Larry, First, let me commend you for bringing to light the kind of business practices that are probably not all that unusual for a market such as cell phones. Cell phones are practically given to you, as long as you sign-up for the service. It's almost like printers, you can buy a printer for next to nothing, but the first time you buy the ink cartridges, you probably pay more for a black cartridge and color cartridge, than you did for the printer. Sad part about this is, the normal consumer doesn't know anything about this, and even if they did, would they really care? Maybe, maybe not. Just taking a wild guess, most would go for cheaper, no matter what...sad but true. Look at all the child labor stuff with Nike, and other big name companies... I wish I knew what the magic bullet was to deal with this stuff, but I don't... -Steve Gregory- TECHNET COMMUNITY, WE RECEIVED SOLICITATION FROM A FIRM(?) WANTING "ANY KIND" CELL PHONE BOARDS. AFTER REQUESTING MORE INFORMATION AS TO LAYER COUNT, ETC. THEY REPLIED CONFIRMING THE SUSPICIONS I VOICED TO OUR SALES MANAGER. THEY WANTED BOARDS OF OTHER COMPANIES FOR THEIR OWN USE! I WAS ADVISED NOT TO REPLY FURTHER, AND PASS THIS ON TO WARN OTHERS, SOME DIRTY BUSINESS MAY BE BEING TRIED OPENLY. CORRESPONDENCE TO DATE AS FOLLOWS; -----Original Message----- From: mohamedkhair elnour [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 8:52 PM To: russell(ù¯À) Subject: RE: cellular phone boards DEAR SIR, Thank you for your reply, but what we are looking for is: the boards that you assemble many patrs to it in order to make cellular phone, actually iam not a technic person but ihave seen this boards in your internet site, We are intersted in all NOKIA models I do not now how many layers (but iwiil ask our technic team) and other modes like samsung (all model) and other cell phone model (must be GSM). any way if you got what i mean its ok. or iwill send another technic requirements. thanks. Mohamed khair alnoor "russell(??)" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Dear Manager Alnoor, Please give us more specifics regarding the type cell phone boards you require. We manufacture hundreds of models, mostly 6 layer and 4 layer. The size is important in pricing, as well as any special requirements such as laser drilling for high density. There is a tooling cost for any new design which is not dependent on quantity, and price reductions for quantities in a shipping lot, as well as total quatitiy. Number of drill holes, type of finish required, minimum size of circuits and spaces and copper thickness as well as overall board thickness are needed for exact pricing. There is no minimum, but prices are very quantity dependent under a few thousand pieces. From the engineering manager Ned King, here are some rough prices by square inch; The rough cost is 6 Layers , 1 stage STAGGER VIA , 20~25¢/ sq.inch FOB Taiwan. 6 Layers , SKIP VIA, 25~30¢/ sq.inch FOB Taiwan. 8 Layers , 1 stage STAGGER VIA , 25~30¢/ sq.inch FOB Taiwan. 8 Layers , SKIP VIA, 35~40¢/ sq.inch FOB Taiwan. We look forward to hearing more from you and building a working relationship with you. Best Regards, Larry Russell Consultant Chant World International 2, Ho Chun S., Chung Li Industry Park Chung Li, Taiwan R.O.C. 320 www.cwi.com.tw Phone 886-3-451-1277 Ext. 365 Fax 886-3-461-3917 -----Original Message----- From: mohamedkhair elnour [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 8:42 PM To: eric.wu(§d©vŲ) Subject: cellular phone boards ATTN : MR.WANG CHING-UEI (PRESIDENT) FROM ; FALCON PHONE& ELCTRONICS ABU-DHABI -UAE PHONE No: +971-02-6351887 FAX : +971-02-6351887 Mobile : +971-50-526-9988 DEAR SIR, we are looking for cell phone boards, all kinds, we found your information in the internet. please send us your quotation (fob) (cif) plus the minimum quantity. we are looking forward to hearning from you. You can email it or fax it. best regards, MOHAMED KHAIR ALNOOR MANAGER --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------