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

To: ryhack who wrote (56562)	11/2/2006 2:34:17 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Respond to of 197623

Ry, allow me to answer your question of whether Motorola or Samsung would be good WiMAX investments. My answer is yes and no! Yes, because WiMAX will generate some additional earnings. No, because the earnings very likely will be only a small part of overall earnings of each of these firms. Looking at all the pros and cons of WiMAX, and giving the developers the benefit of the doubt in solving problems inherent in WiMAX, I think one still must conclude that WiMAX is not a general solution but a specific one with particular suitability in a campus setting or in rural, lower traffic density areas. Furthermore, WiMAX has a unique problem in that it can cause interference with existing GSM or CDMA transmissions if used on the same frequencies. This means that WiMAX, probably in most areas of the world where CDMA and GSM already are used, must be relegated to new spectrum. So far, what we've seen is that new spectrum allocated for WiMAX has certain undesireable propagation characteristics, resulting in higher costs. Then, when you consider the need for rural area coverage, with fewer base stations, you have to wonder why WiMAX would be superior to CDMA450. Okay, the overall speed of WiMAX might be a little faster than CDMA450, but could a WiMAX system match CDMA450 in cost? I doubt it. So, to get back to your question, I still see no need to invest in companies other than QCOM for proprietary technology used in wireless communication. I would also include Intel in the "less than interesting" list, in addition to MOT and Samsung. Nor would I be interested in BRCM or TXN, for the very same reasons: They don't have a lock on the technology most likely to be used for general wireless communication purposes. Art