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

To: slacker711 who wrote (28971)	11/15/2002 8:47:29 PM
From: slacker711	Respond to of 197238

CDMA: Better Late than Never Bharti finally dilutes its anti-CDMA stance and gives a tactical embrace to the technology voicendata.com Sudesh Prasad Saturday, November 09, 2002 Bharti’s reported plans of foray into the CDMA space through its basic services arm Bharti Telenet did not come as a surprise. After putting up a brave front for long, Bharti appears to have given in to market realities. The development is the culmination of a series of ongoing efforts. Bharti had earlier set up a committee to study the feasibility of its entry into CDMA-based limited mobility services. Though the company has denied reports saying it only wants the spectrum to facilitate it to make faster rollout of its basic services by the use of CDMA-based fixed wireless terminals, insiders say that this is just a precursor to Bharti’s imminent entry into CDMA-based cellular services. CDMA Is NO more untouchable Mittal Bharti’s inclination towards CDMA was hastened as a result of some related and fast changing developments in the last fortnight or so. Reliance’s reported plans to launch nationwide CDMA services compounded Bharti’s plans of projecting itself as a player with the largest cellular coverage in the country. Reliance, it is reliably learnt, is planning to launch Multiple Subscription Services (MSS) that allows a specific subscriber to use the same handset for making./receiving calls in more than one SDCA while complying with limited mobility. With MSS, the customer will not have to change the handset when he moves to any of the SDCAs that he has subscribed to. For each SDCA, the subscriber will be given a different mobile directory number (MDN) and the SDCA may or may not be in the same circle. Any incoming calls coming to any of the MDNs in different SDCAs will be diverted (if required) to the active MDN. In other words, this means unrestricted mobility and roaming facility for the CDMA subscriber, another bad news for GSM operators. It may also be noted that Reliance has the license for 18 basic circles as compared to Bharti, which has the license for only five circles. Similarly, Tata Teleservices has become aggressive on the CDMA front, undeterred by the fact that Tata is part of GSM-based service provider operations Idea Cellular. It is also significant that Tata Teleservices has acquired a majority stake in Hughes Tele.com, which is a leading basic player in Mumbai, one of India’s most lucrative markets for telecom services. Bharti has recently entered the GSM space in Mumbai and claims to have acquired 1 lakh subscribers, which many say is too high a claim, but that’s another matter. Bharti sees Tata Teleservices, which is all set to launch CDMA-based services in Mumbai, as a clear threat to its newly acquired subscriber base. MTNL, with its highly successful WLL operations in Delhi and Mumbai—to the extent that it had to stop issuing new connection due to capacity optimization—has added extra lines in both the cities and is now gearing up for a renewed push for its WLL services. It plans to add about 1 lakh WLL subscribers once the upgradation of the network is complete. The next phase of rollout would be based on advanced CDMA technology capable of offering CLI and other data services as well. Besides WLL, MTNL ‘s GSM-based cellular services are picking up and all that doesn’t augur well for Bharti. Bharti has come to be known as a company specializing in high-profile launches, be its IPO launched in January this year or the series of cellular launches recently across the country. But there is no great news for Bharti on stock market front. Its IPO, launched with a floor price of 45 in January 2002, has been hovering around Rs 28 for the past couple of weeks. The entry of Bharti into CDMA space weakens the battle that it was spearheading against CDMA through COAI. The case is currently pending before the Supreme Court. Sunil Mittal, CMD, Bharti has been on record saying that the company was fully geared to meet the "perceived threat’’ from wireless in local loop limited mobility services. Not long ago, he had added that with cellular tariff rates falling at a fast pace, the tariff differential between both the services would become marginal. All that seems to be history now with this sudden change in Bharti’s strategy. The new strategy is going to have a wide ranging impact on the economic viability of its GSM services. One interpretation of Bharti’s reported belated entry into CDMA could be that it has lost the early mover advantage in the space, apart from showing a lack of confidence in GSM, a cause that it has always espoused. But to be fair, sagacity has prevailed and Bharti has come to realize the ground realities of the Indian telecom turf, which is changing at a pace as fast as the technology. Sudesh Prasad

To: slacker711 who wrote (28971)	11/16/2002 11:26:58 AM
From: slacker711	Respond to of 197238

India must love this.....as far as I know, there isnt a single handset manufacturer with a plant in India. voicendata.com Surana Telecom to Manufacture WLL Handsets Saturday, November 09, 2002 As India Inc opens up its communication policies in favour of the end user, there has been an increasing demand for better communications equipment within the country. To address this need, Surana Telecom Ltd (STL), a Hyderabad-based telecom equipment maker, has tied up with LG Electronics to manufacture handsets for code division multiple access (CDMA), or wireless in local loop (WLL) phones. "There has been a dearth of better India made communication equipment and we are going to address this need. CDMA handset has been widely dubbed as a common man's mobile and as BSNL gets more and more customers for its WLL services, there will be a lot of demand towards this end. We want to be there for the common man by manufacturing CDMA handsets within Hyderabad," said Narender Surana, Managing Director, STL. This move by STL will surely spur the growth of mobile community within the country as more and more people will go for the cheap tariff backed CDMA handsets and increase the overall tele-density of the country. To start with, STL will be making 4.2 lakh CDMA handsets, with technology from LG Electronics. STL has submitted bids for the supply of CDMA handsets to state-owned telecom giant, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and it will also be making 2.8 lakh portable CDMA kits. Surana said STL would be setting up an assembly plant for the CDMA project. The handsets will be supplied in semi-knocked down kits and will be assembled at the plant, which will be located at STL's manufacturing unit in Hyderabad. STL is one of India's largest manufacturers of optical fiber cable and jelly-filled cables, with manufacturing units based in Hyderabad and Goa. Most of the fiber and jointing kits are sold to BSNL through the usual bidding process. Dogged by cut-throat competition and delay in BSNL contracts, STL didn't had a good performance in the second quarter of 2002-03, with the company recording a net profit of Rs 10.2 lakh on net sales of Rs 5.3 crore, against a net profit of Rs 1.38 crore on net sales of Rs 10.51 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. It is interesting to note that the past few months have been tough on OFC producers within the Indian region as private sector telecom companies prefer fiber imported from Europe and the US, from manufacturers like Corning, who had a glut of the product because telecom companies in the US like WorldCom crashed. STL's Goa unit manufactures optical fiber cable besides other telecom equipment. Indian fiber manufacturers have been lobbying the government to slap anti-dumping duties on imported fiber optic cables, but the government is yet to take a decision on this front.