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To: SKIP PAUL who wrote (25403)	3/28/1999 2:08:00 PM
From: brian h	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Skip, Well said. The very fact that HDR is zooming to live soon means that ERICY and the rest of GSM companies have to speed up their efforts of WCDMA and other means to catch up the wireless data world if this data stuff is truly a future not a hype. There is no way QCOM can win in every front just as it will not keep hiring people without checking its bottom line. After all it is in for profit not a wellfare org. A billion dollar(if that is true) is a big investment for ERICY (22 billion company) to expect some return in a timely fashion. Not to throw it away for fun. One will not see it happening from Nokia. Right? That is a whole year of net profit for MOT or Nokia. You bet ERICY will work as hard as possible to get some contracts from China and the likes. Best, Brian H.

To: SKIP PAUL who wrote (25403)	3/28/1999 2:34:00 PM
From: kech	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Skip - Why would ERICY spend money on developing WCDMA when it is going to end up costing them the same in royalties as CDMA2000? They would be better off in Developing CDMA2000 further and getting paid for value added. In the long run ERICY might lower total installation costs for its subscriber base to just build CDMAOne. But as Clark pointed out, ERICY doesn't give a damm about efficiency, especially in the long term. What it cares about is market share. Right now it and GSM dominates infrastructure buildouts in Europe. If it can convince European service providers that W-CDMA is more "user friendly" for GSM than CDMAOne. Then its purchase of QCOM infrastructure allows it to do two things which essentially means it gets to have its cake and eat it too: 1) Hang on to European market and ROW (rest of World) GSM market share while essentially foreclosing exclusive CDMA2000 suppliers from making in roads. 2) Try to compete in the current CDMAOne markets with the Q's infrastructure. The marketing strategy is as follows: To do this, it promises GSM companies that W-CDMA will be here soon, maybe by the end of this year. It claims that the patent resolution issue allows it to speed up this development. Of course we know it will still take 1.5 to 2 years.) It also promises that W-CDMA is "tuned" for GSM subscriber base. (Key question here - Is W-CDMA in any way technically better for GSM overlay than CDMAOne)? The fact that ERICY is going ahead with a W-CDMA standard means that it doesn't have to do much at all to "develop" W-CDMA. It just bought the essential parts and can license and pay royalties for the rest. But it can make it just enough different through the different modes that are being negotiated, to make it difficult for a frontal assault on Europe with CDMAOne today. At the very least it wants to be a player in installing CDMA in a couple of years when it is ready - not today. At that time it will be ready with WCDMA and will get the lions share of the market instead of sucking wind now against CDMAOne overlay installs that promise upgradeability. Does this answer the question "Why would ERICY spend money developing WCDMA"? It doesn't have to spend much. They will get the return from CDMA2000 by selling it to everyone else besides Europe and the GSM world and they will use Qualcomm's infrastructure group to make WCDMA as well. Most importantly, this guarantees that they get a return on their real asset - which is the installed base of GSM around the world. After all, why else are they negotiating to maintain a W-CDMA version?

To: SKIP PAUL who wrote (25403)	3/28/1999 5:01:00 PM
From: Clarksterh	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 152472

Why would ERICY spend money on developing WCDMA when it is going to end up costing them the same in royalties as CDMA2000? They cannot push CDMAOne now. By their own admission they aren't going to have phones until next year and it is a virtual certainty that their first model will have big problems. They are undoubtedly aware of this. The same is true of infrastructure. Will they actually spend money developing W-CDMA? Sure, it is a good investment if it can convince Europe to hold off on CDMA until they are ready to compete. As far as CDMAone is concerned Ericy is reportedly investing a billion dollars in CDMAone and hiring over 1000 experts in the technology. They have every incentive to maximize a return on investment. Look at it from Ericsson's point of view. They got a lot for their money. They get the IPR which they probably knew they had to have. They get some expertise in CDMA which is somewhat applicable to W-CDMA. And in two years or so they are able to compete in CDMAOne and its derivative. But in the near term the story is different. What can they do to help in the near term? Companies buy other companies all the time just to shut them down or muddy the water. Microsoft is a huge employer of this method of competition. For instance with Java they bought into it and paid licenses largely to sabatoge it. And it would have probably been a good investment, although rather unethical, if they had been allowed to get away with it. Clark PS It is somewhat curious that people think that Ericsson is now on the side of the angels. They are still almost the same company they were a year ago. Very sneaky then, very sneaky now.