T-Systems and China Telecom said they had signed a memorandum of understanding to resell one another’s bandwidth capacities via their networks to other carriers. They said the agreement would enhance opportunities and geographical reach for the partners by using the extensive international and national networks of both companies.
Exports to China
Many World Trade Organization (WTO) members still don’t comply with telecom trade agreements, comments filed with the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) this week revealed. The comments were filed as part of USTR’s annual review of the operation and effectiveness of all U.S. trade agreements on telecom products and services. The USTR is expected to conclude its review by March 31.
Connexion by Boeing and China Airlines (CA) have signed a letter of intent for installation of the Connexion service on CA’s long-haul fleet of aircraft later this year, Connexion said. Travelers on commercial flights between Taiwan and Europe and Taiwan and N. America will have access to the services, it said. Connexion said CA planned to extend the service to its other airplanes later.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) reportedly is planning 3 launches this year. One bird will be for commercial communications, the others for scientific purposes. The cost of the space projects, excluding employee salaries, is estimated at $243 million, a Xinhuanet report said.
Boeing urged the FCC not to adopt a lower stationkeeping tolerance value for geostationary satellite orbit (GSO) mobile satellite service (MSS) satellites “because such a rule is unnecessary for the safe and effective operation of GSO MSS spacecraft and will significantly increase the cost of operating GSO MSS satellites.” The company is among several expressing concern over the Commission’s pending action on orbital debris. Boeing said the proposed adoption of a 0.05 degrees longitudinal stationkeeping tolerance for MSS satellites -- rather than the existing 0.1 degrees tolerance -- could require 6 times as much onboard propellant and decrease the anticipated 12-year life of Boeing’s 2 GHz MSS spacecraft by 50%: “The severe negative impact of a 0.05 degrees… tolerance results from a combination of factors within the overall available longitude budget, including in particular the significant area-to-mass ratio of Boeing’s spacecraft and its use of a slightly inclined orbit.” Boeing said that although the Commission had adopted the lower tolerance value for GSO fixed satellite service (FSS) satellites, it “was adopted solely ‘for the purpose of avoiding harmful radio interference’ between FSS satellites,” an interference risk that didn’t exist for MSS birds. Separately, Inmarsat told the FCC that if it adopted changes for East-West and North-South stationkeeping, the changes shouldn’t apply to MSS satellites already in orbit or under construction. In a presentation, the company said the standard 2.4 degrees-3.4 degrees inclination in which its satellites operated would make it difficult to maintain the proposed 0.05 degrees tolerance “because of the significant increase in the number of required” maneuvers. It also would reduce the lives of 4 Inmarsat 2 satellites by 2.5 years each, Inmarsat said. As for a proposal to increase the de- orbit height to 300 km, instead of the existing 192 km, Inmarsat said each of its satellites would experience a 2-3 month reduction in its expected life. Meanwhile, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) plans to begin studying space debris, Xinhuanet reported. CNSA will launch 3 programs to monitor, prevent and curb the movement of waste left mostly by space research activities. Xinhuanet said the programs would be used between 2006 and 2020.
A recent U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) report on China’s World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance outlined concerns over the countries’ continued lack of an independent telecom regulator. The annual report to Congress on China’s WTO commitments also concluded that lack of effective intellectual property right (IPR) enforcement was a “major obstacle” to meaningful protection in that area.
Universal access to broadband networks free of unnecessary regulations is key to future economic growth, FCC Chmn. Powell told the Chicago Economic Club Mon. The digital migration, he said, requires communications companies that haven’t historically competed with one another to do so, as well as plan for threats from start-ups. “Companies that grew up in the analog world have to reinvest in and rebuild their infrastructure in order to compete with new Digital Age companies in providing the new services that consumers and businesses want,” Powell said. He noted that the Internet already had the potential to allow consumers to bypass traditional legacy networks and communicate with one another through simple software applications, such as AOL Instant Messenger and Skype. “Voice, video and data all can ride over Internet networks easily, and will,” he said. Powell said the U.S. position as 10th in world broadband development put the nation’s economy at risk as more jobs dependent on Internet architecture went offshore to India and China. “We [the FCC] are trying to change that,” he said, noting that the Commission had adopted policies providing incentives for extending fiber networks to homes and limiting “unnecessary” regulation. He said the FCC supported the creation of multiple broadband platforms, including cable, DSL, WiFi, fixed wireless, powerline, satellites and “anything else that emerges from the innovator’s garage.” He said such policies would drive investment and technology sector growth but said business leaders would have to take greater and greater risks to adapt and compete. He said the U.S. remained the global leader in IT exports, topping $1 trillion in 2002, but suggested there were signs that position was in jeopardy. “The need to maintain technological superiority is vital to keep the upper hand against a cunning and innovative enemy intent on harming our people,” he said.
The letter writing campaign to President Bush on broadband issues continued Dec. 15, as nearly a dozen Republican House members, mostly from Tex., signed a letter to the White House encouraging a national broadband policy. The letter, like other recent letters, emphasized job growth as a side effect of a national broadband policy based on deregulation. The letter was signed by Reps. Sessions (R- Tex.), Brady (R-Tex.), Granger (R-Tex.), Thornberry (R-Tex.), Neugebauer (R-Tex.), Sullivan (R-Okla.), Boozman (R-Ark.), Hensarling (R-Tex.), Vitter (R-La.), Carter (R-Tex.). The letter said the FCC must finish 2 open proceedings -- which aren’t specified in the letter -- that would put wireline broadband offerings on an equal regulatory footing with cable broadband. “To regulate one differently than the other is to pick this market’s winners and losers, a role that is not for the government to take -- especially in the fast changing world of telecommunications and high technology,” the letter said. The letter also cited the growth of broadband investment in China and Japan and said the U.S. was close to losing its competitive advantage. In late Nov., several members of the N.C. House delegation, led by House Commerce Committee Vice-Chmn. Burr (R), sent a similar letter. Since then, Reps. Radanovich (R-Cal.) and Bachus (R-Ala.) have also sent similar letters to the White House.
Alcatel said it would provide an additional one million DSL lines for China Telecom in 18 provinces and municipalities in southern China. It said it expected to complete the deployment by mid 2004. The contract follows earlier China Telecom orders from Alcatel for one million lines announced in July. Separately, Alcatel announced that China Mobile would use 60,000 km of its Colorlock single mode optical fiber, compliant with the ITU’s G.652 standard, for the construction of part of its national backbone network. Terms weren’t disclosed.
GENEVA -- A working group under the leadership of United Nations Secy. Gen. Kofi Annan himself will try to resolve the deep differences on the question of Internet governance, officials said here. The group, whose exact membership wasn’t immediately clear, is to propose a solution to the controversial issue that has given negotiators at the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) a headache.