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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Verve who wrote (2429)	12/23/2000 7:46:28 PM
From: S100	Respond to of 12236

I have been wondering the same for some time. I note that NTT DOCoMo has been running a large ad in foreign newspapers for a while and I think I have seen some the WSJ. I know there is one in the current Barron's. All are the same, WCDMA in May 2001, use the term FOMA. The WCDMA design specs(not to be confused with the 3GPP or 3GPP2 docs) seem to be less than optimal, the original chip rate, still given in some out of date posts as 4096, was cut down by exactly 1/16 to meet some bandwidth requirements. The specs were whacked by the same amount, which would seem to give some problems in both design and performance. If WCDMA takes off, investing in the infrastructure suppliers should be rewarding. I like this from the current Barron's. Booby Awards, wonder if he will turn out to be correct? ---- In an effort to lighten up an otherwise dismal year, this column begins its first annual European Shareholder Booby Awards, or the "ESBAs." The Build It and We'll Figure Out How to Sell It Later prize for throwing away shareholder money goes to the European telecom industry. Nearly all the major incumbents are proposing to invest scores of billions of dollars to build a 3G cell-phone infrastructure over the next two to three years, the return on which is anything but assured. The Build It and We Don't Care What Happens Later award goes to the tech companies like Nokia, Alcatel, Ericsson, and Nortel, among many others, which are happy to sell-to paraphrase V.I. Lenin, the rope with which many telecoms firms may one day hang themselves.

To: The Verve who wrote (2429)	12/23/2000 8:44:39 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12236

The 3G auction in Europe puts the carriers under a lot of pressure. QUALCOMM has produced a W-CDMA ASIC, so it seems possible. But the royalty business isn't agreed by the GSM Guild and W-CDMA royalty-sharing club. I still have no idea why W-CDMA is supposed to be better than cdma2000. But it does seem that people are getting serious and they really do seem bent on cobbling W-CDMA together with Chicken Wire and Bubble Gum, even if it is not as effective as cdma2000, gives no backward compatibility to anything and still seems to be more of a gleam in the eye than near-term reality. None of them seem to be in any hurry and of course Nokia would love it if GSM simply remained the standard since they have a huge market share and vast profits from GSM sales. As soon as CDMA gains ground, Nokia loses market share unless they can catch up - unlikely to get similar market share even if they do well, due to the number of competitors. I think they are all still in the 'pedal slowly' mode. But they can't go slow for long. Their 3G prices were high. They need a return on investment. Interestingly, QUALCOMM seems as ready as anyone for W-CDMA, with their ASIC already demonstrated. As Irwin has always said, he doesn't care what flavour, just make it CDMA and make it soon. Mqurice