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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 (32093)	2/6/2003 5:40:26 PM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197239

Latin America BREW-ing with Wireless By Michael Singer, February 5, 2003 siliconvalley.internet.com The game of world domination for wireless standards continued this week with news of a new deal brewing in Latin America. Portugal Telecom and Telefonica Moviles Tuesday said they are launching commercial wireless application services powered by QUALCOMM's (Quote, Company Info) Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) (define) platform. The joint venture between the three companies is expected to impact more than 16.8 million subscribers in Brazil. Already, a battle over mobile phone standards is emerging in Central and South America -- one that pits CDMA2000 (define) against GSM (define). Together Portugal Telecom and Telefonica Moviles have a long history of firsts in Latin America; first to commercially launch data services with WAP (define), first to launch a CDMA2000 1X network, first to conduct a trial of BREW wireless data services, and now, first to launch BREW-enabled commercial services. "Based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback from our initial market trial, we are confident in the growth potential of our BREW-enabled service," said spokesman for the joint venture Luis Avelar. "The services will build stronger competitive advantages of our operations over our TDMA and GSM competitors." Avelar said the joint venture's BREW services will take advantage of a next-generation CDMA2000 1X network, nearly doubling voice capacity and capable of supporting data transfer speeds up to 144 kbps. Customers will initially be able to select from two BREW-enabled handsets, the Motorola T720 and Audiovox/Toshiba CDM9500 with models from Samsung, LG, Kyocera and others offered at a later date. QUALCOMM said there would also be a wide array of game, entertainment, communications, productivity and business applications available to download. Some of potential applications being discussed for the joint project include WIZ Mail, Photo Album, Ringtones, Wall Paper, Via Rio, Sensual Club and games such as Navy Battle and Arkanoid. The two wireless platforms have historically been broken down along geographic lines. Europe remains a GSM stronghold, while the United States is firmly rooted in CDMA and TDMA (define) technology. Asia has gotten a blitz of CDMA technology courtesy of QUALCOMM, but has been wavering between that and GSM. Several more companies such as Ericsson (Quote, Company Info), Nortel (Quote, Company Info) and AT&T Wireless (Quote, Company Info) have made their presence known in countries like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Nicaragua hoping to dominate the region and become the king of mobile telephony - commonly known as 3G. Already AT&T Wireless, Telecom Personal (Argentina) and Telcel (Mexico) have begun working together to launch GSM networks that will work alongside their TDMA networks. The adoption rate to launch BREW services around the globe has been a little slower. The joint venture between Portugal Telecom and Telefonica Moviles along with Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL in the United States, KTF in South Korea and KDDI in Japan have all launched commercial BREW-based services. U.S. Cellular has launched a BREW user trial and China Unicom announced its plans to launch BREW-based services in China in the first half of 2003. In all, San Diego-based QUALCOMM reports 32 BREW- enabled handset models available to consumers. An additional 33 device manufacturers have also indicated their interest in the BREW platform. "The success of the BREW trial in the Brazilian market demonstrates that BREW-enabled services continue to be a leading catalyst for consumer adoption of wireless applications," said QUALCOMM Wireless & Internet Group president Dr. Paul E. Jacobs. "With BREW as the foundation, the joint venture will give the Brazilian mobile community a powerful and personalized wireless experience that is unrivaled in Latin America." According to a study by The Strategis Group, wireless Internet services are expected to grow from 1.4 million subscribers in 2000 to more than 47 million in 2007. The study, "Latin America Wireless Internet Markets," analyzes the region's six largest marketsArgentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela for many of the most common wireless Internet technologies. Research group also IDC predicts the number of cellular subscribers in Latin America will grow to 143 million by 2004, while the number of mobile data subscribers will jump to more than 71 million users at the same time.

To: slacker711 who wrote (32093)	2/7/2003 2:49:08 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197239

China Unicom network upgrade targets high-end users The No 2 carrier sees itself in a much better position to compete with China Mobile by the end of the year technology.scmp.com HUI YUK-MIN Next story -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- China United Telecommunications would be in a much better position to compete for high-end users with rival China Mobile Communication by year-end when the carrier had completed its third-phase code division multiple access (CDMA) network expansion, said a company official. William Lo Wing-yan, an executive director at red chip China Unicom - the SAR-listed arm of China United - said the parent firm's third-phase CDMA network expansion plan would add capacity for 10 million new users, to bring the total capacity to 40 million users. By then the entire network would be upgraded to a CDMA2000 1X network, a 2.5 generation network with faster and larger data transmission capacity as well as voice transmission quality. "Our target is to have our network's quality to be at least at par with China Mobile's GPRS, if not better," Mr Lo said. The No 2 carrier would then be in a better position to compete on level terms for high-end users, he said. China United had signed seven million CDMA users in the first year of operation and was targeting another 14 million users this year. Mr Lo said it was crucial for the No 2 cellular carrier to have a good quality network for both voice and data traffic if it was to be competitive. After the completion of the third-phase network expansion plan, China United's CDMA network's data transmission speed would be a few times faster than China Mobile's general packet radio service (GPRS) network, depending on how many customers were using it at the same time. Rival China Mobile runs global system for mobile communications (GSM) networks and has built a GPRS network - a 2.5G version of its GSM network - in major cities. China United is undergoing a second-phase CDMA network expansion plan, which would double its subscriber capacity to 30 million and upgrade the entire network from a slower 2G network to a 2.5G network. The second-phase plan is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter and will roll out 2.5G mobile services in the second quarter. The carrier has launched a trial service in Shanghai. With the enhancement of network quality and the availability of multi-media enabled mobile handsets later this year, analysts expect to see competition between the two cellular carriers intensify not just on voice traffic but also on data traffic. China has seen robust growth in mobile data services, with text messages growing by five times in the last year. A Xinhua survey, found 35.1 per cent of mainland mobile phone users sent short messages for Spring Festival greetings.