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

To: foundation who wrote (23941)	6/20/2002 7:06:17 AM
From: foundation	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 197032

Samsung outlines cdma2000 1X mission By Anne Young, Total Telecom, in Singapore 20 June 2002 Korean vendor thinks WCDMA is 'doubtful' in Korea; plans to target GSM operators with next-generation CDMA. Samsung executives were in ebullient mood at the CommunicAsia press conference Wednesday, although whether this was to do with Korea's victory over Italy in the World Cup or the vendor's confidence in its future 3G growth strategy was unclear. After encouraging journalists to engage in Korean football chants, Hyung-Kwon Song, vice president, overseas business management group, wireless systems, telecommunication network, got down to business by outlining Samsung's mission to encourage GSM operators to adopt cdma2000 1X overlays instead of building whole new networks based on wideband CDMA (WCDMA). And it became clear that the vendor, which was the first company to commercialize the cdma2000 1X platform, sees little future for WCDMA in Korea. Indeed, Young-Man Ji, vice president, marketing strategy team, mobile communication division, telecommunication network business, said he was "doubtful of WCDMA in Korea." This may seem an odd statement to make given that South Korea has issued two licenses to operators for WCDMA networks. But the WCDMA license holders, Korea Telecom Freetel (KTF) and SK Telecom (SKT), have in the meantime deployed next-generation cdma2000 1X EV-DO, which provides peak data rates of up to 2.4 megabits per second. How the Korean mobile operators will proceed with WCDMA is not clear, but Samsung is obviously convinced that they are in no great hurry to build expensive networks when they can already offer fast data rates to users simply by upgrading their existing CDMA networks. It's also clear that Samsung thinks there is an opportunity to persuade GSM operators not to go down the GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA route, but instead to install a cdma2000 1X EV-DO overlay that allows them to keep bits of their existing networks, such as the HLR (home location register) and the billing systems. At the U.S. CTIA event in March this year Qualcomm, Samsung and a number of other vendors unveiled the GSM1X system – a combination of cdma2000 1X radio access and GSM core network equipment, combined with cdma2000 R-UIM-enabled handsets. R-UIM is similar to the SIM card in a GSM phone and allows roaming between CDMA networks. "There is room to move into GSM markets," said Song. "There is a market opportunity." He added that one potential customer for the technology could be SingTel, which recently delayed awarding the contract to build its WCDMA-based 3G network. "The market will decide what happens with 3G," said Song. In the meantime Samsung is still keeping a large finger in the GSM and WCDMA pie – and indeed is one of the companies bidding for the Korean WCDMA network contracts. The company is also strong in the area of GSM handsets, and exhibited a series of new GPRS handsets at the CommunicAsia exhibition that are set to come onto the market later this year. The handsets include what Samsung claims to be the world's first GPRS video-on-demand phone, the SGH-V100, plus three other GPRS handsets – the SGH-S200, SGH-S100 and SGH-Q300. totaltele.com

To: foundation who wrote (23941)	6/20/2002 8:51:47 AM
From: waitwatchwander	Respond to of 197032

The reporting of China Unicon subscriber numbers is confusing. It appears that folks are mixing up the reporting of the parent and the operating unit. Given today's number from the "overseas-listed" unit, the parent now has just under 1.2 million subscibers. That would be the 785,000 new subscibers and 400,000 transferred from Great Wall. Does this make sense to others? Trevor

To: foundation who wrote (23941)	6/21/2002 3:36:52 AM
From: waitwatchwander	Respond to of 197032

China mobile phone users surge MANILA, PHILIPPINES \| Friday-Saturday, June 21-22, 2002 itmatters.com.ph HONG KONG -- In a tale of two cellular standards, China's duopoly mobile giants on Thursday reported steady growth on their GSM wireless networks, although China Unicom posted numbers that reconfirm the hard time it is having attracting users to its new CDMA network. Top carrier China Mobile (Hong Kong) said it added 1.83 million customers, or 2.4%, in the month through May 20. The numbers slightly top the1.81 million customers it added the previous month, and is roughly consistent with monthly additions in recent months. China Unicom, meanwhile, said it added 995,000 users to its GSM network in the month of May, up 3.2% from April, bringing total subscribers on its GSM network in 12 provinces to to 32.125 million. The carrier added 909,000 GSM users inApril. However, the CDMA-standard network that Unicom launched in January clocked just 785,000 subscribers as of the end of May, up about 12% from 702,000 in April. Shares in China Unicom plunged 2.96% in early Thursday trade, reaching a new record low of HK$6.55. The carrier this week has seen its lowest share price levels since listing two years ago, partly on worries about slow CDMA takeup. Overseas-listed China Unicom has said it hopes to enlist roughly 4.6 million-4.7 million CDMA users in its 12 provinces by yearend, a goal many company watchers say is overly ambitious. "The thing is that they're either going to have to really push the handset subsidy program across the country to get that going or else they're going to have to offer a significant number of free minutes," said Nomura International analyst Richard Ferguson, who has "sell" ratings on both companies. China Unicom, which is the country's lower-cost carrier, is positioning CDMA as a high-end service, a strategy that it has found difficult given the dearth of handset choices in China and few differentiators that might lure big-spending corporate users away from China Mobile. "Ultimately, what it shows is that CDMA doesn't work at the upper end of the market, which is dominated by China Mobile," Ferguson said. Earlier this month, China Unicom's state-owned parent firm said the carrier had surpassed the one million subscriber mark nationwide for CDMA subscribers. -- Reuters