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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 (33050)	3/3/2003 5:25:49 PM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197297

S'pore: Qualcomm dials a new number By John Lui, CNETAsia, Monday, March 3 2003 10:19 PM asia.cnet.com SINGAPORE--Despite a year of hard lobbying, Qualcomm's preferred networking standard has come to a dead end in the island republic, with the U.S.-based chipmaker now switching its support to the winner instead, a senior executive told CNETAsia. According to a recent report carried in The Business Times, all three of Singapore's telcos have given a final thumbs down to the mobile standard Qualcomm had strongly championed. Over the last year, the firm lobbied hard to win support from operators and the local telco authority for its preferred brand of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) networking, CDMA2000. A win in Singapore would have said been significant, said Marshall Towe, Qualcomm's managing director for Southeast Asia. "Singapore has been considered an IT leader for the region," he said. The three operators--StarHub, Singtel and MobileOne--will instead adopt Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) for their third-generation (3G) mobile networks, due for completion at the end of 2004. The decision to go with WCDMA is largely based on spectrum rights won during Singapore's 3G bidding exercise two years ago. The 800MHz band that CDMA2000 uses is not included. "We will be implementing a WCDMA network, as that technology is the most sensible path for a GSM operator operating in the spectrum band allocated," said a spokesman for StarHub. Qualcomm had been trying to convince the regulator, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), to release the 800MHz band, saying that CDMA2000 would be much cheaper to set up than WCDMA. Its campaign has been fruitless, despite holding several media forums and taking advertisements in newspapers. Qualcomm's position has been that CDMA2000 is cheaper to deploy, with operators in Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and China having signed up for, or already deploying CDMA2000 in their 3G networks, said Towe. An IDA spokesman said that the regulator is technology neutral, and doesn't favor WCDMA over CDMA2000, though it requires that operators stick to the allocated spectrum. In practice, CDMA2000 can operate at the allowed 2.1GHz, but such a plan is almost as expensive to carry out as WCDMA, said Towe. If high set-up costs lead to pricey subscription rates and poor take-up, everyone down the chain--operators, handset dealers and ultimately, Qualcomm--suffers, he said. Despite the setback, Qualcomm is now ready to support the Singapore mobile operators' WCDMA plans, he said. "We have the same core patents on WCDMA as we do on CDMA2000, and earn the same royalty rates," said Towe.