Telecommunications (International Edition) articles from September 2002

Telecommunications (International Edition) archives from September 2002

Taking a breather: "with stability, the industry will be able to take back some pricing power and then regain a sense of its future.". (Commentary).(Editorial)
September 1, 2002... Frank looked paler than I had ever seen him before. Gone was the cocky exuberance with which so many of our meetings had been punctuated. I knew he didn't drink (alcohol) but when I met him he looked suspiciously like he was having a hangover....

TIA 'flogging a dead horse' over definitions says Probe. (Financial Perspectives).(average revenue per user)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... A white paper published by US-based TIA (Telecommunications industry Association)-Optical Network Capacity and Utilisation: Clarifying Terms and Definitions--has drawn a measure of scorn from Probe Research, a US-based research company....

Is ARPU a valid performance metric? (Financial Perspectives).(average revenue per user)
September 1, 2002... When mobile operators were rolling out their mobile networks in the 1990s, it was fairly easy to measure how well they were doing. You simply looked at the size of its subscriber base, compared it with other operators, and, roughly speaking,...

The future of forecasting. (Global News Analysis).(Industry Overview)
September 1, 2002... By rights, forecasters in telecom should be overloaded with work at the moment. Every sector is bedevilled with the need to improve predictions, but after the worst 18 months the industry has ever seen, their credibility--following earlier and...

Has bluetooth marketing blundered? (Global News Analysis).
September 1, 2002... One could be forgiven for thinking that bluetooth marketing is in need of a cosmetic whitening operation or even serious dentistry. Slick metaphors apart, the short-range wireless technology, which promises much to PDA and mobile communities,...

i-mode introduced in Spain. (News in Brief).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... NTT DoCoMo has reached an agreement with Telefonica to rollout i-mode in Spain by 1Q 2003. Under a licence agreement, DoCoMo will provide patents, know-how and the technologies required for the Spanish operator to offer i-mode on its GPRS...

Afghan Wireless continues GSM rollout. (News in Brief).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC) has launched a GSM network in Heart--an important commercial and economic centre in Afghanistan. Herat is the second major city in the country to experience GSM availability--the first was Kabul...

TIM secures Greek acquisition. (News in Brief).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... TIM (Telecom Italia Group) has agreed to purchase 17.45 per cent of Stet Hellas--a Greek GSM operator--from Verizon for 108 m. The move is apparently part of an overall industrial strategy for TIM, which is aimed at rationalising its...

Confessions of a middle man: Richard Elliott, chairman of Band-X, an online exchange for carriers, believes the worst is yet to come for Europe's wholesale bandwidth market. (View from the Top).
September 1, 2002... The collapse of the alternate carrier market has been a bruising experience far customers, vendors, creditors and even the accountancy profession. Yet, according to Richard Elliott, chairman of Band-X, this cloud has a silver lining for his own...

Anyone for an each way bet? Symmetrical DSL is a gamble for incumbents--it's far from certain that its cost-efficiencies will offset the inevitable decline in leased line revenue. (The Carrier/Corporate Relationship).
September 1, 2002... PTTs are going to determine the pace of symmetrical DSL rollout in most European countries. That's not what the national regulatory authorities (NRAs) had in mind when they started down the road of trying to boost competition in the local loop...

A multi-layered approach to VPNs: layer 3 VPNs may be grabbing all the headlines but there's still a place for good old-fashioned ATM and frame relay. (The Carrier/Corporate Relationship).
September 1, 2002... The hype surrounding Layer 3 VPNs has led to some confusion as to the role of Layer 2 VPN technologies and, in some quarters, has cast doubt on whether there is any need at all for legacy equipment. However, as long as there are customers who...

W-LANs no threat to 3G MNOs: if business end-users expect different services to the laptop than they do to mobile devices, W-LANs will not pose a significant threat to 3G revenue. (The Carrier/Corporate Relationship).
September 1, 2002... There are high expectations for high-speed W-LANs. Today's customer base of 400 to 500 million fixed-line Internet users, combined with increasing laptop sales, could boost the global W-LAN market size to as much as a hundred million users by...

Frame relay durability: frame relay continues to provide carriers with positive margins and will be around for many years to come, despite the emergence of IP VPNs. (The Carrier/Corporate Relationship).
September 1, 2002... Frame relay is one of the few network services to have prospered during an overall downturn in networking. Why? Frame is tried and tested, has a large and established customer base, provides more coverage than any other technology and is...

A change of image for videoconferencing. (The Carrier/Corporate Relationship).
September 1, 2002... Can videoconferencing finally deliver on its promise of cost-effective communication for businesses and significant new revenue streams for operators? If the vendor community is to be believed, the answer is a resounding yes. There has...

The final part of the global telecom jig-saw? The 'da Gama cable system' which links Africa to Asia and Europe, is likely to be the last major investment on new global infrastructure for some time to come. (Industry & Market Update).
September 1, 2002... "It took Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese mariner, 251 days to journey from Europe to India in 1497," says Jean-Philippe Vanot, executive vice president of France Telecom Long Distance. "We can now do it in milliseconds." And so opens the...

Spectrum analyser at low price: Rohde & Schwarz. (New Products and Services).(FSH3 spectrum analyser)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The R&S FSH3 spectrum analyser is available for order from Rohde & Schwarz and the vendor claims that it's the first handheld test instrument for the lower priced range. The company says that it features an upper frequency limit of 3GHz,...

Voice over broadband solution: OneAccess. (New Products and Services).(OneAccess Networks ONE 400 multiservice access device)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... OneAccess Networks has unveiled its ONE 400, which expands its portfolio of multiservice access devices. The company states that the product is designed for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMB), supports up to 60 voice channels and enables...

Optical sampling oscilloscope: Ando Electric. (New Products and Services).(AQ7750)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Ando Electric is accepting orders for its AQ7750 -- a single-unit optical sampling oscilloscope for measurement of ultrahigh-speed transmission waveforms exceeding 160 gigabits. The company states that its major features include measuring...

High-speed SHDSL modem: RAD Data Communications. (New Products and Services).(ASMi-52)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... RAD Data Communications has announced the availability of the ASMi-52 SHDSL modem with remote management. The SHDSL (ITU G.991.2 and ETSI TS 101-524) standard technology uses TC-PAM (trellis coded pulse amplitude modulation) to achieve...

IP baseband modem: Microtel. (New Products and Services).(Crocus 1421)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The Crocus 1421 SHDSL router, a baseband modem with an integrated P router and bridge, is now available from Microtel. The vendor says that the device offers symmetrical full duplex variable-rate transmission at up to 2.3Mbps over a single...

Ethernet option and GPS link: Pendulum Instruments. (New Products and Services).(Pendulum Instruments' GPS-88, GPS-89)(Product Information)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Pendulum Instruments has introduced a new ethernet interface option and a fibre-optic link (FL-is) for its GPS-controlled frequency references--GPS-89 and GPS-88. The company further states that the optional ethernet interface enables users to...