Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: JohnG who wrote (10017)	3/22/2001 8:16:54 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 34857

Qualcomm rolls services, chips for cdma2000 By Rick Merritt EE Times (03/22/01, 5:40 p.m. EST) LAS VEGAS — Qualcomm Inc. pushed forward its favored brand of third-generation cellular this week, describing both next-generation chip sets and plans for services using its cdma2000 version of code-division multiple access technology. Chairman and chief executive Irwin Jacobs also used the opportunity to take a dig at competing wideband CDMA. The WCDMA standard faces as many as 200 revisions to its release zero of December 1999, Jacobs said at a news conference at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association's Wireless 2001 show here. "A lot of these changes are not backward-compatible. And you now have to go through a period of very expensive testing," Jacobs said. "If there is a significant delay in WCDMA, I think cdma2000 will have a significant advantage in handsets and infrastructure and that will carry forward into the future. WCDMA will find it hard to catch up," Jacobs said. The Qualcomm executive had been quoted a few weeks ago in Financial Times as saying he thought WCDMA rollouts could be delayed until 2004-2005, a comment at least one handset maker said was wrong. "I hope they are correct," Jacobs said. For its part, Qualcomm is pushing for a high-data-rate version of cdma2000, dubbed 1xEV, to be deployed as soon as possible. At the conference, Korea Telecom Freetel said it will roll out that technology, which supports data rates up to 2.4 Mbits/second, as soon as next year. Won-Pyo Hong, executive vice president of planning and coordination at Korea Telecom Freetel, said about 6 percent of the company's revenue is for data services now, but he expects that to hit 10 percent in May when the company rolls out a 1x cdma2000 service. Next year with the rollout of 1xEV he expects data revenues to rise to 15 percent of the company's total revenues. Jacobs said other carriers in Korea, Japan and the United States are looking toward cdma2000 rollouts. But in a separate panel discussion, Tom Trinneer, vice president for portal development at AT&T Wireless, detailed his company's plans to migrate to WCDMA in 2003. Companies representing as many as 297 million cellular subscribers have pledged to move to WCDMA, Trinneer said, compared with about 75 million migrating to cdma2000. "It's all about volume," Trinneer said. "We all have our cool bits and wave forms, but volume deployment is what is key." Because cdma2000 does not require new spectrum and has a lower cost, it is the best route to high-data-rate cellular services, Jacobs said. But, he said, Qualcomm charges the same fees for cdma2000, cdmaone and WCDMA intellectual property. "There are a variety of other companies that claim IPR [intellectual property rights] for WCDMA, and I suspect rightly so," Jacobs said. "What they do in royalty collection is up to them." Silicon support To further buttress Qualcomm's cdma2000 plans, Qualcomm announced a range of 6000 series chip sets. They will support not only cdma2000 but other second- and third-generation cellular standards, including GSM, General Packet Radio Service and even WCDMA. Entry-level chip sets support data rates up to 150 kbits/s, while midrange and high-end versions support 300 kbits/s and higher. The high-end MSM6500 chip set will support 1xEV at data rates up to 2.4 Mbits/s as well as GSM and GPRS. The MSM6600 will support cdma2000 1x and WCDMA. Both will support position technology based on Qualcomm's Snaptrack acquisition as well as Bluetooth and MP3 decode. But neither will be available until the first half of 2003. The chip sets are the company's first to include a low-cost Java hardware accelerator developed in-house, Jacobs said. Qualcomm also demo'd a version of its Brew environment for 3G applications using the Micro Chai Java software from HP. The Micro Chai demo was the first external use of the software outside HP, said William Woo, general manager of HP's embedded software group. HP plans to use MicroChai in the point-of-sale terminals made by its Verisign division.

To: JohnG who wrote (10017)	3/23/2001 12:58:50 PM
From: Puck	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 34857

The following USA Today article says that there isn't sufficient radio spectrum available here in the U.S. for the implementation of 3G wireless services. As far as governmental ineptitude, this would take the cake, JohnG, far in excess of any beaurocratic bundling the EU has done, and would severely retard the growth of the U.S. market. As the U.S. is Qualcomm's stronghold, this development should be of intense interest to Qualcomm shareholders. usatoday.com Faster, glitzier wireless service faces hurdles By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY The mobile phone industry may not be able to secure the airwaves it says it needs to provide "third-generation" services, such as video and audio, to small wireless devices. Two federal reports due out next week are expected to oppose proposals to free up two prime radio frequency bands for so-called 3G services by displacing the current users. Among other features, 3G would let mobile customers use hand-held gadgets or laptops to surf the Web quickly, view electronic maps and transfer big files from PCs. Today's Web services on cellphones are frustratingly slow. Sprint PCS and Verizon Communications still plan to roll out early versions of 3G by next year, and some experts say enough spectrum is available for the short term. But the inability to snare choice airwaves could mean delays in rolling out advanced services as well as higher retail costs and slower transmission speeds, industry executives say. "Without (the spectrum), we will not have services comparable to those around the world," says Steve Sharkey of Motorola, a top manufacturer. That could hamper U.S. ability to compete in a global economy, wireless officials say. The most coveted spectrum is now used by the Defense Department for satellite tracking, radio communication and other purposes. A Commerce Department report based largely on Pentagon input will say that sharing those airwaves with 3G services would cause excessive interference, say industry representatives familiar with the report. And moving the military to other airwaves would be too disruptive, the study is expected to say. Sharkey disputes both contentions. Defense says it could move many services by 2010 and others by 2017. That's too late, some executives say. The Federal Communications Commission is expected to issue a similarly gloomy report on the prospect of freeing another chunk of airwaves. That swath is used by schools for distance learning and by carriers that beam high-speed data to offices via antennas. An important consideration for the wireless industry is that an international consortium earmarked three frequency bands — including these two under review — for worldwide usage. Global consistency would let customers use the same devices anywhere. Making different equipment for different countries "substantially increases costs" and retail prices, and delays rollouts, says Barbara Baffer of Ericsson. "I don't buy that," says Gartner analyst Bob Egan, adding that future software-based devices will be able to work with networks on various frequencies. And some experts are skeptical about 3G, citing lukewarm demand. Although Commerce and the FCC will not make final decisions until summer, the reports signal their leanings. Mobile phone executives still hope to persuade the Bush administration to override a Defense view largely formed under the Clinton administration.