(Sorry to cross-post; I've set followups to alt.cellular.verizon.)

On 8/13/2006 4:02 PM, Sco wrote:
> Qualcomm shutdown CDMA base station development many years ago. For unknown
> reason, Qualcomm could not build a successful CDMA base station. It has been
> a bad sign for CDMA of Qualcomm in the future. It just can't go on with
> CDMA. I believe that AT&T will kill CDMA of Qualcomm once for all.

Qualcomm got out of the base station and handset business entirely; not
because they couldn't build a successful CDMA base station but because
those were and are commodity businesses at which they couldn't achieve
the high profit margins that Qualcomm achieves from its chipmaking and
patent licensing businesses.

I don't understand what you mean when you say Qualcomm "just can't go on
with CDMA." CDMA = Qualcomm = CDMA. Qualcomm owns the patents and
makes/licenses the chips. It has no other business of significance (I
doubt Eudora is a huge profit center), and its CDMA line of business
makes money each time a cellphone or base station is sold that uses
standard CDMA, 1xRTT, 1xEVDO, W-CDMA (aka UMTS), or W-CDMA with HSDPA.
That's a very sizeable (i.e., huge) proportion of all the phones being
sold and base stations being deployed in North/South America, Europe,
Asia, and Australia. Probably Africa, too. (Pity that Antarctica isn't
a big market...) Now and for the next decade, at least. And I suspect
that Qualcomm has its tentacles into at least some of the technologies
being developed for fixed broadband.

And as to AT&T killing off Qualcomm once and for all, fuhgeddaboutit.
AT&T hasn't been an equipment manufacturer for ages -- it sold its
equipment to Lucent. (Seen any Lucent handsets?) AT&T also spun off
its wireless operations, which were TDMA, to AT&T Wireless. AT&T
Wireless then developed its PCS networks using GSM and introduced
W-CDMA, which is reliant on Qualcomm patents. AT&T Wireless then merged
with Cingular, which also used TDMA and GSM, and the merged company
proceeded to (a) transition from TDMA to GSM and (b) roll out W-CDMA and
HSDPA 3G service, which again uses Qualcomm patents. Then one of
Cingular's parents, SBC, bought out AT&T and took its name, and SBC is
in the process of buying Cingular's other parent, BellSouth; after the
merger of AT&T and BellSouth is complete, Cingular will be AT&T's
wireless arm, and it is fully committed to Qualcomm-licensed W-CDMA and
HSDPA.

--
Michael D. Sullivan
Bethesda, MD (USA)
(To reply, change example.invalid to com in the address.)


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