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Technology Stocks : Ericsson overlook? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: P2V who wrote (2738)	2/5/1999 12:59:00 PM
From: Jim Oravetz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5390

Beijing to Break Up China Telecom; Seeks Control Over Internet Telephony Dow Jones Newswires BEIJING -- China's Minister of Information Industry Thursday confirmed that the government plans to break up China Telecom's monopoly in the telecommunications industry by splitting the giant into three companies. China Telecom will be divided into independent companies in fixed-line phone services, mobile communications and paging services, Wu Jichuan said. "The restructuring of China Telecom is based on the principle of separating government functions from enterprises, introducing competition into the market and breaking monopolies," he said. However, the minister added that the plan is in its early stages and still needs to be submitted for approval by China's legislature, the National People's Congress. While the move will introduce greater competition to expand China's information industry, officials emphasized that the government will still maintain strict control over the industry's development. Internet Telephony Is Targeted Zhang Chunjiang, director of the Telecommunications Administrative Bureau under the Ministry of Information Industry, said China will crack down on unauthorized operators of IP telephony, or voice services over the Internet. He said the country has lost billions of yuan in international phone revenues due to operations by what he called "unlawful domestic operators in collusion with foreign companies." "This is tantamount to information smuggling ... and we will crack down very harshly on these illegal operations of IP telephony," Mr. Zhang said. The director also said that China later this year will license several domestic companies to operate IP telephony on a trial basis. By the end of 1999, the number of Internet users in China is expected to reach three million, and the production of personal computers is projected to total 4.5 million units, from 2.88 million units in 1998. CCF Ban Remains Wang Jianzhou, director-general of the Ministry of Information Industry's Planning Department, said the government would maintain a ban on "Chinese-Chinese-Foreign," or CCF, telecommunications joint ventures. CCF ventures enable foreign companies to circumvent China's rules against foreign ownership and operation of the country's telecommunications companies. The ventures are created when a foreign company forms a joint venture with a Chinese company, creating a Chinese entity. That entity, in turn, forms a new joint venture with a Chinese telecommunications operator. The director-general added that the ban was aimed at protecting the rights of international investors, and that existing CCF projects would be handled by the ministry in a "reasonable" manner. The ban was a blow to telecommunications concern China Unicom, which used the CCF structure to gain access to foreign investment to compete with China Telecom. China Unicom is China Telecom's sole competitor and operates only mobile, paging and limited local phone operations. Meanwhile, Mr. Wu gave no indication on when trials of the CDMA mobile phone system would be expanded beyond the four pilot cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Xian and Guangzhou. "Mobile phone users couldn't care less about what mobile system they use.. as long as they can place calls. The greatest concern has come from CDMA providers," he said. The number of mobile-phone subscribers in China is expected to grow 60% to 39.68 million in 1999, compared with 24.98 million in 1998. Mr. Wu also announced that China would lower phone-installation fees and Internet-access fees this year, but he added that the details still need to be worked out. In addition, the country's information industry aims to increase revenues by 24% from 1998 to 285.2 billion yuan ($34.44 billion), he said. China plans to increase national phone-usage density to 13 lines per 100 people this year, compared with 10.6 lines last year.

To: P2V who wrote (2738)	2/5/1999 2:26:00 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 5390

Agreed. Sorry guys but the point I wanted to make since I stepped in here was: Ericsson is more than wireless and is a better bet because of that. There is this focus in the wireless segment and investors, analysts and the newsmen are not seing this issue objectively. Then I made a comparison with other vendors which I think they are niche players. Nokia and Qualcomm. Those niche players they have all the reason in the world to be stressing the wireless point to death.