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

To: GO*QCOM who wrote (24849)	3/24/1999 3:59:00 PM
From: John Hayman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Go*QCOM, You sure got that right!! What do you know??? John

To: GO*QCOM who wrote (24849)	3/24/1999 4:05:00 PM
From: brian h	Respond to of 152472

GoQCOM, Are these different reporters for real? Or they just like to leak China's State secrets? Wednesday March 24, 2:59 am Eastern Time Battle for China mobile phone market heats up By William Kazer* SHANGHAI, March 24 (Reuters) - The battle for China's mobile phone market is about to get a bit more bruising as U.S. and European telecom giants square off in a multi-billion dollar contest over rival technology. In an abrupt policy reversal, China has signalled it will expand tests of CDMA technology, developed in the United States, alongside the widely used GSM standard favoured by European equipment makers, industry officials say. So far, the world's fastest growing mobile phone market has been dominated by Sweden's Ericsson and Finland's Nokia , which have invested heavily in GSM, or Global System for Mobile Communications. But China's tests of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) will give a boost to U.S. equipment suppliers Motorola (NYSE:MOT - news), Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU - news) as well as Qualcomm Inc (Nasdaq:QCOM - news), which stands to earn hefty royalties on the technology. Canada's Nortel (Toronto:NTL.TO - news) and South Korea's Samsung [SAGR.CN] are also CDMA equipment providers and are likely to benefit. ''It is their first toehold in enemy territory,'' a China-based consultant said of the CDMA suppliers on Wednesday. This is a high stakes contest. China does not allow foreign companies to run networks so the competition in has been in the sale of equipment. ''It is a battle worth billions of dollars,'' said another foreign analyst who follows the telecommunications market. China had some 23 million mobile telephone users last year, adding 10 million in 1998 alone. Beijing once turned to mobile phones as a quick fix for a sagging fixed line system, but they have taken on a life of their own. Millions of dollars have been poured into advertising as China's most glamorous movie stars and top pop singers lend their names to the feverish marketing battle. And, as living standards rise, upwardly mobile Chinese are flocking to this market, which now boasts the largest GSM network in the world. The competition has already pushed the cost of a mobile phone as low as 1,300 yuan ($157). Not long ago, they were nearly 10 times that price. Proponents of CDMA say that by letting the market choose the best technology, consumers will benefit. But the Ministry of Information Industry, which supervises the sector, has been less enthusiastic as its main operating company, China Telecom, has spent heavily on GSM. The move to broaden tests of CDMA stems from a proposal by China's upstart telecommunications firm China Unicom, formed to compete with China Telecom. A Unicom official told Reuters: ''This system (CDMA) will be adopted although we don't know which company will work with us.'' Analysts said this would push equipment prices down further but would not squeeze Ericsson or Nokia out of the market. ''This won't kill off GSM which already has a huge lead,'' said another Western analyst. ''They just will have 70 percent of a big and expanding pie instead of 100 percent.'' But European equipment companies are concerned. ''There is still a huge market,'' said Lars Edvardsson, vice president at Ericsson in Hong Kong. ''It remains to be seen how much they (Chinese authorities) build out their systems, but it is a concern for us,'' he said. The timing of Beijing's decision is curious. Only recently, China said it would end the CDMA trials in several cities. But China is eager to join the World Trade Organisation and remove U.S. resistance to its 13-year effort. It also probably reflects high-level unhappiness with the Ministry of Information Industry, which has widely been accused of being partial to China Telecom, industry analysts said. Brian H.