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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stock Farmer who wrote (124973)	10/31/2002 12:31:18 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 152472

Dow Jones Business News China Moves To Commercialize Domestic 3G Mobile Standard Wednesday October 30, 11:47 pm ET BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- China's government has taken further steps to bring its homegrown third-generation mobile technology closer to commercial use, giving it a dedicated band of radio spectrum and pushing domestic equipment makers to support the standard. The technology, known by the acronym TD-SCDMA, was developed by the Chinese state-owned firm Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group in cooperation with Siemens AG . They have promoted it as China's solution for 3G mobile, the next-generation technology that promises to allow people to send pictures, music and other digital information at high speeds between their mobile phones. The other two standards for next-generation wireless are W-CDMA, backed by European and Japanese companies, and cdma2000, backed by South Korean and U.S. firms including Qualcomm Inc. (NasdaqNM:QCOM - News) . Both of those standards have entered commercial use, though on a small scale, while products based on TD-SCDMA aren't yet available. At a government-sponsored ceremony Wednesday, Datang and seven other Chinese companies - including heavyweights Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. - announced their support of the standard by forming the TD-SCDMA Industrial Alliance. In a statement, Datang said it would share its TD-SCDMA patents with other members of the alliance, in a bid to accelerate development of commercial TD- SCDMA products. And the Ministry of Information Industry, China's telecom regulator, is also making preparations for the standard's eventual commercial use. In a document dated October and seen Thursday, it allocated bands of radio spectrum to each of the three 3G mobile standards. W-CDMA and cdma2000 were each given a block of 60 megahertz, while TD-SCDMA got two blocks totaling 55 Mhz. In a separate announcement Wednesday, U.S. telecom equipment maker UTStarcom Inc. (NasdaqNM:UTSI - News) , which has a strong presence in China, also said it planned to offer TD-SCDMA equipment in the future, in addition to gear based on the other two 3G wireless standards. However, it is unclear whether the vendors backing the standard will be able to make a compelling case for TD-SCDMA to China's mobile operators - or even whether all the members of the alliance are strongly committed to it. "It is notable that the government has compelled the local industry to step forward and show support for the national standard," said Peter Lovelock, a consultant with MFC Insight. "It is equally notable, however, that almost nothing in the way of commitment is being required." TD-SCDMA is incompatible with the two other 3G standards used elsewhere in the world, which would make it difficult for TD-SCDMA users to roam to other mobile networks. And with few companies competing to sell equipment, prices are likely to be higher than gear based on global standards. Those factors limit the enthusiasm of mobile operators for the technology. TD- SCDMA's backers hope the government will require companies to use the technology, perhaps as a condition for a 3G operating license. But analysts point out that while the ministry's public rhetoric has always praised TD-SCDMA, it didn't give the standard particularly favorable treatment in the spectrum allocation. While it got another band of 100 Mhz in addition to the 55 Mhz blocks, that has to be shared with other applications. -By Andrew Batson, Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588-5848; andrew.batson@dowjones.com biz.yahoo.com

To: Stock Farmer who wrote (124973)	10/31/2002 8:13:54 AM
From: kech	Respond to of 152472

John - Even if Q doesn't make a whole lot of money off of China (and I am not as pessimistic as you are about that) China is still critically important for driving the stake into finishing off the GSM standard. This power is largely because both standards are in head to head competition and there is no entrenched reason for the country to prefer one or the other. US market is also critical in this respect but with China as a green field market ADDING NEW CAPACITY at a rapid growth rate the inherent advantages of CDMA will be seen more quickly there. From this perspective China could be the crack in the damm -- unfortunately China knows it and wants to extract as much rent as possible from this critical position. Paradoxically, these delays can weaken its importance and erode the rents it can get over time. If it dinks around trying to get the last 1% out of Q or tries to come up with an inadequate domestic chipset (that undermines their ability to successfully export as well as undermines domestic growth) then their critical position will be undermined and eyes will shift to India and or Latin America or even the US market. Tom