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

To: Raymond who wrote (11165)	6/5/1998 10:26:00 AM
From: Gregg Powers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Raymond: I don't know what you are smoking, but you seems not to be up on current events. Qualcomm claims (and everyone from ETSI to DoCoMo now seems to agree) that its IPR is necessary for EITHER W-CDMA or IS-95C (and beyond). And Qualcomm has agreed to license its IPR on fair and reasonable terms, so that the playing field is level. Keep in mind, if the company were trying to be obstructive, given its blocking IPR, it could have simply demanded a higher royalty rate for W-CMDA (and created a structural margin advantage for IS-95). In contrast, the Europeans want to converge the standard (remember, they are the ones pushing for a unified W-CDMA standard) around something that is deliberately designed NOT to be backwards compatible to IS-95. Now, your point would have some validity if the European variation was necessary to preserve the GSM network structure, or if it offered some demonstrable technological advantage over IS-95. Unfortunately, neither is the case. If you read John Major's testimony before Congress, I think its pretty obvious that the Europeans are trying to protect 'fortress' Europe and allow their manufacturers to catch up with the migration to CDMA. The arrogance here is exasperating. The Europeans want to take Qualcomm's intellectual property, which the company invested millions of dollars to create, and simultaneously obsolete QC's investment in infrastructure equipment--not to provide a better solution, but simply to afford themselves a better competitive position. Well, they can ask.... BTW, with IS-95 networks operating in over thirty countries, I think its pretty preposterous to suggest that QC needs ERICY, NOK and the Japanese to make CDMA work. Gregg