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To: gdichaz who wrote (22564)	2/5/1999 6:16:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Wireless Knowledge> From the February 8, 1999 issue of Wireless Week BT Joins Data Venture Microsoft To Embrace Protocol By Brad Smith ©1999 by Wireless Week As proof that it wants to become technologically neutral in the converging world of wireless communications and computing, Microsoft Corp. plans to add U.K. carrier British Telecommunications plc as a carrier customer in its WirelessKnowledge LLC. Wireless Week also has learned Microsoft will open its microbrowser's arms to a competing technology. Paul Maritz, a Microsoft group vice president and member of the company's executive committee, plans to make the revelations in a speech today at the Wireless '99 trade show in New Orleans, sources told Wireless Week. Maritz heads Microsoft's platforms and applications group, which includes its Internet products. BT's wireless subsidiary, Cellnet, will offer WirelessKnowledge's services through its global system for mobile communications-based network. The agreement, similar to those announced earlier with nine U.S. and Canadian carriers, gives the service its first GSM link. Some skeptics have said WirelessKnowledge, a joint venture with Qualcomm Inc., appeared dominated by one technologycode division multiple accessbecause Qualcomm and most of the carrier customers use that interface. Industry insiders said the addition of a major European GSM carrier gives WirelessKnowledge increased credibility. In another show of openness, Microsoft's Internet microbrowser under development will be compatible with protocols being developed by the Wireless Application Protocol Forum. When the company announced plans for the microbrowser last fall, WAP compatibility was excluded. Microsoft would not comment on either announcement prior to the show, but Wireless Week received confirmation from several sources. BT also declined to comment, and officials of the WAP Forum said they had not heard anything beyond rumors. Formed last November, WirelessKnowledge in January announced its first service offeringRevolv, which allows mobile professionals to access corporate data such as calendars and e-mail using a variety of wireless devices. Carriers are expected to offer the service in the next few months. Carrier customers include AirTouch Communications Inc., AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Bell Atlantic Mobile Inc., Bell Mobility, BellSouth Wireless Data LP, GTE Wireless, Leap Wireless International, Sprint PCS and U S West Wireless. Adrian May, a London-based analyst with Ovum Ltd., said the WirelessKnowledge link with BT apparently is part of the company's competitive response to the announced Vodafone Group plc purchase of AirTouch. BT was given approval by the British government last week to acquire the remaining 40 percent of its Cellnet operations from Securicor Cellular. May said BT also reportedly is seeking an alliance for Cellnet with AT&T Wireless that would give it an "across-the-pond" competitive edge with Vodafone AirTouch. BT is moving into data in Europe, recently acquiring a large Spanish Internet service provider. The WirelessKnowledge partnership would strengthen BT's position, May said. "It's coming at a strategically important time. They are feeling left out in the cold [by Vodafone]. This announcement is significant in the sense it shows BT is committed to mobile." Chuck Parrish, chairman of the WAP Forum, said at a WAP users meeting last week in Fort Worth, Texas, that he had heard nothing definitive from Microsoft about compatibility with its microbrowser although discussions have taken place. He said the WAP Forum believes it is best that a "browser war" doesn't lead to fragmentation of the data access market. He also said compatibility can take place at two levels, at the basic transport layer of the protocol and at the application layer. WAP already is compatible with Microsoft's announced microbrowser at the transport layer, but it is the application layer compatibility that provides universality.

To: gdichaz who wrote (22564)	2/5/1999 6:22:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Qualcomm Shifts Focus> Qualcomm Shifts Business Strategy By Peggy Albright Citing the adverse impact of slower worldwide infrastructure business on its balance sheet, Qualcomm Inc. announced last week that it is restructuring and has laid off 700 employees. The San Diego-based firm will increase its energies on products that have been its "bread and butter" to improve profitability and competitiveness. Chairman and CEO Irwin Jacobs said reductions were made at all divisions and position levels, with the Infrastructure Division absorbing most of the cutbacks. The company's overall workforce will be cut by 6 percent, to 10,500. Infrastructure business costs were cited as the primary need for reorganization, but only 30 percent of the cuts were made there. Company spokesmen would not detail where the other 70 percent will come from but did confirm that Globalstar, the Consumer Products Division and research and development efforts all sustained cutbacks. The decision was necessary, said Brian Modoff, an analyst with BT Alex. Brown. Qualcomm's infrastructure business was at an "unsustainable level." Qualcomm has been unable to win significant infrastructure business in a market dominated by players such as Lucent Technologies Inc. Instead, Qualcomm won most of its contracts in small countries and by investing in consortia, such as Mexico's Pegasonow part of Leap Wireless. In some countries, such as Russia, the company has had difficulty getting paid. Expected deployment of Interim Standard-95 in China, which favor global system for mobile communications but represents a key target market, is "meaningfully behind," Modoff said. Qualcomm said will try to develop alliances with other infrastructure manufacturers. However, the company is using the restructuring as an opportunity to focus its energies on a new family of compact base stations; the first units have been installed by U S West Wireless. Qualcomm also will accelerate release of ASICs that support infrastructure and handset vendors, including products that will support high data rate technologies. In the increasingly combative handset market, Qualcomm will focus on its new Thin Phone and is getting ready to ship its data-capable pdQ. Asked about challenges to the handset business, Jeff Belk, vice president of marketing at Qualcomm, said, "The handset division has to maintain a very tight focus on cost and profitability."