To: S100 who wrote (4556 ) 3/4/2001 6:05:49 PM From: S100 Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 5390 QUALCOMM CHIEF COVERS HIS TRACKS AND CLEARS THE AIR Qualcomm CEO Irwin Jacobs digested a lesson this week that Fed Chief Alan Greenspan learned many moons ago: Wall Street will hang on your every word. Press reports had Jacobs saying to the European community recently that W-CDMA 3G rollouts would be delayed by several years. Those comments triggered instant terror in the wireless community - Qualcomm shares tanked 20 percent, investment banks downgraded Qualcomm and the stocks of supplier companies were also punished. Jacobs quickly found himself trying to erase his fingerprints on the whole snafu. During a shareholder's meeting this week, Jacobs said he was only "concerned" that European wireless operators will not be able to start selling units on the W-CDMA standard until next year. Earlier, it seemed Jacobs indicated operators would not be able to sell units for at least three more years. "Although these carriers eventually stand to reap the benefits of a 3G upgrade, there are mixed signals floating in the air pertaining to the timing of the infrastructure upgrades," Deutsche Banc Alex Brown Brian Moldoff said. The initial controversy was seen by some as a less-than-covert attempt to lift the stature of the CDMA2000 standard, which has taken a backseat to W-CDMA. Qualcomm has long touted the benefits of CDMA2000, drawing royalties off its usage in the process. Jacobs said later that 3G phone vendors are wise to developed equipment to support both standards. "Phones going forward will be multi-mode, multi-band and multi-network," said Jacobs. "If you're supporting W-CDMA and GSM, the cost of adding CDMA2000 is very low."