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

To: John Biddle who wrote (28737)	11/11/2002 10:37:39 AM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197030

Building a Better Ring Tone By Jay Wrolstad Wireless NewsFactor November 11, 2002 wirelessnewsfactor.com Ring tones have been a successful application around the world, and more recently in the United States, said Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin, who noted that Faith's efforts to be the first with polyphonic ringers could give the company an edge. For those who can't get too excited about the cute but cheesy monotone ringers available for cell phones , a new technology promises to deliver a fuller, more imaginative sound by putting a synthesizer in the handset. Faith West is bringing its Modtones polyphonic ring tones to the United States after gaining a big following among mobile phone fanatics on its home turf in Japan. Modtones can replicate the sound of several instruments simultaneously, delivering up to 16 tones in a single ringer. Composing for the Cell Phone The technology is the first of its kind, according to Faith West executive vice president Carolynne Scholeder. It uses a wavetable synthesizer embedded in the device to let users add a personal touch to their phones. "We have composers working on what sounds good and which instruments to use to best replicate a song. This makes it a lot more fun to use the latest handsets," she told NewsFactor. Must-Have MIDI Modtones does require a phone enabled with MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) technology because it uses modified MIDI files. For now, it is only available on CDMA (code division multiple access) phones, as an application on the BREW (binary runtime environment for wireless) platform, although GSM (global system for mobile communications) compatibility is in the works. The company has about 400 songs in its catalog, which Scholeder said is growing, with choices that include classic rock and hip-hop. In the United States, Modtones is available from Verizon Wireless and Sprint (NYSE: FON) on the service providers' new data networks, with customers able to browse the catalog and download a favorite tune as a ring tone. Sound and Pictures The cost -- US$1.49 for each selection, five for $6.95, or 10 for $9.99 -- is added to the customer's cell phone bill. Phones generally can hold from a half-dozen to 100 ring tones, depending on memory capacity and other design features. Voice message ring tones are available as well, and the company is working on adding text and animation to the musical ringers through use of compact media extension (CMX) technology. Faith's patented technology reduces the MIDI file to about half its original size, said Scholeder, making it a good fit for mobile phones. Japan's leading wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) , has adopted Modtone for its i-mode service, and the tone generator has reached 70 percent of the Japanese market. Handset Availability a Question Scholeder said the company has targeted young, tech-savvy consumers, but added that Modtones is for anyone who enjoys music and wants to personalize their phone. There are others in the market, such as Moviso and YourMobile, but Scholeder contends they are playing catch-up in the effort to offer polyphonic ring tones. Ring tones have been a successful application around the world, and more recently in the United States, said Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) analyst Charles Golvin, who noted that Faith's efforts to be the first with polyphonic ringers could give the company an edge. "Carriers are reporting that ring tones are generating revenue on the data side, but the downside is that the number of polyphonic-capable handsets is still pretty small," he told NewsFactor. Still, Golvin said that among buyers of new handsets, applications such as polyphonic ring tones may be more important than data-centric applications.

To: John Biddle who wrote (28737)	11/11/2002 10:55:49 AM
From: engineer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 197030

the only reason they would be denied roaming contracts is if the companies locked them out. In the US, this is anti-trust... There is no reason that a GSM1x phone could not support GSM also, since it contains all the major pieces to do GSM. RUIM card, GSM stacks and roaming tables, and the GSM frequency range. With ZIF technology, there is no reason that QCOM could not provide a GSM1x and GSM/1x phone all in the same package. The GSM1x standard proposed by Qualcomm calls out GSM as a fallback mode. It would also not make sense for the GSM carrier to obsolete all the GSM phones and equipment out on the network, so GSM would still exist as an underlying network protocol. When VZ put in CDMA, they took the older analog out to the lower use areas and extended coverage. I cannot imagine that QCOM would not have a GSM fallback mode in the phone for when the person traveled outside the GSM1x area and into a older GSM based area. Thus the statements about no roaming are pure FUD.