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

To: Ramsey Su who wrote (25161)	8/1/2002 6:23:30 PM
From: Ramsey Su	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197037

zdnet.com.cn July 31, 2002 Unicom pleases handset channel partners. Promised 4 policies to promote CDMA. Reportedly, Unicom hosted a "CDMA value chain" meeting in Beijing, exhibited an attitude of cooperation with the resale partners that had never been seen before. They further stated that they will adopt full effort plans to meet the 7 million sub target for the year. According to Kong Yu Communication Daily (a newspaper), on July 26, Unicom invited CDMA manufacturers, CDMA retailers, resellers, servicers etc to a CDMA meeting. Its objective is to discuss CDMA product value chain, the current issues and it future outlook. Unicom President (?) Wong suggested that the CDMA value chain can be separated into 3 parts: the manufacturers, the network of retailers and the customers. The common goal is to create value for the customer. Unicom is soliciting ideas from all the partners with the objective of closely coordinating this value chain. According to Wong, Unicom intends to promote confidence in the partners that Unicom has not changed its 7 million sub target, hoping to fulfill this goal with max effort the second half of the year. Wong further indicated that the current CDMA business has improved. As of July 23, new subs exceeded 1.2 million. Adding the 400,000 Great Wall subs, total CDMA subs now exceeded 1.6 million. Breaking it down, Guangtong province has 250,000 subs, (3 other) provinces have 100,000 subs, (2 other) provinces have 60,000k subs. In the last two days, Shangtong was selling 6k per day. According to a Unicom "vice something" (don't know how to translate title), CDMA market is still just starting. In June, CDMA averaged 5k new subs per day, the first part of July averaged 10,000 per day and the second half of July averaged between 15,000 to 20,000 per day. The CDMA ARPU is 2 times that of GSM so far. Furthermore, CDMA was targeting the middle and high end market. He suggested that Unicom will be deploying 4 strategies to stimulate the market including more advanced market analysis, promoting products suitable for the Universities school year, coordinate brand name promotion campaigns, expand retail channel cooperation with win win relations and solve the end product shortage problem. According to Wong, the next step is to perfect the network. In the immediate future, Beijing would be "perfecting 1000 towers" and Shanghai 800. (unclear what these things are) In addition, Wong said they would greatly promote retail and resell agents to stimulate the market. The report also included some skeptic opinions from some partners. One manufacturer thinks they need to see if Unicom's plans are attainable. He opined that CDMA has two weaknesses, one being price and the other being promotion/advertising. For example central TV was recently broadcasting that a regional unicom subsidiary was punished for undercharging is putting the retailers in an awkward position. According to analysts, this unicom move is clearly in response to what appears to be the market's lack of confidence in CDMA. During the past 2 months, Unicom's price already dropped by 10%. One analyst was questioning the 4.6 million target while another (I think it translates to Goldman Sachs) is maintaining their 2.6 million target.