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chinook: If you want historical information for a particular institution you can go to the SEC site and look up the institution's quarterly reports ( SEC Form 13F-HR).
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html
If you want historical listings of institutional ownership for a particular stock, I cannot think of any site. Most of the sites that I am familiar with are essentially on a real time basis, and change their listings as reports are received.
dws: We should get a better read by the end of next week, or early in the following week, when most of the institutions should have reported their 12/31/03 positions.
mschere; Since NEC and Siemans independently handle sales of their infrastructure products, rather than the JV, I was thinking any questions to IR should be more along the lines of whether each one is responsible for separately reporting their sales and paying appropriate licensing fee. I wasn’t thinking of of specific royalty rates or other licensing information.
Last week we discussed when infrastructure sales should be recorded by the companies involved and reported to IDCC for license payments. For NEC my impression was that their largest customer was/is DOCOMO, and after their initial sale most of the sales have been for additional base stations and their installation. Under these circumstances NEC should be recording and reporting the value of the base station sales upon shipment .
For Siemans, my impressions of their infrastructure sales, is that in many cases the base stations are only one part of a contract for a complete installation of a 3G network infrastructure system. Under these circumstances, in accordance with their revenue recognition policies, recording the base station sales revenues may be delayed until various aspects of the overall contract have been completed. This would follow the explations you have given, and may help explain why infrastructure license revenues apparently are not what they should be.
Since we really don’t know how the NEC/Siemans JV is operating, the above is just guess work on my part.
mschere: Since there appears to be much confusion about how the licensing and royalty payments related to NEC/Siemens' infrastructure sales are handled, and from previous posts you apparently believe that there is a shortfall in payments received, wouldn't that be an appropriate question for IR to clarify?
L2V: I would add a fourth i.e. short selling.
<<Margin leverage, option time limits, and trading the market swings are three things I have learned to stay away from>>
rmarchma/sophist The Siemens/NEC JV (Mobisphere) is a strange animal in that it does not manufacture or sell any products. It appears to be mostly a design and engineering coordinating activity between the two companies. Each company handles their own manufacturing and sales of the JV related products. Like you, I have no idea about how licensing fees would be handled.
The following from Mobisphere’s web site:
When Siemens and NEC announced a joint venture to develop a common 3G radio network in 1999, they created Mobisphere to form a dedicated interface between the two companies. As technical managers for the ambitious international project, Mobisphere coordinates and optimises this unrivalled combination of expertise and resources.
And with just 40 people in our Reading office, we're a unique company with a unique mission - to facilitate the technological development that's transforming mobile telecommunications.
Mobisphere coordinates the strategic alliance between Siemens and NEC, managing the development of one common product portfolio for FDD and TDD mobile telecommunications systems. Formed in 1999, we bring together Siemens' expertise in GSM and world markets, and NEC's know-how in CDMA and DoCoMo experience.
Our shared development and manufacturing activities include RNC, Node B and OMC products. Both companies are developing their own handsets and core network outside of the joint venture.
http://www.mobisphere.com/
mschere: Although Dell'Oro forecast base station unit prices to drop, they also forecast an increase in total dollars spent over the next five years.
Worldwide Mobile Infrastructure Market to Stabilize in 2004 with Growth Expected in 2005 and Beyond, According to Dell'Oro Group
Redwood City, CA - January 28, 2004 - According to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group, the total Mobility Infrastructure market (GSM/GPRS/EDGE, TDMA, CDMA, and WCDMA) will decline 1% in 2004 to $25.7 B, and then begin to rebound in 2005 with 5% growth. Growth is forecast to accelerate to 13% in 2006 on the strength of new deployments in China and CDMA 1X-EV-DO and DV upgrades. Dell’Oro Group expects the total market, driven largely by WCDMA, to increase 7% in both 2007 and 2008, reaching $34.8 B in 2008. In 2006, WCDMA infrastructure revenues and base station shipments are set to surpass those of GSM-based systems.
“Several key trends points toward recovery,” commented Greg Collins, Senior Director at Dell’Oro Group. “The global macroeconomic environment appears to be improving. Service Providers’ (SPs) economic indicators have also improved: Average Revenue per User per month (ARPU) has stabilized in many developed regions and Capex as a percentage of revenue is at a low level. Moreover, handsets with color screens and cameras continue to saturate the subscriber base. Having a large installed base of client devices capable of sending, receiving and processing data, voice, and video content is a prerequisite for application development, and applications will ultimately drive network traffic, APRU, and infrastructure sales.”
About the Report
The Mobility Infrastructure 5-Year Forecast Report provides a complete overview of the industry with tables covering revenue, units, transceivers or RF carriers, and price forecasts for Base Station Controllers, Base Transceiver Stations, and Mobile Switching Centers for GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA, TDMA, and WCDMA. To purchase this report, contact Julie Learmond-Criqui at 650-622-9400 ext. 223 or via email at julie@delloro.com.
About Dell'Oro Group
Dell'Oro Group is a market research firm that specializes in strategic competitive analysis in the networking and telecommunications industries. The firm provides market research to the industry on a quarterly basis to meet the fast pace of technology. Quarterly Reports and 5-Year Forecasts offer detailed quantitative information on revenues, port and/or unit shipments, and average selling prices (www.delloro.com).
drrtl: Any other interesting questions/answers during breakout session?
For those who want an easier to read version of the chart data from your posted article:
http://www.idcresearch.com/getdoc.jhtml?containerId=pr2004_02_02_142039
2003 Worldwide Mobile Phone Shipments up 29.7% in Fourth Quarter and 23.3% for the Year, According to IDC
03 Feb 2004
rmarchma: Thanks again. That is quite a summary. It will take me a little time to absorb it all.
my3sons: The official SEC site does not show any new items for IDCC so far today.
rmarchma: I also add my thanks for the prompt reply.
Maybe IDCC should annotate their list of licensees to show which ones are paid up.
TFWG: The settlement payment covered PHS and PDC products. Are we still due royalties from NEC for GPRS handsets?
Monday 2 February 2004
Quanta to supply GPRS mobile phones to NEC for China market
Adam Hwang, Taipei
Quanta Computer, Taiwan’s largest notebook maker, reportedly will begin ODM production of NEC GPRS mobile phones for the China market in the second half of this year, according to the Taiwan-based Commercial Times.
TFWG/rmarchma: Is this the reference you mentioned about only 50K 616 handsets being available.
Dow Jones Business News
Hutchison Launches Hong Kong's First 3G Operations; 10 Retail Shops
Tuesday January 27, 4:43 am ET
HONG KONG -(Dow Jones)- Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. launched its third- generation wireless operations in Hong Kong on Tuesday, the first 3G rollout in the city since licenses were handed out three years ago.
ADVERTISEMENT
The conglomerate has opened 10 retail outlets in the city, and has on hand 50, 000 of its new NEC 616 3G handsets, said Agnes Nardi, managing director of 3 Hong Kong.
"We expect to be selling well," said Nardi. She declined to give sales targets.
The new NEC 616 3G handset to be employed for the service also has a Chinese template.
The "3" service includes 19 entertainment channels offering sports, music, video messaging, electronic mail, and stocks and foreign exchange information. Monthly tariff plans start at HK$263, while the price of a handset is HK$4380 if bought alone or HK$3980 each if two are bought at the same time.
Hutchison originally planned to launch 3G operations in Hong Kong early last year, but postponed it to August and later on to the end of last year, before saying it would launch sometime this month.
Initially, glitches in the fledgling technology led to delays in the group's trailblazing global launch of wideband CDMA, the 3G standard for GSM, or Global System for Mobile, technology. Later, a shortage of handsets set back the deployment of the technology.
Besides Hutchison Whampoa's unit Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Ltd., the other three operators planning to launch 3G sometime this year are Sunday Communications Ltd. (NasdaqNM:SDAY - News) , Hong Kong CSL Ltd., owned by Australia's Telstra Corp. , and SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings .
Hutchison, which has 3G licenses in 10 markets including Hong Kong, launched its high-speed network in the U.K. and Italy in March and now also has operations in Australia, Austria and Sweden. The company said last month it had 660,000 3G subscribers worldwide.
-By Nisha Gopalan, Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; nisha.gopalan@dowjones.com
-Edited by Sharon Buan
Ron: A little more information about NEC's 3rd quarter results may be obtained from the presentation slides:
http://www.nec.co.jp/ir/en/pdf/040129/html/index.html
Jim; to add my two cents to the questions raised.
It is my understanding that once the parties agree to arbitraton they are bound by its rules. One of it’s rules states that:
<<If any of the parties, although duly summoned, fails to appear without valid excuse, the Arbitral Tribunal shall have the power to proceed with the hearing.>>
Therefore, a decision could be rendered, even if Nokia/Samsung want to withdraw from the proceeding.
It is also my understanding that arbitration decisions are considered binding by Judicial authorities, so I seriously doubt that Nokia/Samsung would consider withdrawing from the arbitration.
Mschere. Just an added thought to my last post.
I can see on an initial infrastructure sale to a new customer, recording the sale may be delayed until certain milestones are met. However, in the case of additional sales to the same customer, NEC should be able to use the highlighted revenue recognition practices.
The following is Nokia's revenue recognition policy, which differs from NEC's policies.
Revenue recognition
Sales from the majority of the Group are recognized when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred, the fee is fixed and determinable and collectibility is probable.
Sales and cost of sales from contracts involving solutions achieved through modification of telecommunications equipment are recognized on the percentage of completion method when the outcome of the contract can be estimated reliably. Completion is generally measured by reference to cost incurred to date as a percentage of estimated total project costs. The milestone output method is applied when the nature of the individual projects indicates that a milestone method is the most applicable measure of progress.
The percentage of completion method relies on estimates of total expected contract revenue and costs, as well as dependable measurement of the progress made towards completing that project. Recognized revenues and profits are subject to revisions during the project in the event that the assumptions regarding the overall project outcome are revised. The cumulative impact of a revision in estimates is recorded in the period such revisions become known and estimable. Losses on projects in progress are recognized immediately when known and estimable.
mschere: I follow what you are saying, but my belief is that once a sale has been recorded, IDCC is due their royalty, it should have nothing to do with when NEC is paid by the customer. The following is also from the NEC agreement:
Payments/Reports. All payments required under this 3G Agreement shall be made by wire transfer to the following bank account of ITC in U.S. dollars on a quarterly basis within forty-five (45) days after the end of each calendar quarter.
..........
Such payment, less any available credit, shall be for all sales of Covered Subscriber Units and Covered Infrastructure Units made by Licensee or its Affiliates during such quarter.
While the infrastructure units cannot be compared with a handset, they are still a standard manufactured product , listed in catalogs, with detailed specifications. With 26,000(?) units sold I would not consider them a unique item. The following is NEC’s revenue recognition policy. I think infrastucture sales would fall in the highlighted category, which would allow immediate revenue recognition for the infrastructure units only, prior to installation.
We recognize revenue when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred or service has been rendered, the seller’s price is fixed or determinable and collectibility is reasonably assured. Some of our products are large volume consumables that are tested to industry and/or customer acceptance criteria prior to shipment. Our primary shipping terms are FOB shipping point. Therefore, revenue for these types of products is recognized when title transfers. Certain of our product sales are accounted for as multiple-element arrangements. If we have met defined customer acceptance experience levels with both the customer and the specific type of equipment, we recognize the product revenue at the time of shipment and transfer of title, with the remainder when the other elements, primarily installation, have been completed. Some of our other products are highly customized systems and cannot be completed or adequately tested to customer specifications prior to shipment from the factory. We do not recognize revenue for these products until formal acceptance bythe customer. Revenue for spare parts sales is recognized on shipment.
mschere. I thought we went over this one time before.
The NEC 3G licensing agreements states that royalty payments for subscriber units and infrastructure units shall be at a "[**]% of the Net Selling Price of each such product sold by Licensee or its Affiliates". Net Selling price is defined as " "Net Selling Price" means the amount actually invoiced to the customer for a Covered Infrastructure Unit or Covered Subscriber Unit,"
It is not dependent on NEC receiving payment from their customers.
<<IDCC can report earnings from their licensee, I believe, ONLY when these Companies receive payment which can be as in the case of Infrastructure as long as TWO full years after they record their sales..Networks must be fully Operational with Subscribers before the vendors are paid>>
mschere/rmarchma: If you haven't seen this, something to add to your estimates.
Asia's Mixed 3G Blessings
01.29.04
The market for 3G services in Asia/Pacific has received both a silver lining and a cloud this week, with positive rumblings from NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s (NYSE: DCM - message board) 3G subscriber base offset by reports of consumer apathy towards Hutchison 3G HK Ltd.'s long-awaited launch.
DoCoMo today revealed that its 3G FOMA (Freedom Of Mobile Multimedia Access... should be FOMMA, no?) service finally appears to be taking off. After nearly two-and-a-half years of sluggish growth, the carrier has hit the two million subscriber mark, two months ahead of earlier forecasts (see FOMA Subs Top 2M).
FOMA is based on Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access technology -- the air interface specified as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Standard (UMTS) for 3G. It can theoretically crank up cellular data transfer rates to a maximum of 2 Mbit/s [ed. note: if you're standing so close to the base-station trial site that the radiation curls the bottom of your red flares].
That putative milestone is of particular note, as it represents a doubling in numbers over the last four months, a fact the carrier attributes to increased choice of handsets and greater regional network coverage (see FOMA Subs Top 1M).
DoCoMo has also placed particular emphasis on in-building wireless networks, and plans to beef up signals in subway stations and underground shopping malls with an additional 1,600 LM Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY - message board) base stations by the end of March.
“It shows they have made steps to up their game,” comments IDC senior analyst Paolo Pescatore. “They have almost been a victim of their own success, as everyone is so comfortable with the original i-mode service [see I-mode Subs Surpass 40M]. But DoCoMo have now started to concentrate on working closely with their partners, especially the handset manufacturers, in order to give users a reason to upgrade from i-mode to 3G."
Such success is in line with the carrier’s forecasted spending on 3G equipment. According to a recent Unstrung Insider report, DoCoMo expects to spend approximately $3,431 million on 3G equipment in the current financial year (47 percent of total capex), compared with 3G spending of $3,082 million in the previous year (40 percent of capex) (see Christmas Capex Cheer?).
On a down note, the launch of Hutchison’s 3G service in Hong Kong this week appears to have been something of a damp squib, following reports that the sale of handsets in the region has been met with consumer indifference (see 3 HK Unveils 3G).
The lackluster response is a painful reminder of earlier Hutchison 3G launches in Italy and the U.K., each of which missed its initial subscriber target by a huge shortfall (see Hutch's Subscriber U-Turn).
Earlier this month, Singapore’s largest carrier, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (SingTel), was forced to delay its 3G consumer trial due to a lack of compatible handsets. A new launch date is yet to be announced.
— Justin Springham, Senior Editor, Europe, Unstrung
ams13sag: Somehow I had an idea that your answer would be along those lines (I imagined you saying do your own due diligence). However, I thought one of the purposes of the board was to help each other learn. Since this is one of the most active boards around, and covers many different topics, it would be pretty hard to go thru prior posts trying to pick out the ones that relate to the specifics you mention.
arms13sag: Rather than making some general questioning statements, could you please give some specific data as to what you are referring to.
Ed: I agree that there appears to be typo errors in the exhibit schedule included in yesterday’s 10K/A. For 10.44 and 10.45 NEC was typed instead of Nokia, and for 10.46 NEC was typed in instead of Sharp.
Yesterday’s 10K/A
*10.44 The TDD Development Agreement between and among InterDigital, ITC and NEC (Exhibit 10.55 to the 2003 Form 8-K).
*10.45 Amendment No. 1 to the TDD Development Agreement dated September 30, 2001 between and among InterDigital, ITC and NEC (Exhibit 10.56 to the 2003 Form 8-K).
*10.46 PHS and PDC Subscriber Unit Patent License Agreement dated March 19, 1998 between ITC and NEC (Exhibit 10.57 to the 2003 Form 8-K).
From the 8K/A dated 2Jul 03. I have used this instead of the original Feb 03, 8k, as copies of the actual agreements are included with this submission
*Exhibit 10.55: TDD Development Agreement between and among InterDigital Communications Corporation, InterDigital Technology Corporation, and Nokia Corporation, dated as of January 22, 1999.
*Exhibit 10.56: Amendment No. 1 to the TDD Development Agreement dated September 30, 2001 between and among InterDigital Communications Corporation, InterDigital Technology Corporation, and Nokia Corporation.
*Exhibit 10.57: PHS and PDC Subscriber Unit Patent License Agreement dated March 19, 1998 between InterDigital Technology Corporation and Sharp Corporation.
NEC results. For our analysts, page 12 has a breakdown of sales by products for 3 month's ending 31 Dec 03.
http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0401/images/2901.pdf
I think everyone who has been commenting today about the amended 10Q and 10K, should read them again. The amended filings were to cover minor administrative changes. Although there may be some question about what was contained in the prior submissions, except as noted no other changes were made.
From the 10K :
<<The change reflected by this Form 10-K/A, Amendment No. 1 is a revision to the report of independent accountants in Item 8, to include the city and state where the report was issued. The Exhibit Index in Item 15 is also amended to reflect the inclusion of updated certifications of certain executive officers.</R >>
From the 10Q:
<<The changes reflected by this Form 10-Q/A are revisions and supplemental disclosures to the Controls and Procedures disclosure in Part I, Item 4. The Exhibit Index in Part II, Item 6 is also amended to reflect the inclusion of updated certifications of certain executive officers.>>
Alley: Always hard to figure out how the market will react. Did anyone really think that interest rates would not be going up sometime this year.
It is my understanding that IDCC would be classified as an "accelerated filer", so this year's annual report would be due 75 days after the end of the FY.
Grither Dishfan answered your question on msg 56506. The intellectual property provisions that would relate to IDCC were:
Bal 01/01/02............201
Additions....................93
Utilized......................(21)
Balance 12.31/02......273
Ed; The problem is, except for your comment, you are not adding anything new. I previously posted that article yesterday, and I think someone else reported it earlier today.
#56309 3HK 3G demo disappointing olddog967 1/26/2004 10:38:15 PM
enyaw; Where does your trading activity come from? It is showing much more activity than the following trades from the NASDAQ site.
16.48.. $ 24.12.. 300
16.21.. $ 24.13.. 100
16.13.. $ 24.13.. 675
16.06.. $ 24.09.. 1400
16.06.. $ 24.10.. 226
16.03.. $ 24.10.. 5000
my3sons87: Annual reports are due 90 days after end of quarter except for "accelerated filers"(?) who now must report 75 days after end of quarter.
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF
THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
A. Rule as to Use of Form 10-K.
(1) This Form shall be used for annual reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15
U.S.C. 78m or 78o(d)) (the “Act”) for which no other form is prescribed. This Form also shall be used for transition
reports filed pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act.
(2) Annual reports on this Form shall be filed within the following period:
(a) For accelerated filers (as defined in 17 CFR 240.12b-2):
i. 90 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by the report for fiscal years ending on or after December 15,
2002 and before December 15, 2003;
ii. 75 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by the report for fiscal years ending on or after December 15,
2003 and before December 15, 2004; and
iii. 60 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by the report for fiscal years ending on or after December 15,
2004; and
(b) 90 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by the report for all other registrants.
3HK 3G demo disappointing
January 26, 2004
Hutchison Whampoa's 3G service in Hong Kong falls below expectations and fails to delivery the much-promised video calling element, reported The Standard. At the weekend preview of the mobile service, it said video calls failed to wow consumers and that "picture quality was unclear" and "transmission speed was unsteady and choppy".
A senior executive for a US mobile Internet company said "the image is not as clear as I expected" and the video streaming suffers from interruptions. He said the service is behind that of Japan and Korea.
Hutchison begins commercial 3G service tomorrow and customers have a choice of three monthly tariffs to choose from. The three tariffs cost - HK$263, HK$383, and HK$533 per month - and includes 200, 300 and 500 minutes of video calls respectively.
Hutchison has around 50,000 NEC c616 handsets available for subscribers, priced at HK$4,380, or HK$3,980 each when two or more handsets are purchased.
Customers will be able to enjoy materials from local content providers, such as previews and excerpts of dramas from TVB and get live traffic update from Cable TV. In addition, Hutchison is also providing English Premiership football, and adult content such as Playboy channel and Asian pornography on its Sensation channel.
New handsets will make or break 3UK
January 26, 2004
The launch of 3G services in Europe last year did not bring with it the range of handsets that would entice consumers to join the next generation mobile revolution. Handsets were bulky and short on battery life plus there was a lack of choice, less than ten 3G models were released across Europe.
Three UK, has had mixed success. It may have achieved the fastest rollout in telecom history but the company has received many complains about its poor services. The only handset from the company that comes close to resembling the size of a 2G phone was the NEC e606, but even this phone was considered bulky.
The company is bringing out the Motorola A925 soon and although it is better than its predecessor, the A920, the size and weight remains similar. The phone has too many functions for the average user and the weight (210g) will put many off. But this first quarter should see the release of the NEC e616 and possibly the SonyEricsson Z1010, two eagerly awaited 3G handsets. The improvements over earlier handsets could interest more consumers to join 3 and could change around the fortunes for the company. The handsets are both smaller and lighter than previous 3G handsets with longer standby and talk time. The Z1010 weighs just 115g and only just short of the average 2G model.
Three's beginning has mirrored that of NTT DoCoMo's start. In Japan, DoCoMo's 3G FOMA service recovered from a poor start after the operator introduced better handsets and improved the network coverage. Three does have a larger coverage than DoCoMo with its roaming agreement with O2 but the call handoff from 3G to 2G areas is far from satisfactory.
The success of the e616 and Z1010 will dictate how well 3 will do this year. Three UK would probably get around a third of the 2.5 million e616 in the first quarter from Hutchison. The e616 is 3's main handset and had originally been planned to be release late last year to replace the best selling e606 and the shortage of handsets during the Christmas sale meant the company could not aggressively market its products. If the handset does poorly then the outlook for 3 appears gloomy.
The Nokia 7600 is another interesting handset in that it will be available on the 3 network in the UK but it will be The Carphone Warehouse providing support for the handset. 3 has chosen not to supply the 7600 because it does not support videotelephony but neither does the Motorola A830, which was available at 3's launch. The UK has a large base of Nokia loyalist and the decision not to supply the 7600 is a curious one and an error in commercial strategy. There are consumers that would sign up to 3 for reasons other than video calling, such as the cheaper voice calls. Video calling is a big selling point of 3G but consumers will need time to get accustom to the technology and therefore mass take-up won't happen straight away.
Three has not confirmed that they will offer any handsets apart from Motorola and NEC but they have not ruled out the possibility in using other handset manufacturers later this year. As for pay as you go mobiles, 3 said they would only launch the service once they have enough phones.
Since we have been comparing RIMM to IDCC:
7:57AM RIMM initiated at BofA with Buy and $118 target 85.15: Banc of America initiates Research in Motion with a Buy rating and a $118 target. Although the stock has had a great run, the firm expects more upside as enterprises, carriers, and licensees ramp Blackberry service. The firm expects enterprise spending to improve in 2004. The co is now shipping to over 25 carriers, including ten of the largest wireless operators in the world. The firm believes Blackberry will remain the technology of choice for these carriers.The target of $118 assumes that the stock trades at 40x CY05 EPS estimate.
Jim: As of 31 Dec 02, IDCC stock in the plan was relatively small, valued at $812,571 out of total net assets of $11,528,773 What is interesting, is that no matter what investment option the employee picks, one half of IDCC’s matching contribution amount is paid for in IDCC stock.
Plan Amendments
In June 2001, the Company’s Compensation & Stock Option Committee authorized an amendment to the Plan to include increasing the Company’s matching contribution from 25 percent to 50 percent of the first 6 percent of a participant’s annual compensation that a participant contributes to the Plan, (paying the additional 25 percent matching contribution in the Company’s Common Stock), adding the Company’s Common Stock to the selection of investments under the Plan, permitting an additional discretionary year-end matching contribution and, effective for employees hired on or after January 1, 2002, extending the vesting period of the Company’s matching contributions to 36 months from the commencement of employment. The prior vesting policy permitted immediate vesting of 33 percent upon commencement of employment and vesting of 67 percent and 100 percent on the first and second anniversaries of commencement of employment, respectively. Under the current vesting policy, participants vest 33-1/3 percent on each of their first three anniversaries of employment.
In August 2001, 400,000 shares of the Company’s authorized but unissued Common Stock were reserved for issuance to the account of participants in the Plan as matching contributions. An agreement was entered into between the Company, on behalf of the Plan, and Web401(k).com and
Fidelity Investments to serve as third party administrator and custodian, respectively, of the InterDigital Stock Fund.
Jim: The Savings and Protection Plan (the "Plan") for which the freeze was in effect is a 401k plan for company employees. Most of the plan assets are various types of mutual funds not IDCC stock.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/354913/000119312503015027/d11k.htm
Another WiMAX is the future article.
Future of wireless broadband is in the air
Rupert Goodwins
ZDNet UK
January 23, 2004, 12:20 GMT
A battery of standards are vying for the wireless broadband - the wired providers are curiously silent
With UK broadband take-up passing ten percent of households and BT celebrating by announcing new and ever more widespread DSL availability, the dominance of wired broadband would seem to be assured. Wireless systems have come and gone, and everyone who ran a test -- or even a production -- network has given up and gone home.
But radio will win. The only question is when and what -- in the end, not even that. Wireless is better than wired: it's quicker to deploy, costs less to maintain, has less to go wrong and is far more flexible. Wherever there's a choice between the two technologies, wireless wins. In the early days of telephones they were used to deliver music and news to subscribers, but as soon as broadcast radio came along the economics of one-to-many proved overwhelming. Open air is always cheaper than buried copper.
The lead broadband wireless technology at the moment is WiMax, 802.16's market-friendly name. Promoted at the moment as the key technology for remote, rural and otherwise unwireable locations, it promises up to 70Mbps and up to 70km range. It won't reach this in practice, but the engineering behind it is building on the enormous amount of experience the industry has from 802.11b and other wireless deployments. It'll work well enough.
802.20 is another broadband wireless standard, this time aimed primarily at mobile users. Designed to deliver around 1Mbps to devices on the move at speeds of up to 250kph, the standards committee have been looking particularly closely at the way it works with 802.11. It's a lovely idea, being able to switch from hot spot to high-speed mobile service and back again without noticing, even if nobody can quite explain why it's such a similar idea to 802.16e. That's the mobile bit of WiMax -- it uses a slightly different set of frequencies and has some slightly more restrictive speed limits, but it too is aimed at delivering broadband to the peripatetic.
The mobile phone industry is anxious not to be left out. It invented mobile data, after all, even if it's been ferociously bad at working out how to sell it or upgrade it much past the 9600bps with which GSM was born. Even though the faster data rates of GPRS, Edge and 3G networks have been hindered by indifferent coverage, the next generation is already being prepared. High Speed Downlink Packet Access -- HSPDA -- is Nokia's big idea, and is promoted as being capable of boosting 3G speeds to 10Mbps or even more. It lives alongside existing installations, just as Edge does with GSM, and is just as dependent on the networks getting it right.
All of the above can do the job of getting broadband access out to the dispossessed, and one standard will win -- most probably WiMax, with the others relegated to niche markets and more expensive roles. But it won't end there: as the market develops, costs will fall and installations will simplify. It took a couple of cycles of wireless LAN development for 802.11 to break out of its own expensive niche: as people learned how to make it work and what to use it for, it got cheaper and more desirable. The final kick up the backside was the Internet, which suddenly provided an infinite amount of things that people might actually want to transmit over their wireless network: a desire already built into wireless broadband.
Once we're into the second generation of WiMax, subscribing to the service will be as simple as buying a box, plugging it into your computer and moving an aerial around until a light comes on. You'll sign onto the service by entering your credit card number into the Web page that then appears -- just as you do with hot spots now -- and that'll be that. Deployment costs to the Internet provider? Close to zero. Equipment costs to you? Less than a mobile phone. How can wired broadband compete?
The third generation of wireless broadband will be the final integration of the telephone and data networks. You can already have a voice over IP phone that looks like a mobile phone but uses a combination of the SIP protocol and Wi-Fi to route your calls over the Net whenever it finds a hot spot. Add the mobile broadband stuff, and that phone will not only act as a mobile broadband terminal -- with phone functions hanging vestigially off it like AM radio in a £2000 digital home entertainment system -- but it will act as a local gateway across 802.11 and the forthcoming ultrawideband standards.
At some point -- and it won't be that long coming -- the economics will demand less and less human management of the system and put more and more smarts in the boxes themselves. At this point, it will become moot what standards are best or which to choose: you'll tell your machinery what you want and how much you want to pay, and it will configure itself appropriately. The technology exists: it's just a question of making it pay.
You'll notice that there's not much for the old phone companies to do here, either wired or wireless. Yes, they have worldwide networks of wireless masts -- but WiMax may be able to replicate that a lot more efficiently. And even if it can't do that from the ground, then high-altitude platforms may be able to deploy huge amounts of bandwidth across vast swathes of countryside in the time it takes to launch a balloon.
There's irony in the notion that just as the telcos are getting the hang of broadband they're in most danger of being out-evolved and relegated to the legacy room. But with the speed at which WiMax, its friends and enemies are being developed, and the clarity with which their future is being planned, the lack of compelling alternatives from the old guard promises nothing less.
Eneerg: I hadn't heard of this one before. I thought all the comments relating to groundhog day was some sort of insider joke.
mschere: If we go by last year's filing, the Form 20 will not be out for another two to three weeks. On an overall basis their Provisions account dropped from 2,470 to 2,422, but since warranty costs are the biggest part of the account this probably does not mean anything. We will just have to wait for the Form 20 to see the amount set aside for IPR infringement
H42:
Qualcomm QCOM Loop Capital from Industry Outperform
to Industry Perform