Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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Cisco to buy Nokia Enterprise?

Best rumour from 3GSM Cannes


By Tony Dennis at GSM Cannes: Thursday 17 February 2005, 11:20

THERE WERE SOME cracking rumours doing the rounds @ the last 3GSM show to be held in Cannes. (Barcelona 2006 here we come!). One of them is that Cisco is sniffing around Nokia.
Nokia has long been a mid-tier player in the cellular infrastructure market. That's an area where Cisco misses out. Better still if it goes for Nokia, it also gets a built in European presence.

And with IP based backhaul networks becoming de rigeur for 3G networks, Nokia's customer base would be just the sort of network operators which Cisco would want to target.

Better still with an American like Mary McDowell in charge of the Enterprise division @ Nokia, want better way to broker a deal to sell its infrastructure business off? Second great rumour is that Qualcomm was talking directly to British network operator, O2. The INQ spotted Qualcomm chairman, Dr Irwin Jacobs, boarding O2's yacht with a considerable posse in tow. And O2's Peter Erskine was there too.

What could they be talking about? HSDPA is the INQ's guess. Every HSDPA (sometimes known as Superfast 3G) PC Card that the INQ can think of, utilises Qualcomm's chips. Even the recently announced card from Siemens along with Sierra Wireless, Novatel and Option.

Since O2 is dead keen to get a lead in HSDPA, why not speak to the source rather than go through an intermediary?

Incidentally, O2 has just fine tuned its 3G network with help from Areso. Its Areso's first big deal. And where did the Areso team come from? Vodafone. Whoops. µ


http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21309