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

To: limtex who wrote (12067)	6/25/2001 9:07:04 PM
From: Kent Rattey	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 196958

Hutchison Telecommunications Ltd., is considering both W-CDMA and CDMA2000 as the platforms for 3G. [3G Congress] Japan, Korea to Lead in Implementing 3G Telecom Networks June 19, 2001 (HONG KONG) -- Although Korea will stage the first implementation of an evolved CDMA2000 system 1x, it Japan will be first in the Asian region to launch innovative 3G services. The most colorful applications are expected from J-Phone Communications Ltd, which is positioning itself to be Japan's "number two" wireless carrier. According to Koichi Sakata, chairman of Japan Telecom and president J-Phone Communications, the company plans to deploy 3-D graphics capability using Java for gaming applications. Entertainment, games and music applications are likely to be launched by the end of June. The technology platform of choice in going to pre-3G and 3G services is W-CDMA. Also, J-Phone will deploy WAP 2.0 using XML for applications development. The company hopes to make its services available across Japan by the fall of 2002. KDDI, a key competitor to DoCoMo, will launch 1x services around the fall of this year, followed by 1x-EV in 2002. According to Kazutomo Hori, president and chief executive officer of Cybird Co., NTT DoCoMo's mobile services have been a success because the company understood the value chain and the relevance of coordinating technology, its business model, operator issues and developer relations. NTT DoCoMo's i-Mode services have page hits of 10.8 per user a day, Hori said. A typical user sends and receives 7.6 e-mails a day and 91 percent of the mobile users accessed the Internet at least once a week. Korea is mature from a 1x network perspective -- two operators have deployed in the urban areas. Handsets capable of supporting color and multimedia applications are available but expensive, and it won't be until late 2002 that volumes will drive down price, according to industry sources. However, the availability of a platform does not mean that services would be rolled out soon. KT Freetel, which has bought Qualcomm's BREW (binary runtime environment for wireless), is still unsure what the nature of content and applications will be. In Hong Kong, there is a delay in auctioning 3G spectrum but recent announcements indicate September as the earliest date. Operators like CSL Hong Kong say the delay has been helpful because it has given them time to explore issues concerning "always on," GPRS, and killer applications. Hutchison Telecommunications Ltd., is considering both W-CDMA and CDMA2000 as the platforms for 3G. The auction process itself as been described as pro-entry and designed to allow players with moderate resources and MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) to bid. M.H. Au, secretary-general of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority, said the avoidance of stress on up-front payment, the schedule of minimum payment after six years, and the so-called fourth lever rule (an estimate of payment based on business plan) would help lower access barriers. Singapore, which has issued three licenses to existing mobile operators, will see the collapse of one CDMA network by end of the year. Mobile One (Asia) has decided to close the network and replace it with a 3G-ready GSM upgrade (on the path to W-CDMA). China will deploy voice services in the initial stages of 3G when it becomes operative toward the end of next year, according to Shihe Li, deputy chief engineer at China Academy of Telecommunications and Technology, at the 3G World Congress here on June 14. Li said by the end of 2002 there would be no more radio spectrum left in the bigger cities for 2G voice mobile services, and so operators will use 3G infrastructure to deliver voice services. Mobile Internet and data services on 3G would roll out a year later. China offers mobile data services on GPRS on a lesser scale than voice. By 2006, mobile data traffic on 3G and 2G combined will exceed the voice traffic. By end of 2005, the number of subscribers to 2G and 3G services combined will surpass 300 million. Already, China has more than 100 million mobile subscribers. Also, India plans to roll out 1x networks. Tata Teleservices is implementing the technology in the southern city of Hyderabad. In Indonesia, PT Mobile Selular Indonesia (Mobisel) plans to replace its NMT technology with CDMA infrastructure using the 450MHz band. (M. K. Shankar, Special to AsiaBizTech)