Unstrung Insider Report: Cutting the Cost of 3G Networks NEW YORK, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The wireless equipment industry is going through a huge and far-reaching restructuring as major suppliers work to drastically reduce the cost of developing and building 3G base stations, according to a new report from the subscription research service Unstrung Insider (http://www.unstrung.com/insider). The report -- Open Base Stations: Cutting the Cost of 3G Networks -- analyzes how major vendors and subsystem suppliers are responding to the challenge of making sustainable profits in a market where the price of the end product is declining by 15 percent to 20 percent every year. "A fundamental restructuring of the mobile equipment industry is underway, as Tier 1 OEMs move from vertically integrated to more efficient horizontal business models," says Unstrung Insider chief analyst Gabriel Brown. "Supply chain, inventory management, purchasing, and business forecasting will become at least as important as making incremental improvements to what are, in essence, standard products." That doesn't mean innovation will disappear. According to the report, there are great opportunities for specialist RF subsystem and baseband silicon plays, while OEMs sharpen their focus on carrier-grade software and systems integration. Select findings from the report include: * 3G base station prices have plummeted to between $25K and $50K. * R&D has increased as to an average of 16 percent of sales since 2000; this is unsustainable. * Operating margins have returned to historical norms (approx. 10 percent); we believe high single-digit margins can be maintained. * Andrew, Powerwave, and Remec are the only vendors positioned to provide integrated RF systems. * The RF block could soon account for 50 percent of the cost of a base station, up from 40 percent today. * Power amp efficiency is lamentable; a huge opportunity for innovation exists. * Baseband architectures are moving rapidly from expensive and risky ASICs to programmable DSP, FPGA, and parallel-processor architectures. Base station OEMs interviewed or featured in this report: Alcatel SA (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA); LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERICY); Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU); Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT); Nokia Corp. (NYSE:NOK); Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT); Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE) RF subsystem suppliers interviewed or featured in this report: Andrew Corp. (NASDAQ:ANDW); Nujira Ltd.; Powerwave Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PWAV); Remec Inc. (NASDAQ:REMC) Baseband silicon vendors interviewed or featured in this report: Agere Systems Inc. (NYSE:AGR.A); Altera Corp. (NASDAQ:ALTR); Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE:ADI); Infineon Technologies AG (NYSE/Frankfurt: IFX); Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC); Morpho Technologies Inc.; PicoChip Designs Ltd.; Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE:TXN); Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) The new report -- Open Base Stations: Cutting the Cost of 3G Networks -- is available as part of an annual subscription to the monthly Unstrung Insider, priced at $1,350. The subscription includes 12 exclusive reports covering the hottest wireless networking technologies. Individual reports are available for $900. To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: http://www.unstrung.com/insider. Sales contact: Dave Williams Sales Director Unstrung Insider 415-293-8470 Press contact: Laura West Outbound Marketing Director Unstrung Insider 212-925-0020 ext. 105 DATASOURCE: Unstrung Insider CONTACT: Sales - Dave Williams, Sales Director, Unstrung Insider, +1-415-293-8470, ; or Press - Laura West, Outbound Marketing Director, Unstrung Insider, +1-212-925-0020 ext. 105, Web site: http://www.unstrung.com/insider

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