Telecom Asia articles from January 2002

Telecom Asia archives from January 2002

Enron fall strikes down the bandwidth. (Inside Line).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The collapse of US energy giant Enron will no doubt become a classic case study on the dangers of management fads, Wall Street's bandwagon culture and, allegedly, insider trading. Before becoming America's biggest corporate failure, Enron...

2001 visionary answer sheet. (Tanner).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The fabled year of 2001 is now history, and while it wasn't exactly what Kubrick and Clarke envisioned, few people really expected it to take that path. That said, there were plenty of other expectations for 2001, which was always going to...

Alcatel goes for distance and density in latest optical feat. (First Mile).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... In the latest round of one-upsmanship in the fiber optic world, Alcatel has claimed another world record in submarine optical transmission -- this time going for distance and density rather than just speed. Last month at its laboratory...

PCSS: to be or not to be (Telecom Asia, August 1993). (Resend: flashbacks, updates and nostalgia).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SYNOPSIS: Herschel Shosteck examines the economic viability of PCSS [personal communications satellite services, nowadays referred to as GMPCS] services proposed at the time, namely Iridium and Inmarsat's Project 21. THEN: "PCSS probably...

Stat snap. (First Mile).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Stat Snap REGIONALLY, DSL and cable modem broadband services have been running neck and neck in terms of popularity but by 2003 DSL will be the broadband access service of choice with over twice as many end-users as cable modems,...

Iridium takes off from down under: the reborn US satellite company finds a new home in Asia as a low price complement to cellular. (News Analysis).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... After paying $25 million for assets once valued at $5.5 billion, an Australian company has relaunched the once-bankrupt Iridium within the Asia-Pacific region. Melbourne-based company Quadrant Australia, which -- along with some private...

Build or lease? Hong Kong's dilemma. (News Analysis).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Once again Hong Kong is debating the issue of more fixed network licenses. This time the argument is whether the government should encourage infrastructure investment or service providers. Dr John Ure, director of the Telecommunications...

China unicom's CDMA conundrum: after years of intense lobbying by both the US government and Qualcomm, CDMA has finally made its official debut in China, but there is no guarantee of success. (News Analysis).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... On the first day of 2002, China Unicom added a nationwide CDMA service to its existing GSM offering. The service, named "New Horizon", will have an initial capacity of about 2 million lines, increasing to around 6 million in the second...

Red-letter month for Chinese telecoms. (News Analysis).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... It's been a heady month for Chinese telecommunications. On the verge of becoming the world's single largest telecom market, with 310 million fixed and mobile connections, it formally entered the World Trade Organization last month and approved...

India's VoIP leap of faith -- almost: the Minister for Communications has announced the introduction of VoIP services -- but that doesn't mean India will see IP voice availability any time soon. (News Analysis).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... After much speculation and delay, India has finally taken the decision to allow Internet telephony services to be established, with the high-profile Minister for Communications, IT and Parliamentary Affairs, Pramod Mahajan, dropping the news in...

New cable fuels M&A talks. (News Analysis).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Competition in Asia's hard-pressed longhaul bandwidth sector has just got tougher, with the addition of another 160 Gpbs to the market. SingTel's C2C last month commissioned the northern loop of its pan-Asian cable, linking China, Hang...

BT group.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... * BT Group chooses former Lucent Technologies vice chair Ben Verwaayen to replace outgoing CEO Sir Peter Bonfield to helm the financially troubled telco. Verwaayen will join BT's board on 14 January, and officially take over the CEO post on 1...

Lucent Technologies.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... * Lucent Technologies says it expects to miss Wall Street targets for its first fiscal quarter ending 31 December 2001 by more than $1 billion. Spending by its customers has dropped since the 11 September terrorist attacks, Lucent chairman and...

Telecoms vendor Marconi.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... * Telecoms vendor Marconi announces a trio of new supply contracts from China and Korea totaling over 10 million [pounds sterling] ($14.4 million). The contracts include a 10.5 GHz fixed wireless access Digital Multipoint System to Guangzhou...

Hewlett-Packard.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... * Hewlett-Packard's plan to merge with Compaq hits a serious snag after HP's biggest single shareholder, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, said that it is unlikely to support the merger. Later in the week, a Wall Street Journal report...

SingTel and Australian subsidiary Optus.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... * SingTel and Australian subsidiary Optus combine their respective international business units (IBUs) into three new integrated entities -- international satellite, international carrier and international network business -- to boost...

Siemens.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Siemens cuts its 50.4% stake in semiconductor manufacturer Infineon to an unspecified minority share by selling shares on the open market. Siemens also permanently transfers 200 million shares to a non-voting trust, giving Infineon shareholders...

Motorola.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Mike Zafirovski, president of Motorola personal communications, estimates that the handset market should range between about 380 million to 400 million this year. Nokia and Samsung have made similar forecasts. The figures are up to 10% below...

Deutsche Telekom.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Deutsche Telekom is expected to launch a new global network covering 14 countries by next year. The new network's coverage will include 10 Asian markets: Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Korea, New...

Nokia.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... In a rare sign of optimism in the industry, Nokia is predicting 15% growth for the company in 2002 and believes global handset sales will also rise by up to 15%. The Finnish company also confirms it aims to ship dual mode GSM/W-CDMA 3G phones...

Qingdao: Longhaul bandwidth provider Asia Global Crossing signs a MoU with China Unicom.(memorandum of understanding)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Qingdao: Longhaul bandwidth provider Asia Global Crossing signs a MoU with China Unicom, to land its East Asia Crossing cable at Qingdao on China's north-central coast at a time yet to be decided, AGC says. Under the MoU. Unicom would build and...

Beijing: the Ministry of Information Industry.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Beijing: The Ministry of Information Industry plans to conduct trials of WCDMA networks as early as this January The Mil has selected a group of international and domestic companies to supply equipment and expertise for the trial. The first...

Hong Kong: Hong Kong's six mobile operators agree to a government-initiated.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Hong Kong: Hong Kong's six mobile operators agree to a government-initiated code of practice dealing with mobile spam, in a move which telecoms regulator OFTA says is to "protect the general public from being harassed by unsolicited promotional...

Hong Kong: Trident Telecom Ventures (TTV) and China Motion Telecom International.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Hong Kong: Trident Telecom Ventures (TTV) and China Motion Telecom International become the territory's first two companies to receive a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) license for 36 service.

Islamabad: Pakistan Telecom announces plans to launch a $32.9 million project.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Islamabad: Pakistan Telecom announces plans to launch a $32.9 million project to connect remote areas to the telecom network. The project still needs to be referred to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) and the,...

Kuala Lumpur: Telekom Malaysia books an extraordinary gain of RM827.77million.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Kuala Lumpur: Telekom Malaysia books an extraordinary gain of RM827.77million ($218 million) from the sale of a stake in Thai operator DPC in its third quarter results. Operating revenues were up 10.4% thanks to Increased cellular and data...

Mumbai: Bharti Telesonic officially joins India.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Mumbai: Bharti Telesonic officially joins India's newly competitive national long-distance market after receiving its NLD license from the government in December. Bharti Telesonic. which received a letter of intent for the license from the...

Ho Chi Minh City: The Pimple's Committee for Ho Chi Minh City.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Ho Chi Mirth City: The Pimple's Committee for Ho Chi Minh City reportedly gives the green light to a $450 million development plan to convert the city into Vietnam's main IT hub in four years.

Taipe: Alcatel is awarded a $110 million contract from Chunghwa Telecom.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Taipe: Alcatel is awarded a $110 million contract from Chunghwa Telecom to supply and deploy a nationwide SDH network. The buildout will mark Taiwan's first deployment of to Gbps optical fiber technology.

Taipei: Taiwan's five mobile operators-Chunghwa Telecom.
January 1, 2002... Taipei: Taiwan's five mobile operators-Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Cellular Corp, FarEasTone, KG Telecom and Mobitai-agree to work with the government-sponsored Institute for Information and Industry and the Industrial Technology Research...

Tokyo: Asia Global Crossing makes Internet Protocol version 6.
January 1, 2002... Tokyo: Asia Global Crossing makes Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) available over its IP network in Japan. It will be progressively made available throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas as demand for the protocol grows.

Tokyo: NTT Corp. raises about 160 billion yen.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Tokyo: NTT Corp. raises about 160 billion yen ($1.28 billion) through the issue of to-year straight bonds, the company's largest of its kind this year, according to Nikkei.

Tokyo: Cable & Wireless will acquire the Japanese operation of bankrupt US-based.(PSINet)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Tokyo: Cable & Wireless will acquire the Japanese operation of bankrupt US-based Internet carrier PSINet for about 7.2 [pounds sterling] million ($10.3 million) through its Japanese subsidiary, C&W IDC.

Seoul: Korea Telecom.(becomes KT Corp.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Seoul: Korea Telecom formally changes its name to KT Corp.

Sydney: Telstra reaches agreements with four other telcos.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Sydney: Telstra reaches agreements with four other telcos, including AAPT and SingTel Optus, on the price of unconditioned local loop services (ULLS), or wholesale loop access.

Sydney: Australian regional pay TV and Internet.(plans layoffs)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Sydney: Australian regional pay TV and Internet access provider Austar will cut 400 jobs in a restructure aimed at saving A$90 million ($46 million), and will close its Internet network. Meanwhile, Telstra's 100%-owned subsidiary Network Design...

Sydney: Australian junior telco New Tel Ltd. launches a bid.(to purchase Cable and Telecom)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Sydney: Australian junior telco New Tel Ltd. launches a bid to take over smaller rival Cable and Telecom, a company that is building a national infrastructure as well as developing video-on-demand services. A copy of the Bidders Statement has...

Sydney: Hutchison Australia raises the value of its offer of five-year bonds.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Sydney: Hutchison Australia raises the value of its offer of five-year bonds from A$400 million to A$425 million. The bonds-guaranteed by Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong-will mature on 15 November 2006 and have a coupon yield of 6.5%.

Wellington: TelstraSaturn completes its planned purchase of the country.(Clear Communications)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Wellington: TelstraSaturn completes its planned purchase of the country's number two operator, Clear Communications. The merged company will become the second largest telecom carrier, competing against incumbent Telecom Corporation of New...

Singapore: The IDA says the number of Singaporean mobile subscribers.(dropped in Oct. 2001)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Singapore: The IDA says the number of Singaporean mobile subscribers in October declined by 3,500 to 3,076,900, with the number of prepaid accounts falling from 967,000 to 943,200. The drop stems from SingTel Mobile and M1 cutting off inactive...

Manila: Globe Telecom is reportedly to receive a 6.1 billion peso.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Manila: Globe Telecom is reportedly to receive a 6.1 billion peso ($117 million) cash injection from three of its shareholders: Singapore Telecom, Ayala Group and Deutsche Telekom.

Knowing the customer: it's back to the customer for telcos. Driven by rising competition and the expansion of IP, billing and customer care platforms are becoming engines of growth. But beware the CRM backlash. (Cover Story).
January 1, 2002... Call it the paradox of progress: the more networks, increase in speed and capacity, the more important back office systems have become to carriers. Right now the focus for carriers is on billing, operational support and care systems that...

Protocol standoff! Version 4 of the H.323 call control protocol for IP telephony is just about ready to hit the streets, but SIP has been stealing the spotlight as an IP-centric apps enabler. Many carriers want both. (Online).(Session Initiation Protocol)
January 1, 2002... Voice over IP has come a long way since its days as a PC hobbyist toy and a neat way to make poor quality but cheap long-distance calls. The quality has improved so much that even international carriers use it to save money on costly backbone...

iPSTAR: the prequel: Shin Satellite, part of Thailand's Shin Group juggernaut, is currently one of the group's few consistently profitable businesses. Its latest and biggest project, the iPSTAR broadband satellite, is to soft launch service a year ahead the proposed target of 2003. Shin Sat president Dr Nongluck Phinainitisart briefs global technology editor John C. Tanner on the prospects of interim iPSTAR services. (One-To-One).(Interview)
January 1, 2002... Telecom Asia: The iPSTAR satellite is going up in 2003, but Shin Sat has soft-launched iPSTAR-branded services to be offered on Thaicom-3. What's the strategy there? Dr Nongluck Phinainitisart: We already have a few earth gateways in place...

Bad grammar, hoaxes and freewheeling broadband. (Dotconomy).(Internet behavior)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... "All your base are belong to us" is not exactly a catchy phrase, but despite its nonsensical nature and bad grammar, it ended up a huge hit on the Internet for a couple of glorifying months last summer. A group of individuals simply got...

Internal multi-point functionality for video-conferencing. (Premiere: latest products and services).(Polycom Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Polycom has added an internal multi-point functionality to its iPower 900 series PC-based video communications solutions. The addition of the new function enables organizations to launch multi-location IP video communications on demand...

Video over DSL. (Premiere: latest products and services).(Siemens)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Siemens has launched Attane DSL, a new solution for Video-over DSL, which employs the existing telephone network as a broadband multi-service platform. With the new VDSL solution, carriers and service providers can offer their customers...

SpeedCast unveils streaming encryption system. (Premiere: latest products and services).(SpeedCast Ltd.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... SpeedCast's MediaVault IP stream encryption system consists of a hardware encryption appliance, a web-based key management interface and client decryption modules. It uses the latest 128-bit key length advanced encryption system (AES),...

Ethernet switch for enterprises. (Premiere: latest products and services).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Foundry Networks has launched Edgelron 4802F, the first in its new mid-range priced family of Ethernet switches that is designed to fulfill the workgroup and wiring closet needs of enterprise users. The product features 48 10/100 ports and...

Content delivery solution for metro VoD. (Premiere: latest products and services).(DINASTech's new content delivery solution)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... DINASTech has announced the availability of its new content delivery solution, DINA, which the company claims can help service providers reduce operation costs by as much as 95%. "Prior to DINA, the investment of a city-scale VoD system...

Muting systems to bar unwanted mobile calls. (Premiere: latest products and services).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Hong Kong-based Champion Technology Holdings has announced the global availability of MuteTone, its wireless signal muting systems. The MuteTone solution applies proprietary technology that mutes mobile signals from the base station to...

OC-3 class application traffic and bandwidth management solution. (Premiere: latest products and services).(Packeteer)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Packeteer says its newly announced PacketShaper 8500 product line is specially designed to address the needs of such high-bandwidth environments as service provider hosting centers and points-of-presence, large enterprises and college and...

Dual SLIC optimizes linecard applications. (Premiere: latest products and services).(Legerity introduces two-channel subscriber line interface circuit)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Legerity has released a two-channel subscriber line interface circuit (SLIC) that it says enables a 50% reduction in the board space required for SLICs used in high-density, low-cost telecommunication linecards. The Le57D11 dual SLIC is...

VoIP chipset simplifies product development. (Premiere: latest products and services).(Virata Corp. releases new product)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Virata Corp. has announced the availability of its new Azurite VoIP chipset, which the vendor says could help customers reduce design cycles from a typical 12-18 months to an estimated 3-6 months. The chipset, which combines a Helium or...

New senior appointments at Japan Telecom. (Telecom Career).(William Morrow named president)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Japan Telecom has appointed William Morrow as the company's new president, while Haruo Murakami, currently serving in that role, will become chairman of the firm. Koichi Sakata, Japan Telecom's current chairman, will be promoted to senior...

Nokia names Singapore head. (Telecom Career).(Kitty Fong, general manager)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Nokia has appointed Kitty Fong as the new general manager to head the company's Singapore office. The appointment makes Fong the first woman country head to lead Nokia Singapore. Fong joined Nokia in 1997, and was most recently the...

Board reorganization at AGC and its parent. (Telecom Career).(Global Crossing, Asia Global Crossing)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Global Crossing and Asia Global Crossing (AGC) have announced changes to their respective boards. After the restructuring, the Global Crossing board is now: Gary Winnick, chairman; Lod Cook, co-chairman; John Legere; Joseph Clayton; Mark...

Vodafone NZ goes for Miles. (Telecom Career).(New Zealand, Tim Miles)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Vodafone New Zealand has appointed Tim Miles as its new managing director. Miles joined the company in August after seven years at Unisys Corporation where he was vice president operations of global industries.

Corporate SVP leaves Ericsson. (Telecom Career).(Roland Klein)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Roland Klein, Ericsson's senior vice president for corporate communication, has resigned. Klein, who joined Ericsson two years ago, will join a British-German venture which he partly owns. Ericsson has begun an international...

KTF president joins UN ICT advisory group. (Telecom Career).(Korea Telecom Freetel, Lee Yong-kyung)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Korea Telecom president Freetel Lee Yong-kyung has been named as a member of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) advisory group.

Equant financial systems head. (Telecom Career).(Graham Russell)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Equant has named Graham Russell head of financial systems with responsibility for global consolidation of financial systems and processes. Before joining Equant Russell worked with NCR Corp. for 18 years. Most recently, he was based in...

MSN regional sales director. (Telecom Career).(Robin Fern)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Microsoft MSN has appointed Robin Fern to the position of regional sales director. Fern, to be based in MSN's Hong Kong head office for the Asia region, was mostly recently regional sales director at Lycos Asia.

VP and GM for PMC-Sierra. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... PMC-Sierra, a provider of high-speed broadband communications semiconductors, has appointed Mark Stibitz as vice president and general manager for the company's enterprise and storage division. Stibitz comes to PMC-Sierra from Agere...

Keycorp names Australian CEO. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Secure electronic transaction solution provider, Keycorp, has appointed Bruce Thompson as chief executive officer and managing director. Thompson was appointed a non-executive director in March and interim CEO in August. He spent 32...

RHK CEO. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Telecommunications market research and consulting firm RHK has appointed Marc Litvinoff as the company's new chief executive officer. Litvinoff joins RHK from Knowledge Networks, a market intelligence and research company where he was...

Trend Micro worldwide marketing EVP. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... NetStar Group, an Internet-protocol/Internet-network infrastructure builder in Asia, has appointed Ming Li as executive vice president to oversee its business in the region. Li joins NetStar from Nortel Networks, where he was most recently...

SingTel, Optus name new heads for business units. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SingTel and its Australian subsidiary Optus have announced three senior appointments for their new integrated International Business Units (IBU). Bob Murray, currently general manager of Optus Satellite, will head the new satellite IBU....

Getting over the downturn blues: as corporate carnage continues, managements are now looking at ways to keep their remaining staff happy in the face of adversity. (Telecom Corporate).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The year 2001 has not been good for the telecommunications industry. Carriers have seen profit margins drop or disappear in the face of plummeting prices, while vendors have endured the corresponding drop in capital spending from their biggest...

Wrong call gets confusing answers. (Euro Line).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The telecom industry has spent the last few years wrestling with the question: What is a voice call? Is it a commodity or a service? Is it just bandwidth with value added, or something more? There was a time not so long ago when the very...

What your license fees did this winter: over 300 regulators gather in Geneva and they barely discuss the telecom crisis. What did the industry do to deserve this? (Telecom Planet).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Regulators had as much a part to play as anyone in the great 2000-1 telecom bust. They constructed auction rules using advanced game theory to encourage irrational bidding for spectrum. They saw their role not so much as the regulator, but...

Revival. (Backpage Briefing).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... REVIVAL: Analysts are seeing signs of a revival in telecom capital spending in North America. RHK forecasts service provider capex will continue to decline in 2002 but will rebound towards the end of the year or early 2003. The full-year 2001...

Sharing. (Backpage Briefing).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SHARING: Singapore's IDA is, looking at 3G infrastructure sharing, citing market "uncertainties". The regulator has initiated an industry consultation, asking whether deployment will be delayed because of a lack of funding or technology and...

Reality. (Backpage Briefing).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... REALITY: More fuel for those who think that Telstra's honchos don't have regular contact with reality. After booking a $76 million loss on its Asian investments, CEO Ziggy Switkowski splashed $181 million to buy Kiwi telco Clear in November.But...

Hyper. (Backpage Briefing).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... HYPER: Al Gore may have invented the Internet, but British telco BT is responsible for the World Wide Web. That's the thrust of BT's court case against the US ISP Prodigy, claiming its use of Web hyperlinks infringes BT's "hidden page"...

Competing. (Backpage Briefing).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... COMPETING: Socialist country or not, no-one could accuse China's mobile carriers of not embracing competition. With the imminent start of China Unicom's CDMA service, rival China Mobile has helpfully republished on its Web site a critical...