The China National Petroleum Co. gave ViaSat a contract for LinkStar broadband VSATS to monitor the country’s natural gas pipelines, ViaSat said, terms not disclosed. The company will provide a hub station and 200 terminals, it said.
Exports to China
Fifty-six heads of state and more than 6,000 delegates are expected to attend the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva Dec. 10-12. However, a spokeswoman for Gerhard Schroeder confirmed that the German Chancellor would cancel his appearance because of pressing internal issues -- the reform of Germany’s welfare and economic system. German Civil Society members said they were disappointed by the move, which a representative said demonstrated a lack of the govt.’s understanding of the importance of the information society. Schoeder’s representative denied that. Even attendance of the German Minister of Economic Affairs was said to be unlikely. Rumors that the Chinese govt. had decided to boycott the summit were denied by a spokeswoman of the Chinese U.N. mission in Geneva. At the last session, China opposed reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the official texts. The biggest national delegations come from Malaysia, Thailand and Lebanon. Malaysia lists close to 90 representatives, the U.S. 12 and the European Union 18.
The growing gap in broadband connectivity and penetration between U.S. and Korean markets was the chief issue of a Capitol Hill panel on the Internet Thurs., presented by the Congressional Internet Caucus. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.) called for a better “dialog,” saying the U.S. should learn from the Japanese model, which has wired far greater percentages of its citizens and principalities.
Qwest reported a 3rd-quarter profit of $1.8 billion, reversing a year-ago loss of $123 million. The latest results included a gain of $2.5 billion from the 2nd phase of its sale of its QwestDex telephone directory business. Revenue in the quarter dropped 5.4% to $3.6 billion, mainly due to “competitive pressures in local voice and wireless services.” Qwest, which announced its results late, said the delay was caused by the restatement it released in Oct.
European and Asian nations lead the list of economies with high access to information and communication technology (ICT), the ITU said Wed. Canada ranked 10th and the U.S. 11th, it said. The findings are part of the ITU’s first digital access index (DAI), which ranks ICT access in 178 countries. Economies are classed in one of 4 digital access categories -- high, upper, medium and low -- by examining 5 areas: availability of infrastructure, affordability of access, educational level, quality of ICT services and Internet usage. The DAI differs from other indexes, the ITU said, by including new variables such as education and affordability and by focusing on factors with an immediate impact on determining people’s potential access to ICTs rather than on qualitative variables such as the market structure and degree of competition. The DAI is part of the ITU’s upcoming 2003 edition of the World Telecommunications Development Report, scheduled for release in early Dec., before the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Other “surprising” findings were that Slovenia and France are tied in the high category and that S. Korea, “usually not among the top 10 in international ICT rankings,” came in 4th in that category. The leading nations were Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Korea, Norway, Netherlands, Hong Kong, China, Finland and Taiwan. Ireland topped the list of nations with upper access to ICTs. The top 5 gains in ranking between 1998 and 2002 were S. Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Denmark. Countries whose rankings fell in that time included New Zealand, Australia, S. Africa, France and the U.S., which dropped from 5th to 11th place, the ITU said. The U.S. was 2nd in infrastructure (by fixed telephone subscribers per 100 inhabitants); 2nd in affordability (by Internet tariff as percentage of per capita income); and 4th in usage, measured by Internet users per 100 inhabitants. The DAI results suggest that ICT access potential must be redefined, the ITU said. “Until now, limited infrastructure has often been regarded as the main barrier to bridging the Digital Divide,” said Michael Minges of the ITU’s Market, Economics & Finance Unit. However, he said, the research suggests that affordability and education are equally important. Asked whether the DAI findings were likely to prompt changes in the WSIS draft declaration of principles and action plan still under negotiation -- to focus, for example, more on education and less on infrastructure issues -- an ITU spokesman said: “I don’t think it’s a matter of more emphasis but a matter of having the best possible and transparent indicator… to measure the results of the action plan, or ICT development generally.”
ATLANTA -- The National Assn. of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) adopted 4 telecom policy resolutions at its annual meeting here, addressing Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service, regulation of cable modems, market exit by carriers and customer privacy protection. And speakers at the NASUCA conference addressed implications of the FCC’s Triennial Review Order for consumers and carriers. The NASUCA meeting was held in conjunction with the NARUC annual meeting.
Alcatel said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Intel to help mobile service providers in China identify and design mobile Internet applications using a Linux operating environment in that country and leveraging Alcatel’s existing 3G Reality Center in Shanghai.
Cooperation between Europe and the U.S. on the improved GPS and new Galileo constellations has a number of obstacles to overcome before coming to fruition, govt. and industry speakers confirmed at a meeting of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) Tues. But while much of the focus has been on technical coordination between the 2 systems, “the obstacles are not technical, they're political,” Boeing GPS Program Mgr. Matthew Jones said. Ralph Braibanti, dir. of the State Dept.’s Space & Advanced Technology Staff, agreed: “I think at the technical experts level we made a lot of progress and when you get the experts together they speak the same language and they pretty much sort things out. But when you come to national security type issues, like implications of navigation warfare… those issues are a little bit technical and a lot political. So in that sense, the toughest issues have a large political component to them.” Trade issues have been a topic of discussion among countries, Braibanti said, particularly where it affected the developers of GPS or Galileo products. He said that while the service had been advertised as being unencrypted, the option of encrypting safety of life services was “still on the table,” possible affecting access to the signal for U.S. users of the system, as well as U.S. manufacturers of navigation products. The recent addition of China to the Galileo project further complicates the situation, Braibanti said, because current International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) prohibit the sharing of certain information between the U.S. and China. For example, he said if China were to contribute launch capabilities, the U.S. couldn’t participate at all because China couldn’t have access to any routine satellite parts from the U.S. The countries also couldn’t discuss certain things, which would strain negotiations involving them both, he said. Braibanti told us the U.S. wasn’t aware of any security concerns on the European side.
Alcatel said it won multiple contracts to deploy its global GSM network solution to expand the capacity of China Mobile. It said the total value of the contracts was more than $50 million.
The European Union Council of Ministers gave the green light to cooperation with China on the Galileo Navigational Satellite, said Loyola de Palacio, European Commission vp- Energy & Transport. The official signing will take place during the October 30 EU-China summit in Beijing. The EU and China signed draft agreements in Sept. (CD Sept 23 p 10).