Under agreement valued at $55 million, Ericsson said it expanded original contracts with China Unicom for CDMA gear and services in 7 provinces in China. Ericsson said its CDMA solution had been expanded in Jiangsu, Anhui, Sichuan, Yunnan, Henan, Heilongjiang and Liaoning provinces. It also said it was conducting CDMA1X trial with China Unicom using Ericsson’s 3G platform for switching, radio access, IP and applications.
Exports to China
“There’s no doubt” World Space has “strong business model” with “a small chance to go beyond strong business and creating a phenomenon,” CEO Noah Samara told us Fri. He said radio network should reach operating profit by end of 2003 and recoup initial investment of $1 billion 2 years later. Samara wouldn’t disclose financial details about private company, but said World Space was in much better shape than most people expected. He denied industry reports company was in dire financial trouble.
FCC Comr. Copps said Wed. he believed Commission needed to look more “intensively than we are at what other countries are doing to roll out broadband, especially to their rural citizenry.” He spoke at FCC hq at event sponsored by ABA International Communications Committee and FCBA International Practice Committee. Copps cited examples of Latin American countries that were using universal access fees to invest in new broadband applications and demonstration projections in rural communities in S. Korea. U.S. doesn’t necessarily need to emulate projects in other countries, he said. “We ought to at least look seriously enough at what they are doing. Are there lessons we can learn?” Copps said: “I don’t think we have the granularity of detail or the data that we ought to have to make all of the broadband decisions that we have before us.” As for communications regulation outreach, FCC already is doing great deal in areas such as “best practices” that can be considered by regulators elsewhere, Copps said, but he would like to see Commission take even more active role in that area. Similarly, Commission already has “commendable record” in regulator-to-regulator meetings between U.S. and other countries. “I would like to see us devote significantly more in the way of resources than we are to that,” Copps said, acknowledging such funding decisions remained in hands of Congress. Where those additional funds would come from “I don’t know but I think we need to make it a priority and I think we need to push and explain to Congress that it is a priority,” he said. Copps also raised questions such as who regulators should be talking to in such bilateral discussions. He asked, for example, whether U.S. should talk only to countries that had independent regulators. “Does this mean you don’t talk to anybody in China? I don’t think so, but we need to have some rules of the road.” Copps will be part of U.S. delegation that attends bilateral discussions with China in Beijing next month, along with NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory and others. Asked if U.S. needed broadband strategy, Copps said Italy and U.S. were only 2 countries in world without one, and Italy had one under development. Each year, FCC puts together Sec. 706 report looking at whether deployment of broadband is proceeding “a reasonable and timely fashion,” he said. “I think somewhat too cavalierly we say things look pretty good, we have now got a subscriber in each zip code. It’s a little like saying if you feed one hungry child in a zip code you solve the problem of hunger. You haven’t really addressed it. We need to be working on it much more systematically than we are.”
International wholesale carrier ITXC agreed to exchange international phone traffic over its Internet-based network with China Mobile Communications, terms not disclosed. Under agreement, ITXC said China Mobile would receive Tier 1 quality for international calls of its retail customers. ITXC said China Mobile would receive additional revenue from calls that it routed to China Mobile subscribers.
OpenTV said it reached agreement with Jadebird to deploy OpenTV interactive TV software to provincial cable TV networks in China. Jadebird is investment company that provides digital TV products and services. It holds exclusive contract with many of provincial Chinese networks to build and operate digital TV services, including interactive TV. In separate announcement OpenTV said it introduced OpenTV Advertise, ad management software that enables delivery of ad content into iTV applications such as electronic program guides. Company said Wow Digital TV in Salt Lake City was first customer of new product.
Representatives of 3 technology companies will be included in a Commerce Dept. (DoC) mission to China in late April. Representatives from Borland Software, Lucent Technologies and Motorola will accompany Commerce Secy. Donald Evans to Beijing April 21-23 and Shanghai April 23-25. Commerce said delegation would seek to expand and develop new export opportunities with China in information technology and telecom, along with other industries such as environmental technology, medical products and construction equipment. Representatives include Keith Gottfried, Borland Software senior vp-law and corporate affairs gen. counsel; Robert Barnett, Motorola exec. vp; James Brewington, pres., Motorola Mobility Solutions. A total of 15 companies, including large and small businesses, will accompany Evans, DoC said. Goal of mission is to strengthen economic relations between China and the U.S. by helping U.S. businesses explore new trade and investment opportunities that have resulted from China’s entry into World Trade Organization, Commerce said. Evans also will be co-chmn. of 14th session of U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce & Trade.
China Telecom and Alcatel Chinese joint venture Shanghai Bell will deploy voice-over-IP (VoIP) network connecting Shanghai and Beijing, terms not disclosed. China Telecom will use Alcatel switching and fiber equipment for commercial tests of IP-based services including VoIP and multimedia applications. New network will be first step in migrating traditional infrastructure to next-generation technology, carrier said.
Deploying Internet and telephony services as widely as possible is “almost universal” goal of 140 countries attending this month’s World Telecom Development Conference (WTDC), State Dept.’s David Gross said Thurs. at news briefing from Istanbul. Gross, agency’s coordinator- international communications & information policy, is member of U.S. delegation to ITU Development Section conference that also includes NTIA representatives and FCC Comr. Martin, who participated in Thurs. briefing. Since Mon., Gross and other members of U.S. group have been holding information-gathering talks with regulators and telecom ministers from other nations, and more formal bilateral sessions with ministers from countries such as Cameroon, China, Mexico, Morocco, Russia, Senegal and Uganda, Gross said. Among other topics, he said, they had discussed telecom reform efforts, universal service and access, convergence and ITU reform issues. Countries such as Mexico, which are seeing convergence of different communications technologies, are facing many of same challenges U.S. is confronting, Gross said, including how to revamp traditional “stove-pipe” regulatory model. In its discussions with Mexican delegates, he said, U.S. tried to convey importance of having independent regulators to foster competition and private sector investment. However, he said, he also emphasized that while regulation was important when one player had significant market power, “regulatory light hand” was more appropriate where competition existed. With China, Gross said, U.S. discussed importance of creating effective, independent regulator as quickly as possible and reminded Chinese delegates that model for such regulatory system already existed in Hong Kong. Delegates have offered numerous proposals for WTDC activities in coming 4 years, Gross said earlier this week (CD March 19 p6). Thurs. he said proposals now had been consolidated and assigned to various committees. Martin said one U.S. proposal was to have ITU reflect more formally idea of enforcement by regulatory authorities. Proposal isn’t tailored to any specific area of enforcement, Gross added. It simply attempts to convey idea it’s not enough for regulatory body to tell parties what they should do -- it also must have adequate tools to back up its rules, he said. WTDC could lead to national policy decisions on Internet and telecom issues, Gross said. First, he said, it provides “extraordinary opportunity” for ministerial-level representatives to exchange views on telecom reform and marketing ideas that can directly affect national policies. Nature of that dialog has changed over years, he said, to point where it’s hard to find any country that isn’t now committed to privatization, independent regulatory scheme, rule of law. “They speak the language we speak now,” he said, and challenge for everyone is how to implement those goals. In addition, Gross said, some formal resolutions will result from WTDC that will lay groundwork for action at ITU plenipotentiary session later this year. That meeting could produce treaty-based set of decisions, he said. WTDC concludes next Wed.
House Commerce Committee member Ehrlich (R-Md). is expected Mon. to announce he'll run for Republican nomination to challenge Democrat Lt. Gov. Kathleen Townsend for Md. governorship. Rumors of Ehrlich’s run have circulated for months but he has been coy on subject. However, both The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post Wed. cited sources saying he had decided to run. Ehrlich has been active in House on telecom and Internet issues, although his style is to participate more in debates than to sponsor his own legislation. He has introduced 3 bills this Congress: (1) HR-498, to aid disabled in receiving Social Security benefits. (2) HR-3118, to increase sentencing for drunk drivers. (3) H.Res-247, honoring Cal Ripkin on his retirement from the Baltimore Orioles, which passed House by voice vote in Oct. Ehrlich spoke at his committee’s markup against HR-1542, Bell-friendly deregulation bill sponsored by Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.), and voted against bill on House floor. Not surprisingly, Ehrlich hasn’t reported any money this Congress from Bell companies, but received $6,500 from WorldCom, $4,500 from AT&T and $1,500 from Sprint. On trade, Ehrlich voted for trade promotion authority for President Bush but opposed normalized trade relations with China. He joined Congress in 1995 in GOP takeover of House, but his district has been altered for 2002 election and wasn’t seen as safe GOP seat. As of now, Ehrlich would be only Republican candidate; he trails Townsend in current polls.
Motorola will expand 2-way mobile radio system in Shanghai under $13.3 million deal with China Unicom paging unit Unicom Guomai Communications. Network expansion using Motorola Iden wireless technology will cover 2,388-sq.-mile area in commercial district and is expected to be completed by year-end, Motorola said.