Alpha Systems is planning to launch its first communications satellite next year to provide interactive and on-demand services. Satellite is expected to provide entertainment, communications and date transfer services to China.
Exports to China
Israel’s Lightscape Networks will provide fiber network equipment to China Unicom subsidiary to expand GSM network in Zhejiang province, terms not disclosed. New network will be used for data services, long distance voice. Zhejiang Unicom has about 1.3 million subscribers and accounts for 10% of China Unicom’s business.
Worldwide fiber transmission market will show positive growth in 2002 despite 10% revenue decline last year, Gartner Dataquest reported. In Worldwide Optical Transmission Systems Market Share and Forecast, 1996-2005, research firm reported 2001 revenue was $30.3 billion, down from $33.8 billion year earlier. It predicted $32.6 billion revenue in 2002 and $36 billion 2003. While 2003 market will be similar in size to 2000, “its nature will have changed significantly,” report said. Consolidation in market will change number of vendors. Drivers for change include continued increase of demand for bandwidth, introduction of optical layer to intelligently handle dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) channels and continued migration of fiber to network edge, especially in metro markets. Based on 2001 revenue, N. America is dominant region, followed by Western Europe and Asia-Pacific. N. American market declined 19.6% in year, Western Europe 2.3%. Asia-Pacific was “bright spot” with 18.8% growth, driven by 23.7% gain in China, report said: “The Chinese market is an obvious attraction right now. But because it is so obvious an opportunity… competition will heat up.”
China Pres. Jiang Zemin wants common satellite platform for video distribution, said Lehman Bros. analyst Stephen McKeever. “It is intended that all foreign channels being broadcast in China pass through a central censoring facility before being sent up to a satellite” for transmission to nation, he said. Satellite operators aren’t opposed to move because no foreign channels are broadcasting in China. AsiaSat, Phoenix and Sun have been given permission to broadcast, but Phoenix is locked into Star’s lifetime contract on AsiaSat 3s and Sun only uses one quarter of transponder, Lehman Bros. analyst William Kidd said. Demand for satellite services is expected to increase, along with govt. oversight, Kidd said. Shanghai is providing 4 provincial channels, 6 cable channels and one national channel.
Despite efforts by U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to bring Mexico, Japan and S. Africa into compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) telecom market-opening commitments, carriers and equipment suppliers told USTR that progress still lagged. In annual USTR comment period, communications companies also singled out new WTO member China as needing to step up reform efforts, particularly on challenges that loom for creating independent telecom regulator. USTR sought comments as part of annual review on effectiveness of U.S. trade agreements involving telecom products and services, including WTO basic telecom agreement. This marks first comment period on operation of U.S. telecom trade agreements opened during tenure of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick. Compared with last year, fewer comments focused on compliance with telecom market-opening commitments of European Union member states. Ranks of companies providing USTR feedback also didn’t include past commenters such as Global Crossing and Covad, both of which have entered Chapter 11 protection since last year’s comment period.
CompTel told U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) that 11 key trading partners weren’t meeting market-opening obligations of World Trade Organization (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services and other trade agreements. That’s double number of noncompliant countries last year, association said in comments filed Fri. Countries cited by CompTel were Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, S. Africa, Switzerland. Filing as part of USTR’s annual Sec. 1377 review of effectiveness of U.S. telecom trade agreements, CompTel said 4 others should be placed on watch list because of potential problems -- Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain. CompTel said it had 2 main concerns on trade: (1) Pricing and providing of local access leased lines. (2) High fixed-to-mobile termination rates. It said its members had faced variety of anticompetitive practices and trade barriers in those countries and expressed concern about lack of independent regulatory authorities in some of them. It noted, for example, that rates charged for local access leased lines in Brazil were “far from cost-oriented” and U.S. carriers were frustrated with Colombia’s “failure to adopt transparent licensing rules.” CompTel said China, since entering WTO, was taking positive steps but should establish independent regulatory body.
FCC Comr. Abernathy said Thurs. that many regulatory issues involving competitive markets that were focus of domestic policy were attracting same level of attention internationally, including resale obligations, colocation rates, rights of way, nondiscriminatory access to critical facilities. At brown-bag lunch of FCBA’s International Practice Committee, she said U.S. outreach to regulators in other countries was important, although she stressed importance of not dictating to other countries how they should structure regulations or regulatory bodies, instead focusing on areas such as best practices. In Q&A session, one issue was Fri. comment deadline for U.S. Trade Representative’s Office on implementation of telecom trade agreements. One attorney said expected theme this year was not laws that were on books in countries, but process of how they were implemented. “We can build relationships with foreign regulators,” Abernathy said. “We can talk about how we encountered some problems and how we solved them.” She also was asked how her regulatory philosophy of letting markets work where they could applied to potential role of FCC when it came to market shortcomings in areas such as mobile satellite service. Without addressing MSS issue directly, Abernathy said: “I am always hesitant to believe that the FCC would have better business planning instincts than industry… I don’t generally believe the FCC will get it right if we try and anticipate the right business model.” As for continued need for accounting rates and benchmarks, Abernathy said that in “vast majority of instances,” accounting rates had been very positive for U.S. industry. “The real question is, do we take Enforcement Bureau or International Bureau resources to go after very poor countries with small volumes of traffic who may not be meeting benchmarks,” she said: “This is one of those issues where there is no easy answer.” Asked whether U.S. should phase out accounting rates and declare victory because they had been successful, Abernathy said she wasn’t sure. Saying that that would require opening another proceeding if Commission examined issue, she said, “now it may be time to look at where we go and what we have accomplished to date.” Among upcoming international meetings that commissioners will attend, Abernathy said: (1) She will attend European Union bilateral meeting in April in Brussels. (2) Comr. Martin will attend ITU World Telecom Development Conference in March in Istanbul. (3) Comr. Copps will attend formal bilateral meetings with China.
News Corp. division NDS Group reached deal to provide consulting and digital broadcasting software and equipment to upgrade cable TV network in Taiwan owned by China Network Systems (CNS). CNS will begin digital upgrade in 2nd quarter, with services expected to be delivered to more than 1 million viewers within 3 years.
Dept. of Commerce official called on Congress to adopt export control legislation that would establish consistent export review regime. Absence of “coherent, modern statutory basis” for current export law creates uncertainty for U.S. makers of dual-use items such as satellites and computers and harms U.S. credibility in dealing with foreign govts., Asst. Commerce Secy. for Export Enforcement Michael Garcia said Thurs.
Voice of America (VOA) is expanding its distribution of program videotapes into China “and possibly other countries with Chinese-language markets.” VOA seeks contractors capable of marketing and distributing videos in those areas and will accept bids until Feb. 1 -- 202-619-1840.