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

To: Clarksterh who wrote (25001)	7/26/2002 8:46:45 PM
From: A.L. Reagan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 196387

These are exactly what Qualcomm claims - Strategic Investments!!! Even if they never come above water (and I suspect that in a few years they will), that is not their only purpose. They are furthering the rollout of CDMA systems, and now is probably about the best time to do that, when Qualcomm has cash and is cash flow positive I agree 100% with this Clark, but it does call into question the quality of earnings. A mid-1990's parallel in business and accounting was Boston Chicken aka Boston Markets. In order to further the rollout of the concept, these guys fell into an increasing money pit of lending money and investing in franchisees - so that the franchisees could then turn around and funnel royalty income and product purchases back to the franchisor. Same general idea as what QCOM does. The end result was that after an SEC investigation, earnings were restated for several years, Boston Market went BK, and the audit partner on the job was fined and barred by the SEC for five years. (I worked for this guy years ago.) Anyway, Boston Market blew up because the franchisees couldn't pay back the loans, and the SEC took the position that the loans and investments to the franchisees were just a means of circulating reported income through Boston Market's P&L, but that it wasn't real earnings. I think maybe the market is fearing, to some extent, that a variation of the Boston Market game is being played by QCOM, and that few of these investees and debtors can actually ante up at the end of the game. The continued emphasis on pro-forma earnings, in today's environment, only adds fuel to these suspicions. By no means is QCOM unique in this regard, but the whole VF and investment model is coming into question - and I think rightly so. You can see that, at least in the USA, important parts of the Qualcomm "value chain" is getting hit pretty hard. If the carriers can't perform better, in a generally robust consumer economy, what good is all the whiz-bang technology? Then what does that say about the company that sits at the head of the proprietary value chain?

To: Clarksterh who wrote (25001)	7/27/2002 1:09:00 PM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 196387

Re : possibility of Leap (Cricket) handset ending up in Latin America (and, being useful in Latin America). [Attention Moderated thread people -- this was also posted over on the SI Leap Wireless message board. It was in response to these comments : *************************************** "Someone could make a nice profit buying Cricket Phones new in the Box when they are $29 with instant rebate, and shipping them off to Latin America where Cell phones are not subsidized to the extent they are here in the US! If a company offered you a New Nokia Phone and a month of service for $29 with no contract. However, you decided to not activate the phone, and instead you turn around and ship the New phone in the Box,, that you purchased in a completely legal transistion to Latin America where the Phone would be sold at a Profit." ************************** Please direct replies to this post over at the Leap message board : Message 17802539 Thanks. Jon.] ******************** Okay ... I am finally going to ask something that has "bugged" me (on and off) over the years ... (And, which I still have never asked on any of these SI message boards, possibly because I am reluctant to reveal my lack of electrical engineering and / or software knowledge ...) First -- I was under the impression that each and every wireless carrier is assigned a specific frequency band by the FCC (or whatever governmental agency oversees such matters in a foreign country). For example, Verizon Wireless might have 844 MHz - 859 MHz in the Chicago IL area (for their CDMA 800 MHz service), while someone else that serves Chicago IL (Alltel Wireless or ... I don't know who) would be granted permission to use some other slice around 800 MHz ... but clearly NOT 844 MHz - 859 MHz. Is this correct ? Next ... Verizon's wireless operations and Alltel's wireless operations presumably have different accounting software and just different software in a lot of areas ... (I am under the impression that each and every time you pick up your handset to make a call, there is a brief period during which the carrier's system checks out your phone's ID (and thus, you) to see if you have been paying your bills, before letting the call get completed. Right ? So, this is an area of software where I assume it is very unlikely that all wireless carriers have absolutely identical and inter-changeable software. Right ?) So ... therefore it seems obvious that a Qualcomm "Thin Phone" with Verizon stamped on the front of it should only be useful on Verizon's wireless system. Is this correct ? Unless, someone wanted to perform alterations to the ASIC chip inside the handset and / or the operating software inside the handset. Is this correct ? Given that handsets and ASIC chips are not like some very expensive "state of the art" Intel processor, I cannot believe that it is worth someone's time and energy to have to go fiddle around with a "foreign" ASIC chip, in order to "mold" it to being useful some place other than its original target wireless carrier or geographic location. All of you people who actually know about this stuff ... please comment ! Jon. P.S. I am also going to post this over on the SI Qualcomm "Moderated" thread, in an attempt to catch the eye of some (other) "smart" people ...