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

To: foundation who wrote (29831)	12/8/2002 7:51:10 PM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197208

Multi-Links Introduces New Technology, Internet Service December 5, 2002 Posted to the web December 8, 2002 allafrica.com Tayo Ajakaye Lagos Nigeria private telecom operator, Multi-Links, has concluded plans to introduce a new technology, CDMA 20001X in its network. The Executive Director of the Company, Chief Ezekiel Fatoye who briefed newsmen during the week-end said the company will be the first to introduce the new technology not only in Nigeria but in the continents of Europe and Africa. Said Fatoye, "What we are doing now is the first in Africa." Nigeria Competition Bill Your Comments Requested He said the new technology will enable the company to provide fax, data and secure Internet access in addition to high quality voice. Pointing out that CDMA technology supports packet data up to peak data rate of 153 KBPS, the latest technology, he said, also supports G3 fax at 14.4KBPS. Going down memory lane, Fatoye said Multi-Links was the first company to introduce the CDMA technology in Nigeria way back then, but the technology at the time had a major flaw in that it could neither support fax nor data which made its use unsuccessful. With new advancement however, the company in introducing the enhanced CDMA 20001X will introduce new generation CDMA fixed wireless terminals with LCD Display, Hands Free Speaker Phone, menu-Driven Feature Scroll and various Ring and Tone selection. The terminals also support network dependent features such as Call Waiting, Call Transfer, Caller Line Identification and three-Way Calling. And goaded by the competition of the time, the company is also establishing an Internet set-up to provide secure Internet Access. In other words, the company is now also an ISP. Although the cost to subscribers has not been worked out, Fatoye said "Multi-Links will provide efficient secure Internet access without the usual problems associated with Dial-up Internet access such as congestion, low speed and frequent disconnection." Some of the features of the Internet set-up as listed by Fatoye are _Secure Internet Access _Secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) _High Throughput as an average data rate between 30 - 70 KBPS, with a peak rate of 153 KBPS _High Grade Quality of Service _Web Steering _Quick Download of Games, Images and Graphics, and _ Personalised Web Experience Speaking on further benefits of the technology, he said that it enables the company the ability to migrate into 3G without much effort in the future. He said the CDMA 2000 1X Network will soon be commissioned and that acceptance test for the project is already in progress. The actual soft launch of the new network has been fixed tentatively for January next year. On how the company will be able to manage the two grades of network, that is the new CDMA with TDMA, Fatoye stated that, "We have overlaid CDMA over TDMA so that two of them can work together." He disclosed that as time goes on however, the company expects subscribers will move to the new CDMA. For an existing subscriber who wants the new service, Fatoye said what the company will do is change his terminal. Eight years after commencement of operations and after younger telcos had gone outside Lagos to offer service, Multi-Links announced that it would start offering service outside Lagos and would offer service in all parts of the country. Asked why it took them this long to realise what new comers had realised and started to do almost immediately, Fatoye said at the point where it was ready to go outside Lagos, Nitel said it had no interconnection point anywhere outside Lagos. Another problem he said, was that wireless technology by then was not as advanced as it is now and the company thought it would be necessary to wait a little while so that it could provide good service. He then promised, "By November next year, we would have been able to cover all the six geo-political zones" adding that the contract for the project is at an advanced stage. The company also announced the stoppage of charging tariff on received calls. Fatoye said that for mobile subscribers, as "from December 1, 2002, Multi-Links has decided to remove charges on incoming calls which is an additional benefit to all subscribers." Henceforth, according to him, it would be "talk as you wish."

To: foundation who wrote (29831)	12/9/2002 7:17:43 AM
From: foundation	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197208

Bellsouth, Smartcom Cautious On 3G Applications - Chile Regional Business News Americas December 9, 2002 (BNamericas.com) - Latin Americans' greater cost-sensitivity to mobile services will require the region's CDMA2000 1xRTT operators to place extra focus on how to make third-generation wireless applications commercially viable, executives from mobile operators BellSouth Latin America and Chile's Smartcom PCS told participants at the 2002 CDMA Americas conference in San Diego, California. The executives emphasized that while operators should not ignore the opportunities afforded to them by their 3G CDMA networks, market restraints make it necessary for them to act with caution. Smartcom president Jorge Rosenblut said Latin American customers have shown themselves resistant to increasing the portion of their budgets devoted to communications services. "In Chile, at least, people spend their ARPU with us and that's it," he told BNamericas. The company's ARPU is about 11,000 pesos (US $ 16). Smartcom launched a CDMA2000-based wireless Internet offering called Wisp in June this year, but Rosenblut said results have been "disappointing" to date, perhaps because Chile only has 80,000 laptops in circulation. "We need to have more money, and have focus, before we jump into applications," he said. Ralph de la Vega, president of BellSouth Latin America, said the two most important concerns for CDMA2000 operators in the region are obtaining more handsets at better prices, and developing applications with local content. De la Vega said handset pricing trends are positive, with more cheap options surfacing on the market. "10,000 phones are being deployed in one country with a low-cost chip," he said. At the other end of the market, operators may be challenged to adequately serve Latin America's few, but deep-pocketed high-income customers. Hans Wichary, senior business development manager for San Diego-based handset maker Kyocera told BNamericas that a country needs to have a sizeable market for a manufacturer to sell its products there. "We won't go into a market if we are only going to ship 10,000 phones. That's not enough revenue to support the cost of serving that market." Outsourcing client service and attention was not a likely option for Kyocera, he added. Regarding the mass-market penetration of applications such as games and digital photos, already taking place in Asia and North America, de la Vega said, "I don't believe the same applications will do well in Latin America." Despite CDMA2000's technological advantages over GSM/GPRS, most Latin American customers continue to prefer low-cost applications that both technologies can support, he said. "We need new CDMA products to compete with GSM," he said, adding that caution was imperative: "We have to introduce the right products at the right time." Also affecting applications are Latin America's weak currencies, which make US-based applications much more costly to acquire. "Developers need to understand our business model: I get pesos, you get pesos!" he said. After recognizing the need for caution, the executives acknowledged that the capabilities of CDMA2000 are simply too great for operators to ignore them. De la Vega told BNamericas that mass marketing of 3G applications within the next year was unlikely, but, "I feel there are kinds of corporate applications that can bring us opportunities." To that end, BellSouth is already conducting trials of Qualcomm's (Nasdaq: QCOM) CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology in Venezuela, and planning trials for two other countries, De la Vega said. Smartcom has also said it is evaluating EV-DO trials for 2003. EV-DO allows for data transmission speeds up to 2.4Mbps, compared to 1X's top speed of 144kbps. BellSouth is deploying 3G CDMA networks in six of its 11 Latin American subsidiaries: Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela. Smartcom was Latin America's first operator with a 3G CDMA network, which it commercially launched in Chile's capital Santiago in mid-2001. Business News Americas (BNamericas.com) ragingbull.lycos.com