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

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (18647)	1/31/2002 9:22:11 AM
From: Jeff Vayda	Respond to of 197245

Nextel Keeps Looking For A Way To Move To 3G telecomweb.com By John Sullivan Interesting comment and synopsis on the deal - Jeff Vayda In the early days of the wireless boom, it was clear to a lot of people that there was money to be made in creating a mass market for cellular phones. The problem was that the system established by the Federal Communications Commission only allowed so many people through the gate. In response, a lot of people started developing clever ways to get around those limits. One of these was Nextel Communications [NXTL]. Originally a mobile dispatch company called FleetCall, Nextel made the perfect vehicle for cellular pioneer Craig McCaw to reenter the wireless market. After his efforts to acquire spectrum in FCC auctions were not as successful as hoped, McCaw poured more than a billion dollars into Nextel in 1995, and the company set about turning its nationwide collection of specialized mobile radio properties into another cellular network. It succeeded, becoming the nation's fifth largest cellular operator. However, having patched its network together in a different band, using a different technology than other carriers, it's often had to work harder to achieve that. The industry's evolution toward third-generation service has been tricky enough for more conventional cellular operators making the switch from time division to CDMA-based 3G standards. For Nextel, the challenge is that much more daunting. However, Nextel is thinking its way through the move, and has begun laying out strategic alliances and considering what its 3G presence will look like. The most drastic move so far is a new alliance with Qualcomm [QCOM] aimed at getting specific features of Nextel's service into the 3G architecture. The companies will develop a version of Nextel's "Direct Connect" push to talk feature for next generation CDMA networks. The QChat system, developed by Qualcomm as a VOIP application environment, uses a handset client based on Qualcomm's Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW). The network component is a specialized application server on the carrier's IP network that connects users on the fly, individually or in groups, to simulate a direct radio connection. It essentially acts as a sort of Internet chat room, with voice packets instead of text. The deal isa license of this application, although there's little doubt Qualcomm had Nextel in mind from the start. This wouldn't be the first time Qualcomm developed specialized extensions to CDMA technologies with a particular customer in mind. During its complex mating dance with the Chinese, for example, Qualcomm developed a version of CDMA that uses SIM cards. There's room for debate as to how important Direct Connect would be in a 3G environment, particularly since the companies are making much of the fact that it would be a global offering. In a statement on the deal, Qualcomm's Irwin Jacobs described a user in Boston as being "able to instantly communicate with a Direct Connect customer in Beijing." Direct Connect seems to be more in vogue with blue collar workgroups, contractors for example, and it's unclear just how many people in Boston will really feel the need to wake up someone in Beijing in the middle of the night to see how things are going there. However, Nextel clearly considers the feature a key differentiator, and wants to keep it. CEO Tim Donahue said "Nextel's value proposition is our differentiated wireless communications offerings, pure and simple." So an arrangement with Qualcomm to help interface Nextel's current feature set to 3G helps solve some of Nextel's thorny problems, but it raises a few of its own by complicating Nextel's relationship with Motorola [MOT]. Motorola is the only source of equipment for Nextel's current iDEN technology, and Nextel needs to keep Motorola reassured that it isn't being dumped in favor of a new partner. Nextel has so far been very careful about this. Donahue went so far as to promise that "when we make our 3G choice, Motorola will receive a minimum of fifty percent of our infrastructure and handset business." Just how that will be achieved remains to be seen. Especially as Nextel engages in complicated attempts to redraw its spectrum bands and relocate private users, it has plenty of delicate balancing acts to pull off if it's going to successfully make it to 3G. However, that's been the company's cross to bear since it moved into the cellular market. If any carrier can manage the transition, it's Nextel.

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (18647)	1/31/2002 9:56:04 AM
From: engineer	Respond to of 197245

IMHO.....I think the guy is blowing smoke.. He is playing upon the 3g confusion and trying to imply the same exists with 1x that exists with WCDMA.

To: Jeff Vayda who wrote (18647)	1/31/2002 10:11:04 AM
From: Keith Feral	Respond to of 197245

Pico cells, micro cells, macro cells, global area networks. There is a lot of network planning that needs to take place for 3G CDMA. Everything from existing spectrum to 3G spectrum to satellite spectrum. The current spectrum for wireless includes a single 1.25 MHZ carrier. Reviewing the CDG overview of 3G spectrum, the new 5 MHZ of spectrum would deliver an additional 3 1.25 MHZ carriers. (I had previously thought there would be 4 but forgot to account for the guardbands.) Globalstar is equipped to provide tri mode coverage for analog, CDMA, and GSM coverage. Now, it's long overdue to make this global network of 3G communications deliver voice, broadband, and wireless cable.