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

To: GO*QCOM who wrote (54327)	8/9/2006 1:10:40 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 196568

Regarding Sprint's WiMax decision, one should not assume that everything Sprint does is well thought out. Here are some examples: Sprint, faced with the need to adopt a suitable technology for viewing text and graphics on small handset screens, chose Java over BREW, mainly because its engineers were more comfortable with the more cumbersome Java solution. That hasn't worked very well for Sprint. Compare with the decision of Verizon to go with BREW. Sprint wanted a viable data communications network that would do everything for every customer. Initially the company selected EV-DV, rather than the EV-DO, which other CDMA service providers were gravitating to. EV-DO, in its current revision, seems to work well as a general solution for both uploading and downloading large files. Now, in order to correct its EV-DV decision, it appears that Sprint wants to use WiMax on a totally new frequency, in an effort to get the jump on other wireless data service providers. It gets support from Intel, which, having failed to come up with anything to compete in wireless with TI or CDMA, needs SOMETHING to participate in the fastest growing part of the chip sector. WiMax is a special solution, suitable only for fixed wireless connections in places where there is a direct line of sight to the base station, and no interference from walls, ceilings, trees, etc. WiMax then becomes a substitute for wired connections through cable or DSL facilities, but not entirely for other mobile or semi-mobile applications. Additionally, it's been my experience that typical users want a single solution with a single technology that affords good quality service anywhere, not just in certain specific locations. Finally, it should be clear that any major rollout of WiMax, at least at its present state of development, will require technology such as OFDM in order to make it as efficient and low cost as CDMA2000. QCOM benefits from either system, though it would obviously benefit more from a single CDMA2000 approach. I believe that most institutional investors, nothwithstanding the known problems involved in implementing a WiMax solution, will be more comfortable downgrading QCOM, simply because they still fail to understand the breadth of QCOM IPR and the advantages and disadvantages of non-CDMA solutions. Art