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 : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (97091)	4/7/2001 8:38:05 AM
From: John Carragher	Respond to of 152472

barrons this weekend.. France Telecom Chairman and CEO Michel Bon cleared up some confusion about a 2 billion euro loan the company had made to MobilCom, a German wireless phone company in which France Telecom's Orange subsidiary has a 28.5% stake. Thanks to 1.6 billion euros in vendor financing that MobilCom extracted from Nokia and Ericsson for a third-generation network buildout in Germany, the loan was automatically reduced to 400 million euros. Still, skeptically minded investors wanted to know whether the French company was ultimately still on the hook for the 1.6 billion euros should things go wrong, since MobilCom is not nearly as good a credit risk as FT. There's no recourse to France Telecom, Bon replied in an interview with journalists Thursday. For a company as big as FT, 1.6 billion euros mightn't seem onerous, but it's trying to reduce its 61 billion euro debt load by 20-30 billion euros over the next couple of years, so every bit counts. Bon also took the opportunity to argue that German regulators should look favorably on embryonic talks between telecom operators to share 3G infrastructure costs. German licenses were among the most expensive, and there are more 3G competitors there than any other European country, "so if there is to be an improvement in 3G, it should start in Germany," he asserts. Worries about the heavy investment costs for these next-generation cell phones has hit operator stocks hard. "My bet is that it will take place," Bon adds of the infrastructure share. He also suggested that operators be allowed to trade licensed blocks of 3G radio spectrum as a way to encourage consolidation. Right now, a merger could force a company to give up a costly 3G license.

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (97091)	4/7/2001 9:02:54 AM
From: quartersawyer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

How is that fair? Wouldn't be... if it were done that way. It has to be across the board, and can be. Tax breaks, etc. The probable survivors of the debacle of course insist that their competition is being destroyed fair and square by the governments' fees, but pulling $100 billion out of the wireless industry for distribution out of governments' general coffers is bad for Qualcomm beyond "a few pennies". The potential costs of the delay of progress in building out 3G CDMA is, say 5% of 200 billion in infrastructure plus user devices for an extra three years. 10+ billion investable dollars right out of the gate (and the clock is ticking for Q's 3G technology). The European governments have nearly pounded the admittedly stupid golden goose to death. Maybe the operators were insufficiently trained in freely competitive conditions to hold their water in the bidding. In any event, a bad enough set of mistakes was made to absolutely threaten the industry, and that is bad for us. Didn't Perry La Forge say we need GPRS to work? I don't think that was tongue in cheek. He meant they need money to spend in our direction, no?