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

To: jackmore who wrote (20108)	3/8/2002 6:38:54 PM
From: S100	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196635

Interesting link, LOTS of good audio over the three days. Sprint did cover PTT --- Nextel has said they are and they are not going to into CDMA, but I think that all their public statement indicate that when they get the ability to change, they will go CDMA. They have got to change sometime, from iDEN to some technology and they have indicated, and to me it is logical, that they will go CDMA. Nextel has a lot of cash but they also have a lot of debt. … They have got to do something, I think, … they can stretch it out …but as people get to 3G, I think their situation will be more difficult. They have done a fabulous job at penetrating certain market with their PTT. That has been a very successful niche. It is much better than most people though back a couple of years ago. They have been very successful at it and they have NO competitors. But with 1x, they are going to have competitors. We will have that capability, we will have it as we convert to 3G, It probably will be changed a few months later.. So by the end of the year we should be in the market with that capability. That's going to be a whole different ball game for them and I am sure that VZ has indicated that they are going to have that capability also. The monopoly that they have is going to go away. And I think that will be a challenge. --- Nextel also made a presentation where they explained, with a lot of fancy footwork, the CDMA decision, perhaps will change in 2005. --- This from www.telecomasia.net. I have not seen it posted. --- UNICOM STAYS ON TARGET FOR 7M CDMA USERS THIS YEAR China Unicom is sticking to its target of 7 million subscribers on its nationwide CDMA network by the end of the year, Unicom president Wang Jianzhou told reporters outside a CDMA conference in Beijing. Wang admits that a shortage of CDMA handsets has slowed the adoption of the nascent service in China so far, but the company is confident that it can meet its target for the year. The company scaled back the service launch at the start of this year to trial status reportedly due to the handset draught. A full commercial service is scheduled for April. To date, only four out of 19 handset manufacturers earmarked to supply handsets for Unicom’s CDMA service have been able to deliver products to the operator. The major obstacle is Unicom’s adoption of an UIM (universal identity module) for its CDMA phones, which, unlike GSM handsets, traditionally do not use the removable card. Analysts estimate that only several hundred thousand handsets have been shipped to Unicom so far. Wang said the company is hoping to buy another 500,000 handsets in this month to alleviate the shortage. High subscription price and the lack of services have also been an issue for potential users, according to reports in the Chinese press and Chinese users on online discussion groups. Unicom is positioning the CDMA service as a premium offering for high-end users but have yet to work out early kinks in the system, such as lack of SMS interconnection with existing GSM users. While the operator promises to resolve these issues before the coming launch, analysts continue to doubt the popularity of the service because of price. “The resolution of the current handset shortage problems will not necessarily mean that the CDMA network will be able to attract subscribers, particularly with the company marketing CDMA as a premium service,” said Joe Locke, regional telecoms analysts at ABN AMRO bank in a note to clients. “We continue to have doubts as to how Unicom will be able to meet its subscriber targets for the new network, largely as almost all new cellular additions in China are in the prepaid segment. If Unicom maintains its stated strategy of not discounting CDMA tariffs, we think it unlikely that the new network will be able to churn subscribers of rival China Mobile’s network,” he continued.