Telecom Asia articles from April 2002

Telecom Asia archives from April 2002

Mobile Internet and other dreams. (Inside Line).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Newsflash: WAP is back. The much-maligned standard that was going to bring the Web to the mobile phone is now deployed throughout Asia and Europe. Operators are using WAP 1.4 as a browser to offer content over their narrowband or GPRS networks....

Return of the living EDGE. (Tanner).(Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution may still be useful)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... It is a dark time for the wireless industry. That, at least, was the vibe at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes. It's been a long year for most participants, with the possible exception of start-ups -- mostly apps developers -- that saw the show...

Nortel's photonic retreat a sign of the times. (First Mile).(Nortel Networks gives up on photonic core switch)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Nortel Networks has backed away from its photonic core switch product, the OPTera Connect PX, roughly two years after it purchased Xros, the upstart company whose all-optical technology the OPTera PX was built on. For many in the industry,...

Stat snap. (First Mile).(cellular phone sales statistics by company for 2001)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... The Big Three of the global cellular handset market had a change of roster in 2001, according to the latest rankings from Gartner Dataquest, which found Ericsson (in units sold, not dollars) dropping a staggering 35% to fifth place. Siemens,...

Resend: flashbacks, updates and nostalgia: Telecom Asia questions BT chief on Asia and Global Strategy (Telecom Asia, January 1999). (First Mile).(British Telecom's plans have not worked out as expected)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... SYNOPSIS: British Telecom entered 1999 as the global operator most likely to succeed in terms of strategic assets and alliances as rival carriers failed to capitalize on bargain investments. BT chairman and CEO Sir Peter Bonfield talked...

Reaching for profit: despite the uncertainty in the regional backbone sector, Reach has managed to stay in the black for its first 11 months of operation. (News Analysis).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Reach, the Asian joint venture between Telstra and PCCW, reported revenues of $1.28 billion for the 11-month period ended 31 December 2001. On that, Reach recorded a net profit of $48 million, according to first half results posted by Telstra....

Doubts linger as Foxtel scoops pay TV market. (News Analysis).(in Australia)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Market leader Foxtel and its 50% owner Telstra will emerge as the big winners from the deal to rationalize the Australian pay television industry struck by the major players last month. Foxtel effectively bought off its main competitor,...

Cash sweetener for broadband failure. (News Analysis).(Telstra to spend A$50 million to encourage use of broadband)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Stung by criticism of its broadband rollout and policies, Telstra has unveiled an A$50 million ($26.3 million) fund to stimulate the uptake of broadband over the next two to five years. But instead of placating the critics, the fund has...

Getting intelligence into the switch: expanding PTSN/IDSN was the next logical step, and proved an important issue that worried Beijing Telecom's vice director of planning Yang Gang. Now he is confident that the Beijing network is robust enough to meet the challenges ahead. (advertorial).
April 1, 2002... For several years, China has been the fastest growing telecommunications market in the world. With over 170 million fixed line subscribers, the Chinese market offers challenges as well as abundant business opportunities for local fixed...

NTT DoCoMo makes its debut on New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. (movements).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... * NTT DoCoMo makes its debut on New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange. DoCoMo president and CEO Keiji Tachikawa says the two listings, which do not involve the issue of new shares, will help the Japanese operator accelerate...

KPN Mobile Group's i-mode service kicks off in Germany via subsidiary E-Plus, who begins selling i-mode-ready handsets supplied by NEC on 16 March. (movements).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... * KPN Mobile Group's i-mode service kicks off in Germany via subsidiary E-Plus, who begins selling i-mode-ready handsets supplied by NEC on 16 March. KPN Mobile says it is almost finished with its final i-mode user trials in the Netherlands,...

Asia Global Crossing. (movements).(CEO John Legere removed from board)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... * Asia Global Crossing removes chief executive John Legere from its board. In place of Legere, CEO of AGC's 59% owner Global Crossing, are Global Crossing chief operating officer Carl S. Grivner and Global Crossing International and Latin...

New York Stock Exchange. (movements).(delists Williams Communications)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... * The New York Stock Exchange will delist troubled US carrier Williams Communications from its roster citing the company's "abnormally low" share price.

Global satellite operator Intelsat launches a bundled Internet trunking service for ISPs that will initially target the Indian subcontinent starting in the second quarter of this year. (movements).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Global satellite operator Intelsat launches a bundled Internet trunking service for ISPs that will initially target the Indian subcontinent starting in the second quarter of this year. The Internet trunking service is designed as a one-stop...

Visa Asia-Pacific. (movements).(offering new security services)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... * Visa Asia-Pacific will offer a new service to improved online security for credit cards payments in Asia by the end of the year. Dubbed "Verified by Visa", it enables banks to validate a cardholder's identity through authentication methods...

Verizon. (movements).(cutting workforce)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... * US operator Verizon plans to cut the "equivalent of 10,000 jobs" this year, including overtime and contractors, co-CEO Ivan Seidenberg told an investor conference. Verizon cut its workforce by 16,000 last year. The company is trying to cut...

In its latest revised forecast for the first quarter results, Nokia says network sales would be down 25% for the quarter, compared with a forecast 16% to 20% decline, thanks to weaker demand for mobile networks. (movements).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... * In its latest revised forecast for the first quarter results, Nokia says network sales would be down 25% for the quarter, compared with a forecast 16% to 20% decline, thanks to weaker demand for mobile networks. At the same time, Lucent...

TeleGeography. (movements).(reports on transoceanic bandwidth purchases)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... * TeleGeography. says the amount of purchased transoceanic submarine bandwidth roughly doubled in 2000 and 2001, while Internet network bandwidth, which accounts for the majority of capacity purchases, tripled in that time.

Beijing: GSM operator China Mobile and CDMA operator KTF sign an agreement in Beijing to offer a GSM-CDMA roaming service to their subscribers starting from April. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Beijing: GSM operator China Mobile and CDMA operator KTF sign an agreement Beijing to offer a GSM-CDMA roaming service to their subscribers starting from April. Meanwhile, rival China Unicom is sticking to its target of signing up 7 million...

Beijing: Pacific Century CyberWorks and Chinese oil giant Sinopec Corp form an 80 million yuan ($9.7 million) worth joint venture to provide information technology services in China. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Petro-CyberWorks Information Technology Co.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Beijing: Pacific Century CyberWorks and Chinese oil giant Sinopec Corp form an 80 million yuan ($9.7 million) worth joint venture to provide information technology services in China. The venture, Petro-CyberWorks Information Technology Company...

Beijing: Eastern Communications Co. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(to adopt Motorola platform)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Beijing: Eastern Communications Co adopts, Motorola's i.250 Innovative Convergence platform for 2.5G phones. In addition, Eastcom will offer modules and ODM/OEM product platforms to China Putian Corporation as well as other Chinese handset...

Shanghai: Siemens establishes a new unit, Siemens Mobile Acceleration, to back 2.5G and 3G start-ups in mainland China and Hong Kong. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Shanghai: Siemens establishes a new unit, Siemens Mobile Acceleration, to back 2.5G and 3G start-ups in mainland China and Hong Kong. The new group, based in Shanghai and Beijing, will provide capital and consulting services and access to...

Hong Kong: OFTA. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(spectrum allocation planning announcement)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Hong Kong: OFTA says it will allocate unused 2G spectrum to existing operators who need the extra capacity thanks to increased usage of mobile services and the onset of 2.5G services. Under the proposed plan, each GSM 900 licensee will get an...

Hong Kong: PCCW's mobile arm, Hong Kong CSL, will not launch 3G services before the first half of 2003. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Hong Kong: PCCW's mobile arm, Hong Kong CSL, will not launch 3G services before the first half of 2003, says company chief Hubert Ng, thanks to a current lack of 3G handsets and high-speed enabled applications. Shell Mobile, a 50-50 MVNO set up...

Hong Kong: OFTA issues a severe warning to Pacific Century CyberWorks HKT, requiring the incumbent telco to improve its provision of telephone number porting services -- also known as number portability -- to its competitors. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Hong Kong: OFTA issues a severe warning to Pacific Century CyberWorks HKT, requiring the incumbent telco to improve its provision of telephone number porting services -- also known as number portability -- to its competitors. The warning comes...

Bangkok: Motorola wins a $253 million contract to provide a GSM 1800 network to Thailand's TA Orange. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Bangkok: Motorola wins a $253 million contract to provide a GSM 1800 network to Thailand's TA Orange. The network is scheduled to be rolled out by the end of 2002.

Islamabad: Thirteen-month-old GSM operator Ufone, the mobile arm of incumbent Pakistan Telecommunications, awards Nortel Networks a contract worth an estimated $60 million to implement a major expansion of its GSM 900 network. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Islamabad: Thirteen-month-old GSM operator Ufone, the mobile arm of incumbent Pakistan Telecommunications, awards Nortel Networks a contract worth an estimated $60 million to implement a major expansion of its GSM 900 network, including an...

New Delhi: BSNL. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(to provide fixed line, wireless connections across India)
April 1, 2002... New Delhi: Incumbent telco BSNL says it will provide 6.4 million new fixed line and wireless telephone connections across the country over the next two years. The majority of the connections will be wireless, with connectivity for 2.4 million...

Tokyo: KDDI. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(to roll out new telephone services throughout Japan)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Tokyo: KDDI plans to launch commercial cdma2000 1X services in all major Japanese cities starting this month. The new service will be supported by two new handsets, including the first KDDI handset with a built-in digital camera. The cdma2000...

Tokyo: NEC and Matsushita unveil a jointly developed architecture for handsets based on Intel's PCA model of using two CPUs inside phones. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Tokyo: NEC and Matsushita unveil a jointly developed architecture for handsets based on Intel's PCA model of using two CPUs inside phones -- one chip for processing communications and a second chip for processing applications such as video or...

Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo and Oracle announce plans to collaborate on technology and the development of mobile applications and services targeted at corporations. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo and Oracle announce plans to collaborate on technology and the development of mobile applications and services targeted at corporations. The companies plan to combine FOMA and the mobile, wireless and voice capabilities of...

Seoul: Broadband ISP Thrunet's three major shareholders -- Softbank, Trigem Computer and Naray & Co -- swap $110 million worth of bonds with warrants into shares to help save on interest expenses. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Seoul: Broadband ISP Thrunet's three major shareholders -- Softbank, Trigem Computer and Naray & Co -- swap $110 million worth of bonds with warrants into shares to help save on interest expenses, lowering the ISP's debt-to-equity ratio from...

Seoul: Korea's broadband user base exceeds the 8 million mark, with KT Corp. leading the market with more than 4 million broadband subscribers, followed by Hanaro Telecom and Thrunet with 2.45 million and 1.38 million respectively. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Seoul: Korea's broadband user base exceeds the 8 million mark, with KT Corp. leading the market with more than 4 million broadband subscribers, followed by Hanaro Telecom and Thrunet with 2.45 million and 1.38 million respectively. Including...

Seoul: LG Telecom. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(not implementing cdma2000 1x EV-DO technology)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Seoul: LG Telecom has no plans to implement cdma2000 1x EV-DO technology in its network, citing a lack of demand. LG Telecom senior managing executive Lee Sang-min told a Seoul conference that EV-DO is only in the experimental stage and that...

Sydney: Telstra. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Telstra Corporation Ltd. financial figures)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Sydney: Telstra reports a 20% fall in its half-year net profit ending 31 December 2001 to A$2.098 billion ($1.08 billion). Separately, Telstra announces a "broadband stimulus package" worth A$50 million ($25.9 million) in cash and bandwidth,...

Sydney: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (News analysis: Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Sydney: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says it will closely investigate the proposed pay TV deal between Foxtel and Optus, in which Foxtel will offer Optus programming free to its subscribers, while Optus will be able...

Chasing the cash: telecom firms have cut back on staffing -- but they're still looking for those who can sell, especially if they have regional exposure. And there's still a problem tapping execs for China. (Annual Career Survey)(Cover Story).
April 1, 2002... The great telecom slowdown is upon us. Both carriers and vendors are deferring investment and slashing waste. Directors and management teams, where they haven't actually laid off staff, are cutting back on new hires, bonuses and promotions. ...

The great SDR wait: software defined radio is getting closer, but real products are still years away -- with a range of technical and regulatory issues still to be resolved. (Wireless).
April 1, 2002... Cellular operators in Japan and South Korea are expecting major traffic surges as football fans from all over the world come to town for the co-hosted 2002 World Cup football tournament in June. Many will be bringing mobile phones, and most...

Convergent in Hong Kong: Hong Kong Cable TV, the six-year-old monopoly cable operator, is in the black and eyeing convergence opportunities at home and on the mainland. But Vincent T. Y. Lam, executive director technology and network services, tells group editor Robert Clark that old-style telco regulations are standing in its way. (One-To-One).(Interview)
April 1, 2002... Telecom Asia: Digital TV is the industry's hot topic. When are we going to see it in Hong Kong? Vincent Lam: It depends on what variety of digital TV you are talking about. If you are talking about just digitizing the signal, we are...

Intel's network challenge. (Dotconomy).(new Intel chips will benefit telecoms)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Dotconomy recently spent five days neck high in semiconductors at the Intel Developer Forum. Now what was a telecoms reporter doing at an event hosted by the world's biggest computer chip maker? After all, if you talk to Intel, they speak a...

Multiservice VoP media gateway. (Premiere).(from Alcatel)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Alcatel has announced the availability of its new voice over packet (VoP) media gateway, the Alcatel 7670 RSP MG. Built on the Alcatel 7670 routing switch platform, the product is designed for both public switched telephone networks (PSTN)...

Nokia expands W-CDMA range. (Premiere).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Nokia has expanded its W-CDMA portfolio by introducing four new solutions designed to enhance and optimize 3G services and network performance. These include the Nokia MetroSite Piccolo W-CDMA base station, which is designed for boosting...

Conexant V.92 modem enhances. (Premiere).(new dial-up modem)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Conexant System says Chinese PC maker Legend Holdings has integrated its V.92 single-chip PCI soft modem into Legend's TeanLin Premia branded desk PC. V.92 is a new dial-up modem specification from the International Telecommunications...

Single-chip Gigabit Ethernet products. (Premiere).(launched by Intel Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Intel Corp. has unveiled three new single-chip Gigabit Ethernet products for desktop PCs, workstations and servers to accelerate deployment of Gigabit Ethernet network connections. The products, touted as a world first, include the...

Frank Dunn to head Nortel. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Nortel Networks has dissolved the three-member team set up to help Frank Dunn's transition to president and chief executive officer. The Office of the Chief Executive, which was created on November 1, 2001, is made up of: Frank Dunn,...

Malaysian regulator appoints regional managers. (Telecom Career).(Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has appointed En., Muhammad Tahir Muhammad Noor as manager of its Sabah regional office, and En. Md. Rusli Haji Ahmad as manager of its Sarawak regional office. Muhammad Tahir...

Networking the Nation board reappointments. (Telecom Career).(Australia's Ministry of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts; Networking the Nation program)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Australia's Ministry of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts has re-appointed Professor Gerry Anderson, Lindsay Macdonald, Johanna Plante, and Eleanor Scholz to the board for the Networking the Nation (NTN) program -- the...

New business director for Vodafone New Zealand. (Telecom Career).(Russell Stanners)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Vodafone New Zealand has named Russell Stanners as it's new business director. Stanners comes to Vodafone from Unisys Corporation where he was managing director since September 1999. Prior to his time with Unisys, Stanners spent 15...

Ericsson names new corp. comm SVP. (Telecom Career).(Henry Stenson)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Ericsson has appointed Henry Stenson as new senior vice president, corporate communications, and a member of the corporate management team, replacing Roland Klein, who has decided to leave the company. Stenson, 46, joins Ericsson from the...

Spike Hong Kong GM. (Telecom Career).(Khalida Arain)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Web-hosting provider Spike has appointed Khalida Arain as general manager to head its Hang Kong operation. Before joining Spike, Arain was business development director at One Resource Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of One Resource...

New appointments at Openwave Asia-Pacific. (Telecom Career).(Don Oas, Peter Hogewoning and Tony Tong)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Don Oas has been named vice president of marketing at Openwave Asia Pacific to assume overall marketing responsibility for the company in Asia-Pacific, including Japan. Peter Hogewoning, the new vice president of sales, has been with...

Concord North Asia sales head. (Telecom Career).(Jason Tse named sales director, Concord Communications)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Internet infrastructure Concord Communications provider has appointed Jason Tse as sales director to oversee the company's business development in North Asia.

Cisco Asia VP. (Telecom Career).(Owen Chan)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Cisco Systems has promoted Owen Chan to vice president of Asia operations. Chan joined Cisco in December 1999, and was formerly Cisco's vice president, customer advocacy, Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Cisco, he was vice president of...

Redback Networks' new China, HK chief. (Telecom Career).(Chang Chen-tze)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Metro broadband and optical networking equipment solutions provider Redback Networks has appointed Chang Chen-tze as regional director to oversee the company's sales and operations in China and Hang Kong. Before joining Redback Networks,...

Citrix creates new regional position. (Telecom Career).(appoints Dennis Rose as vice president for Asia)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Virtual workplace software and services provider Citrix Systems has appointed Dennis Rose to its newly created position of area vice president for Asia. He will be based in the company's Asia regional headquarters in Hong Kong. Rose...

Portal Software appoints Asian head. (Telecom Career).(John Tull)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Portal Software has appointed John Tull as vice president and general manager of Asia Pacific. He will be based at Portal's Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. Tull joins Portal Software from infrastructure-based IP backbone company...

Satellites, wireless and security the hot conference topics. (Preview: CommunicAsia 2002).
April 1, 2002... CommunicAsia is coming back for 2002, and despite the gloomy economic climate, the annual conference and exhibition event is still expected to be a huge draw. For 2002, CommunicAsia organizer Singapore Exhibition Services (SES) says it expects...

DSL: the next generation: where next for DSL? Equipment costs are coming down, but carriers will need to improve efficiencies and find extra revenue streams to make the technology a bottom line winner. (Telecom Corporate).
April 1, 2002... Since it burst into the telecom industry's consciousness nearly a decade ago, DSL has been a technology whose performance has promised a great deal but has yet to deliver. Back in 1993, traditional telcos, US CLECs, application providers and...

Has the competitive carrier model failed? (Telecom Planet).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Alternative operators are failing across the world. The NASDAQ crash can no longer be held accountable for what is a global phenomenon. No less than London's Financial Times was declaring the death of the alternative carrier model last...

Multimedia. (Backpage Briefing).(Solve Communications' "dog-cam")(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... MULTIMEDIA: Police in the Australian state of Victoria have begun using a wireless-enabled "dog-cam" to help them see into siege, hostage and other difficult situations. The kit comprises a battery pack, 900 MHz UHF transmitter and tiny camera...

CRM. (Backpage Briefing).(Telstra's license conditioned)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... CRM: The Australian government will slap a license condition on Telstra requiring it to ensure customers with life-threatening medical conditions receive adequate service, This follows the death of a ten-year-old boy, allegedly because the...

Bandwidth. (Backpage Briefing).(demand remains robust)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... BANDWIDTH: Despite the downfall of Global Crossing and other subsea fiber network operators, bandwidth demand is still robust -- just not nearly as much as previously assumed, according to the latest report from research group TeleGeography....

Future. (Backpage Briefing).(24-megabit connections for North American residences)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... FUTURE: Market forecasts are what you make of them -- they offer a vision of the near-future that is constantly subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances. For that reason, most analyst firms typically don't venture much further ahead...

Spam. (Backpage Briefing).(China's National People's Congress seeks spam regulations)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... SPAM: China's National People's Congress last month had a new item on the agenda: the spare problem. China, which has no laws regarding spare, has become a growing source of global spam over the last few years -- so much so that more and more...