China’s destruction of an obsolete weather satellite in January 2007 shouldn’t get exaggerated attention, Xiong Guangkai, chairman of the China Institute of International Strategic Studies, said at an airing Monday of the country’s views on security policy in Geneva. Destroying the satellite broke no international law, said Xiong, the former deputy chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army in China. Criticism should first be leveled at the United States, which did similar tests in the 1980s, Xiong said. The Chinese action added a substantial amount of space debris that could damage communications satellites. A similar U.S. action followed the Chinese test, said an official from the Geneva International Peace Research Institute (CD Feb 22 p10). The pretext of protecting the public from the dangers of onboard propellant was a lie, he said, asking if the exchange heralded an arms race in space. China supports progress on a Russian Federation campaign against putting weapons in outer space, Xiong said.
Exports to China
The ITU sent 100 satellite terminals to Myanmar in the wake of Cyclone Nargis hitting the country May 2, ITU said Friday. The ITU said it is providing both Thuraya satellite phones and Inmarsat terminals, which can provide Internet access like laptops. Meanwhile, in China, state media reported that China Satellite Communications Corp. was providing 180 satellite terminals to help with relief work after the May 12 earthquake. China Satcom was forced to speed imports of the satellite equipment, Xinhua said.
Needless regulation threatens democracy, USTelecom President Walter McCormick told a Wednesday Media Institute lunch. “The Internet today is driving tremendous diverse participation in the democratic process in the absence of government management,” he said. The same freedom of speech isn’t present in China, which “manages the Internet,” he said, voicing fear that regulation could stifle innovation. Net management rules aren’t needed because “today, anybody who wants to invest and to offer Internet access is free to do so,” he said. Broadband investment is private sector- based, making it “unique from other significant technologies and infrastructure programs,” he said. In today’s dollars, taxpayers paid about $20 billion per year for 25 years to build the interstate highway, and $10 billion per year on the Apollo space program, he said. “But, last year alone, private companies invested more than $70 billion in North American communications infrastructure,” he said. McCormick’s speech was his first to the Media Institute. “Just a few years ago, the Media Institute probably would not have been interested in having the president of what was then the United States Telephone Association address media issues,” he said. But, in a converged world, “this is no longer the telephone industry, but the broadband industry.” - - AB
Several U.S. cable operators are looking at a proposal for a $35 set-top box to be made by Japan’s Iredeto, but no decision is likely this year, said Daniel Thunberg, Iredeto director of business development. The operators see the low- cost box as a way to free bandwidth for digital services, he said. Those eyeing the box include large cable operators as well as tier-two operators that may be able to decide more quickly, Thunberg said. Iredeto, active in China and other high-volume, low-cost markets, believes it can hit the low price with volume production, he said. The boxes won’t be able to pass through HDTV or be two-way, but will include electronic program guides and will be able to handle MPEG-2, he said. It’s not certain that the FCC would approve use of the boxes, though the agency has granted waivers allowing other low-cost boxes (CD July 25/07 p8).
Well before an analog-cutoff trial planned for Sept. 8 in the Wilmington, N.C., market(CD May 9 p3), stores there are reporting brisk sales of coupon-eligible converter boxes -- especially at the edge of town and in more rural areas, where rooftop antennas provide the main way to receive TV signals.
China, India and Brazil top developing countries in consumer preference for green electronics and other appliances, a study said. The National Geographic Society and the international polling firm GlobeScan conducted the study, called Greendex 2008: Consumer Choice and the Environment. Japanese consumers score high among wealthy nations in their preference for reusable items and moderate number of big-ticket items, the study found. Americans score the lowest. Australians, Canadians and Europeans are most likely to practice “conventional environmentally friendly behavior” like recycling, it said. The study looked at consumer behavior, including the purchase or avoidance of products for environmental reasons, avoidance of excessive packaging, preference for reusable goods over disposable products, used goods over new ones and willingness to pay an environmental premium.
China’s ministry of information industry said the nation’s growth in mobile production slowed in Q1. China saw 6.7 percent growth, 27.8 percent lower than a year earlier, the ministry said. In Q1, 141.29 million mobile phones were produced, it said. Motorola, with operations in northern and eastern China, will see production decline in Tianjin and in Zhejiang province, the agency said.
India passed the U.S. to become the world’s second largest wireless market after China, adding 10.16 million wireless subscribers at the end of March, the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India said. China led with an estimated 550 million wireless subscribers, while the U.S. is home to an estimated 257.89 million current wireless users, it said.
3G mobile phone service is ready for use in the Beijing Olympics, as China Mobile and Samsung delivered 15,000 3G handsets to the Beijing Organizing Committee, China Mobile said.
Ericsson Q1 results improved after a dismal third quarter and Q4 improvement in 2007, the company said, citing a 5 percent year-over-year sales rise reflecting demand for mobile infrastructure in high-growth markets. Subscribership grew 160 million the first quarter, including 9 million in China and 7 million in India, Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg said on a conference call. Gross profit margin fell 4.4 percent, said Chief Financial Officer Hans Vestberg. Ericsson, which has a favorable outlook for this year, will continue to plan for an essentially flat mobile infrastructure market, Svanberg said. The professional services market is expected to show good growth.