Alcatel said it signed a multimillion dollar contract with China Telecom to build 2,300 km optical backbone network in the southeastern China. It said the new transport infrastructure would provide connectivity for the ChinaNet2 network. “This will be the first implementation of an ultra long-haul DWDM network in China, with Alcatel supplying its 1626 Light Manager platform,” the company said.
Exports to China
Polarization between govts. and business, reflected in 17 proposed bans on municipal broadband across the U.S., should be bridged for the common good, Sean Maloney, Intel exec. vp-gen. mgr. communications group, told the Wireless Communications Assn. Symposium Wed. in San Jose. The U.S. has always been considered the world’s technology leader, he said, but that’s been based largely on staying ahead in infrastructure such as the phone network and Ethernet and isn’t the case with broadband. Public policies should address this to avoid bad consequences, Maloney said. He said pervasive high-speed access is needed to address the digital divide, educational shortcomings and city economic development. Cooperation between govt. and business should be based on recognition that “more broadband is good,” creating a “virtuous cycle” of benefits under Metcalfe’s law of network growth; “bandwidth underpins IP-based competitiveness”; and the situation calls for competition and not bans, Maloney said. He said govts. need the skills and facilities only business can provide, and incumbent providers should recognize they have unique advantages in infrastructure, backhaul and back-office systems. Contrary to portrayals in some media accounts, WiMax needn’t kill 3G to succeed, Maloney said, comparing their likely coexistence with that among Wi-Fi flavors that had been portrayed as mutually exclusive. He acknowledged considerable skepticism about Wi-Max and called it healthy, but he said WiMax established itself enough in 2004 to gain the “same viral enthusiasm” that propelled Wi-Fi, he said. There are 244 WiMax vendors, more than 5 times the number a year ago, Maloney said. From about 500 engineers developing components and systems, the number has grown to almost 5,000, who bring valuable experience from previous technologies, he said, and they have broadened development to include services and networks. The technology is on track to become a global standard for fixed broadband this year and next and mobile 2006-2008, he said. The proliferation of mobile devices at last week’s CES is great for WiMax, Maloney said. He said these devices, like desktops in the mid to late 1990s, are reaching a take-off point for demand in new applications. Maloney contrasted satellite radio, with 4 million users and 2 services, with Internet radio’s 40 million users and 10,000 providers. He said mobile broadband would let Internet radio reach a much greater potential, without necessarily killing off satellite radio. With mobile broadband’s advent “there is an astonishing amount of content out there that gets liberated,” as when the browser emerged, Maloney said. The Sundance Film Festival late this month will provide the occasion for the first premiere over WiMax of a movie, Rize, he said. Priorities for 2005 are for the 802.16e standard to be “nailed down” as quickly as possible, for variations and confusion to be minimized; industry cooperation and avoidance of “proprietary tricks” that “always backfire”; development of Wi-Max compatible laptops and then handheld devices; and bolstering the WiMax Forum as a “solutions group” with operator input central. Maloney said WiMax could and should become a global standard like Wi-Fi, and to that end announced a partnership with a leading vendor, VTE of China, to speed the rollout of the technology in that country and internationally.
Nortel slashed its 2003 profit to $434 million, from $732 million it previously reported, but said its revenue was higher at $10.2 billion vs. $9.81 billion initially reported. The new figures came in long-delayed audited financial statements the company filed with the SEC and Canadian regulators Mon. night. The reports reflect the restatement of the years ended 2001 and 2002, and the revision of previously announced results for the year ended 2003. Nortel revised its results after its audit committee found them to be erroneous. The company also said Tues. that 12 of its senior executives had agreed to voluntarily pay to the company over 3 years about $8.6 million of their bonuses awarded in 2003. “None of [them] was found to have been directly involved in the inappropriate provisioning conduct,” the company said. “These actions are a tangible demonstration of senior management’s commitment to Nortel,” Nortel CEO Bill Owens said. He said with the completion of the restatements “we have a solid foundation on which to move forward with out business.” Owens said Nortel planned to announce a “number of important initiatives… in the near future including those focusing on Asia and China, and those associated with converged, solutions-oriented networks. We also expect to make announcements regarding our progress in important new areas of business such as security and federal solutions.” Owens said the company would remain committed to “continued innovation leadership through our strong investment in R&D. We are focused on cash, cost and revenue to ensure our business model better serves our targeted operating performance.” The company said it expected to file unaudited financial statements for the first and 2nd quarters of 2004 before the end of Jan., and follow “as soon as practicable thereafter” with the filing of its unaudited financial statements for the 3rd quarter of 2004. Nortel also said it appointed Susan Shepard to the recently created position of chief ethics & compliance officer, effective Feb. 21. It said Shepard had held several positions related to ethics and compliance, including most recently as a commissioner for the N.Y. State Ethics Commission.
House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) will be one of 6 House members traveling to N. Korea this week. Upton will join Reps. Weldon (R-Pa.), Bartlett (R-Md.), Reyes (D-Tex.), Ortiz (D-Tex.) and Engel (D-N.Y.). The delegation also will visit Russia, Japan, China and S. Korea. Later, the delegation will visit tsunami-ravaged Indonesia, where Upton will deliver food and medicine donated from his constituents.
With interest in ultra wideband (UWB) on the rise in the U.S. and parts of Asia, Europe is wrestling with whether and how to regulate the new technology. The most vexatious issue -- how to prevent UWB frequencies from interfering with existing services on the same frequencies -- is under study by several groups and the UWB industry is pressing the European Commission (EC) to act, sources said. However, they said, resistance to UWB from some quarters, and the fact that the technology isn’t a top priority for the EC, has left UWB’s status in Europe unsettled.
Venezuela’s govt. wants to buy a satellite from China to reduce its technological dependence on U.S. and European telecommunication corporations. Information Minister Andres Izarra delivered the proposal to China’s National Space Administration in Beijing during a recent visit, Reuters reported. Izarra didn’t disclose how much the satellite would cost or when it would be completed and launched.
Many World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries fail to comply with their commitments under telecom trade agreements, according to comments filed with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Commenters urged the USTR to continue to work with regulators in other countries to enforce the existing trade agreements and negotiate new ones. The comments were filed in the USTR’s annual Sec. 1377 review of the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements on telecom products and services. The USTR is expected to conclude the review by March 31.
Juan Saca, ex-BellSouth Peru, selected to lead N. American wireless practice of Telecom Media & Entertainment… Stanley Cheung, ex-Johnson & Johnson, named Disney managing dir.-China… Gene Swithenbank retires as CommScope exec. vp-global broadband sales & mktg. to be succeeded by Jim Hughes, promoted… Peter Cuneo of Marvel becomes vice chmn. of TNX TV board… Larette Fontenot, ex-Azar, named head of small- and medium-sized cable system sales for PointOne… Scott Chase, ex-Via Satellite, named pres. Mobile Satellite Users Assn. effective Jan. 3; longtime MSUA pres. Ahmad Ghais retires… Rajat Bahri, ex-Kraft Foods, named CFO of GPS firm Trimble.
Excessive fixed-to-mobile termination rates and the pricing and provision of local access leased lines are the major “obstacle to the development of competitive telecom markets around the world,” CompTel/Ascent told the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Specifically, it said 12 countries didn’t honor their market-opening obligations under the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), Basic Telecom Agreement and Reference Paper and other international trade agreements: Australia, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Singapore, S. Africa and Switzerland. It said those countries were involved in such anticompetitive trade practices as failure to provide interconnection for broadband services, lack of an independent regulatory body in certain countries, absence of measures to prevent anticompetitive conduct and lack of transparency in the regulatory process. The comments came in response to the USTR’s annual Sec. 1377 review of the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. telecom products and services trade agreements. CompTel said some countries -- including Australia, France, Japan, Mexico, Singapore and S. Africa -- have taken “significant steps” toward complying with international trade agreements, but “in some cases the steps fall short of full compliance.”
Weida Communications signed an agreement with China Telecom under which the telecom company will lease Weida satellite links and equipment for China Petro’s West-East Natural Gas Transportation project. The contract was signed Dec. 13 but details of the transaction were not disclosed.