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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: qdog who wrote (9000)	3/3/1998 8:07:00 AM
From: w2j2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Interesting article: How does this issue impact the Q? NORTH DALLAS - General Wireless Inc. has sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the wake of a lawsuit by a creditor, documents show. Last year, the Dallas company put 14 of its units - each of which had a license to provide wireless phone service in one market - into Chapter 11 in a bid to reorganize the company. The full company went the same route late last month after Hyundai Electronics America sued it over a $49.3 million loan a few weeks earlier, documents say. Hyundai's suit has been put on hold until the bankruptcy is resolved, the documents indicate. General Wireless is one of the troubled group of holders of so-called "C-block" licenses to provide personal communications services. In 1996, a number of relatively small companies, including General Wireless, bid a total of $10.2 billion for the licenses and the right to compete with major wireless carriers like Sprint and AT&T Wireless. But the C-block holders "were too optimistic about the market potential for PCS," said Hongjun Li, telecommunications analyst at Parks Associates in Dallas. "As it turns out, it's expensive to deploy PCS service in the first place, and there's too much competition in the wireless sector." And, while PCS phone service offers some features that analog cellular doesn't - such as Caller ID and call waiting - some of those advantages are being wiped out as the cellular carriers convert to a digital format. PCS providers argue that their signals are stronger and clearer, making their calls less prone to fade-outs and service disruptions. "But, do consumers know that?" Li asked. Most consumers can't tell the difference between PCS and digital cellular, he said. Meanwhile, capital markets for the C-block companies dried up, and the firms soon were overwhelmed by the enormous costs they faced. General Wireless raised hundreds of millions of dollars in financing and venture capital, including a $300 million commitment from Lucent Technologies for buying and building its network. But even that wasn't enough to offset the $1.1 billion the company had agreed to pay for its licenses. According to published reports, the company sued the FCC in federal court last November for allegedly overcharging it by more than $753 million. General Wireless said in the suit that its licenses were worth less than $200 million, news reports say. The suit alleged that, by the time the company bought the licenses, the licenses had declined in value because of time considerations, Wall Street's shrinking interest and the FCC's sale of additional licenses for the same geographic areas. The suit asked the court to re-state the value of the licenses, news reports say. A General Wireless official would not comment on the Hyundai or FCC lawsuits, or on the company's bankruptcy filing.

To: qdog who wrote (9000)	3/3/1998 8:41:00 AM
From: JMD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

The San Francico Chronicle blessed us all with the following which I would have posted yesterday if AOL hadn't been on life support. (BTW, thanks for ISP suggestions guys--you @Home boys are an enthusiastic bunch! Don't know if the damn thing is playing in my hood, though): Subject: SF>Chronicle Date: Mon, Mar 2, 1998 11:18 EST From: Rang1995 Message-id: <19980302161800.LAA25804@ladder03.news.aol.com> QUALCOMM INC./Stock of the Week JONATHAN MARSHALL Monday, March 2, 1998 c1998 San Francisco Chronicle URL: sfgate.com Headquarters: San Diego Business: Qualcomm is a leading developer of wireless communications technology and equipment, a major partner in the Globalstar mobile satellite communications system, and operator of OmniTRACS, a satellite-based vehicle tracking system. Background: Investors and analysts either love Qualcomm or hate it. Until recently, skeptics warned that its main wireless phone technology, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), would never work in practical installations, but it has been successfully adopted by many major carriers in the United States, Korea, Japan and other countries. Qualcomm's stock soared from about $44 in mid-August to $71 in November before falling back to the $40s in December on fears that Asia's economic crisis would slash earnings. Shares rose recently on news that the company will supply $240 million in wireless phones to three wireless carriers in the United States. 52-Week High/Low: $71 (11/20/97), $42.38 (4/22/97) Friday's Close: $51.56 Timothy Luke, Lehman Brothers, New York Recommendation: Buy I think Qualcomm is one of the coolest growth opportunities in the wireless sector and one of the most innovative technology companies in its field. They have extensive intellectual property in CDMA wireless technology. CDMA is now seeing very rapid growth, and is used by Sprint, Bell Atlantic and AirTouch Communications. Outside the United States, it has become one of two major wireless standards. The other is GSM, the dominant standard in Europe. Qualcomm profits in quite a few ways. Anytime someone sells a phone that uses CDMA, they pay a royalty to Qualcomm. Anytime some equipment manufacturer wants to develop new CDMA products, they also pay a one-time licensing fee, and then a royalty on every piece of equipment. Qualcomm also is the leading manufacturer of CDMA phones for the North American market, and a major manufacturer of CDMA wireless base stations, in competition with Motorola, Lucent, and Nortel. Another very exciting business for them is they are the leading manufacturer of chipsets for CDMA phones and base stations. A really big opportunity for Qualcomm is its position as one of the founding partners in Globalstar, the satellite communications network. Qualcomm is making all the terrestrial base stations. This year alone the business could be $150 million. My view is Qualcomm could earn as much as $2.70 a share in their next fiscal year (ending Sept. 30, 1999), up from $1.55 in fiscal 1998. The situation in Korea will impact earnings, but Korea will be a smaller piece of a very fast-growing pie. As many as 10 million wireless customers now use CDMA; we predict there will be 50 million by the year 2000. Marc Cabi, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, San Francisco Recommendation: Hold The weakness in the Korean currency, the won, could seriously cut into Qualcomm's earnings potential this year. Since the company gets more than half of its royalty revenues from the region, the severe currency devaluations last fall could reduce royalties over the next two quarters. Qualcomm more generally is over-reliant on the Korean CDMA market, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of its net income. Continued economic setbacks in that country could slow the company's growth. In the longer run, Qualcomm faces significant competition in the CDMA network equipment market from telecom giants Lucent Technologies and Northern Telecom. It also faces the prospect of competition in the handset market from such major companies as Motorola, Lucent/Philips and Siemens, whose enormous manufacturing resources and economies of scale may put Qualcomm at a disadvantage when they ramp up production. A further competitive shock could come from Samsung, the Korean manufacturer that now uses Qualcomm chipsets in its CDMA phones. We keep hearing that Samsung is in the process of designing its own CDMA chip set, portending the potential loss of an important customer. Even now, with a near monopoly on handset production, Qualcomm's margins on that business are disturbingly low, in the low single-digit range. We are perplexed as to why its margins have not increased over time despite increased production volume and improved technology. Until some of these issues are resolved, we are inclined to remain on the sidelines. We continue to believe that the company has not exhibited performance that would compel us to model solid operating and earnings improvements. c1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page D3 Mike Doyle

To: qdog who wrote (9000)	3/3/1998 8:49:00 AM
From: JMD	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 152472

Interesting post from Mauice re: Eudora in Europe. A general question for all--does anybody on this thread use eudora as their e-mail client? Is it cool stuff? Seem to remember a fairly recent review in PC World that was negative on latest version of Eudora cuz it was way too hard to use. Gist seemed to be that it was very sophistated but needlessly complex and that only super geeks and technically sophisticated (like Surfer Mike) folks need apply. Also, what is the Q's new software product/acquisiton "Up-to-Date" that Maurice's link referred to? Mike Doyle

To: qdog who wrote (9000)	3/3/1998 11:15:00 AM
From: Raymond	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Here is something for you QDOG.You love this ATM-stuff so now you can buy one ATM-switch from Ericsson.. ERICSSON ANNOUNCES HIGH PERFORMANCE ATM SWITCHING SYSTEM Ericsson have today announced the AXD 301 ATM switch, a high-performance, scaleable ATM switching system for both backbone networks and edge applications. Its carrier-class design provides the capacity, scalability, availability, and end-to-end manageability needed to efficiently handle real-time and business critical traffic in networks. A unique load sharing switching concept makes the AXD 301 very compact and cost efficient. Near linear scalability from 10Gbit/s to 160Gbit/s and a compact size also makes it cost effective in small configurations down to about 5Gbit/s, making it suitable both for the edge and the core of a network. The AXD 301 is a key building block in multi-service ATM networks. It can handle all currently envisaged broad band services, including IP routing, high-speed data communications and other business communications services, and residential services such as high speed Internet access and interactive TV. Applications include ATM connectivity networks; scaleable frame relay/ATM networks; and Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) for efficient handling of IP traffic. AXD 301 can be used in business access and residential broad band access networks and can be combined with Ericsson's AXE switching system to provide a full range of narrow band services. All of these applications can run simultaneously on the same switch. The AXD 301 is intended for public network operators and Internet service providers, as the foundation for the long-term evolution of Internet, data and telecommunications services. The AXD 301 is equipped with functions such as large buffers, per-connection queueing, multiple service classes, packet discard that allow mixing different traffic types while still preserving quality and efficiently using bandwidth. The system has a performance, scalability and reliability that makes it suitable for large networks. Its carrier-class software structure makes it possible to include new functionality without disturbing traffic. Additionally, the AXD 301 supports both cross connect and switching applications. Complete support of ATM signaling protocols, and full inter-networking between all protocols allows an operator to build a network that flexibly combines different signaling protocols. Plug-and-play network domains, separated by inter-carrier networking protocols can easily be created. Also, as a complement to permanent connections, soft permanent connections are supported, which automates the routing of management controlled connections and therefore reduces the network administration workload. "In developing the AXD 301 we have used Ericsson's core expertise in the area of switched technology, network building and real-time services. We know that deployment of ATM networks is of increasing strategic importance for the many operators who are now looking for more advanced switches that can handle all types of traffic in various combinations of networks. The AXD 301 significantly strengthens Ericsson's strategic position as a supplier in the datacom industry," said Anders Igel, Executive Vice President of Ericsson and head of Infocom Systems. /R