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

To: JGoren who wrote (9296)	3/18/1998 9:00:00 PM
From: stealthy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

To ALL : Recent words from "Q" concerning GSM & Asian front : ----------------------------------------------------------- U.S. Qualcomm/Asian Push -2: GSM Systems Have Head Start AP-Dow Jones News Service Qualcomm makes and licenses a wireless telecommunications technology called Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA, which competes directly with the Groupe Speciale Mobile, or GSM, systems. These systems allow a mobile phone to be used across country borders. Although analysts have predicted CDMA technology will be used by more than half the digital cellular telephones in the U.S. by 2000, GSM systems remain more common in Asia. But Belk, who represented Qualcomm earlier this week when a CDMA system was inaugurated in the Philippines, noted the infrastructure is in place or in the pipeline in many Asian countries, including China, Thailand, Indonesia, India and Singapore. More than 5 million subscribers use CDMA technology in South Korea, he said, and a further 250,000 use CDMA phones in Hong Kong. But he declined to give the company's target penetration for the area or estimate market share for the wireless sector. 'This is the year for Asia to do what North America did,' he said, while acknowledging the GSM systems have a 'head start' in Asia. 'In most of the markets of the world, penetration is still so low that even though GSM has a head start, it's the beginning of the race,' Belk said. 'We're still like in the nascent days of the railroad: There's still a lot of room for the strongest standard to prosper.' Belk said Qualcomm is banking on twin advantages of better voice quality and greater capacity to push CDMA systems ahead of GSM rivals in the region. 'Regardless of the elasticities, the systems are going to be growing rapidly,' he said. 'There's going to be a lot more people using wireless, and GSM was not designed with capacity in mind.' The marketing vice president said CDMA systems have about three times the capacity of GSM systems. 'For businesses to prosper, for economies to prosper, I'm not sure with communications of any ilk ... whether that's a luxury,' he said. 'If it is a necessity, it will be impacted, but not to the same extent.' Belk acknowledged there is a potential for volume into the region to decline. 'It really depends on what the elasticity is,' he said, 'and what the carrier's decision is in terms of how they price the phone and how they price the minutes of use.' -By Roger Malone; 65-421-4800; rmalone@ap.org Asked how Qualcomm, which sells the telephones as well as licensing the technology, will approach a region in crisis, Belk talks about the vagaries of elasticity of demand and dependence on carriers to push CDMA technology. Qualcomm phones and other products are priced in U.S. dollars, which have made them more expensive in Southeast Asian countries that have watched their currencies depreciate significantly since the crisis hit in July. In South Korea, a key market for Qualcomm, an apparent overnight change in orders triggered the company's sudden bearishness for the second quarter, and Belk was asked how Qualcomm will prevent a repeat of this scenario. 'We can hope the economies recover as quickly as possible,' he said. 'We can, at least from handset side, market our phone aggressively and make these products desirable.' Micheal Wallace, regional director for Southeast Asia, added that the company is also offering 'flexible financial arrangements' to its customers to help them continue their business. He declined to detail these arrangements, saying only, 'It varies from country to country, from company to company within the country.' Wallace also noted that despite the region's financial uncertainty, infrastructure investments of US$50 million to US$150 million have been made in various countries and carriers will have to gain subscribers to reap the rewards from these investments.