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To: marginmike who wrote (842)	8/6/1998 1:16:00 PM
From: tero kuittinen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

mike, I just don't know whether anyone knows enough about the full IPR picture to characerize any companies as "thieves and liars". I know investment issues can be emotional but that's a bit much. The fact that W-CDMA alliance has invited Q-com to make a reasonable offer for IPR licensing shows that they are acting in good faith. They are willing to negotiate - but this "no licensing without making W-CDMA compatible with IS-95" stance of Qualcomm seems combative, overtly aggressive and ultimately self-defeating. These are the very same attributes that bother a lot of telecom companies - Qualcomm just comes across as hostile and uncompromising. It was the decision of Americans not to join the global GSM fraternity and they certainly had the right to do so. But I don't think they have now suddenly the right to demand that when the rest of the world is uniting behind W-CDMA this standard should be forced to be compatible with IS-95. It seems that USA may not be able implement W-CDMA because the necessary part of the spectrum is already in use. This might lead into a situation where W-CDMA is implemented in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa - and USA is left with a regional 3G standard of its own. This is probably the nightmare scenario Qualcomm wants to avoid. But USA may have already painted itself into a corner by insisting on its own standard solution while rest of the world tried to find common ground. If this comes to pass, it leaves North American companies like Motorola, Lucent, Qualcomm and Nortel at a severe disadvantage in global competition. However, companies like Ericsson and Nokia are not to blame for this impasse - it was deviced by Americans themselves. Tero