by the federal government. Up for sale are 422 nationwide licenses that are ideal for next-generation wireless services, which combine phone, voicemail and e-mail in a single hand-held device. Companies such as AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS and Cingular Wireless -- the joint venture of Pacific Bell parent SBC Communications and BellSouth -- are hungry for the new licenses to fill in gaps in their nationwide networks, and to add airwave capacity in crowded markets. As customers sign up for wireless phone service at record rates, companies hope additional spectrum will help reduce the busy signals, dead silence and dropped calls that are a growing problem in major metropolitan areas across the United States, including San Francisco and Los Angeles. Companies are also trying to position themselves for future growth in the wireless industry: wireless telephone subscription rose more than 24 percent to 86 million customers last year. Bidding is expected to be extremely competitive, with 87 companies eligible to participate and more than $1.8 billion in upfront payments collected. The auction, which is expected to last about a month, will reap between $15 billion and $20 billion for the federal government, Solomon Smith Barney estimates. In the first day, bidding climbed to $15.5 million for a license covering the San Francisco area. Sprint placed the bid -- the eighth highest of all the licenses up for grabs. Two of the Los Angeles licenses received high bids of $25.5 million -- one from Cellco Partnership, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone, and one from Salmon PCS, a small company with backing from Cingular Wireless. A company identified as 3G PCS, a Menlo Park small business, placed the highest bid for the third Los Angeles license at $19.1 million. A number of licenses are set aside for small entrepreneurs in smaller and rural markets in an effort to encourage new players in the communications market. Bidding in the larger markets is open to all companies, regardless of size. And since many of the licenses are reserved for small businesses, minority enterprises and rural companies, it also gives a chance for smaller niche players to develop particular cities or regions. But the government allows big companies and smaller companies to pair up, and some small companies have complained because so-called competitors have the backing of some of the biggest wireless companies in the country. Allegheny Communications, a small wireless company, unsuccessfully tried to get a federal court to delay the auction, saying the FCC rules gave large companies an unfair advantage. The auction marks the last chapter in a lengthy battle between the Federal Communications Commission and NextWave Telecom Inc. over the licenses. Hawthorne, N.Y.-based NextWave, a financially troubled company, won 90 of the licenses at issue four years ago at an FCC auction. NextWave bid nearly $5 billion for the licenses, but then was unable to pay its debt. The FCC reclaimed the company's licenses after it filed for bankruptcy protection, and its licenses are among those now being auctioned. NextWave had been battling in the courts and on Capitol Hill to keep its licenses and delay the FCC auction. The company's hopes faded last month when the Supreme Court refused to hear a NextWave appeal. NextWave had also sought congressional intervention. In the waning days of the year with Congress pressed to wrap up congressional spending bills, NextWave failed to win support for legislation to delay the auction. About a third of the U.S. population uses wireless service, which is far below countries such as Japan and those in Europe and still leaves room for growth. In Finland, more than 60 percent of the population has wireless telephones.

To: alburk who wrote (5439)	12/13/2000 10:10:20 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 197271

Has Nokia ever successfully manufactured asics. My recollection was that they didn't work well so they kind of gave up. Nokia's 5185i uses an internally developed chip....it has been accepted by Verizon for sale. Any opinions as to there CDMA wCDMA asic manufacturing capabilities? No way to tell....I think it is probably unlikely that they will meet the end of 2001 timeframe for 1x handsets. However, I do think that Nokia has increased the stature of IS-95 projects within the company. They are probably throwing more resources at the IS-95 projects than in the past. Slacker