Telecom Asia articles from January 2003

Telecom Asia archives from January 2003

The things we did last year (and some tips for '03). (Inside Line).
January 1, 2003... Between the scandals, the bankruptcies and the lay-offs, it wasn't a year to remember for global telecoms. It wasn't so hot for Asian markets either, and the telecom recovery isn't likely to take place until 2004. Yet beyond the bad...

So you survived 2002 ...
January 1, 2003... Unless you're Qualcomm, Kylie Minogue, or a Brazilian soccer fan, probably the best thing that could be said about 2002 is that it's over. Indeed, between the economic crunch and the US-led war on terrorism, 2002 was never going to be a year to...

Metro cost concerns spur CWDM revival. (First Mile).
January 1, 2003... With carrier emphasis shifting from fat next-gen pipes to cost-effective practical gear, DWDM as a metro solution has been losing its shine. A Yankee Group report last month noted that metro system sales for 2002 were a full 33% down from 2001,...

Asia learns to love VoIP. (Stat Snap).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Consumers and enterprises across the Asia-Pacific region are warming up to voice over IP as concerns over quality give way to a growing need for cost savings and enhanced IP applications, according to technology analyst firm IDC. "VoIP...

Indonesia goes for WLL: the installation period could be as low as one month, compared with an average one year for wireline. (News Analysis).
January 1, 2003... CDMA-based wireless local loop (WLL) technology is about to take center stage in Indonesia, with the three main operators planning major rollouts. The proportion of WLL lines in Indonesian networks increased by two and a half times last year,...

Worldcom takes on Asia. (Resend).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Flashback: Telecom Asia, January 1998 SYNOPSIS: Fresh off of a year of key acquisitions that included Brooks Fiber properties, CompuServe and US carrier MCI, Worldcom started off 1998 as a heavy hitter in the US with local loops in 45 US...

Waiting for the law. (News Analysis).(China's Ministry of Information Industry)
January 1, 2003... "Telecom Draft Law on the Right Tracks" reads the headline on the state-run People's Daily Web site. Unsurprisingly upbeat, the article may have been correct when it was published--in April, 2001. It wasn't the first time that China's...

Sleepy in Shanghai. (News Analysis).(AT&T's joint venture with Shanghai Telecom)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... You've got exclusive entry into the world's biggest market, with more than half of the world's Fortune 500 companies on your doorstep, and still you're struggling. Such is AT&T's joint venture with Shanghai Telecom, Unisiti. "It is...

Local demand to drive leased line sales. (Insight).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... There's growth in the region's leased line market--but not much, according to Gartner Dataquest, which has forecast an increase in revenue from $12.9 billion in 2001 to $14.1 billion in 2006. While international bandwidth prices will continue...

Wireless addiction. (Insight).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Wi-Fi is the "drug of convenience" of the 2000s, like email was a decade ago, argues Pyramid. "While companies are justifiably concerned about the ROI of any investment, we believe that, for most companies, the debate over Wi-Fi shouldn't be...

Surviving WLAN in Europe. (Insight).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... European wireless ISP (WISP) Megabeam is the independent most likely to survive because of its wholesale focus and its premium position at business traveler hotspots, says Forrester Research. The London-based firm has live service in 60...

Asian enterprises look to the Net. (Insight).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... More than half of all enterprises in Asia plan to adopt Internet business solutions, ranging from IP-VPN and VoIP to on-demand applications, in the next two years, says an AC Neilsen survey. The study was commissioned by Cisco, who says it...

Beijing: Franz Jessen, deputy head of the EU mission Beijing, urges China not to adopt TD-SCDMA. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Beijing: Franz Jessen, deputy head of the EU mission Beijing, urges China not to adopt TD-SCDMA as a 3G technology, saying it will fragment a market already split between W-CDMA and cdma2000.

Beijing: Wang Xudong, the former Communist Party chief of Hebei province, is tipped to replace Wu Jichuan. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Beijing: Wang Xudong, the former Communist Party chief of Hebei province, is tipped to replace Wu Jichuan as China's Minister of Information Industry.

Shanghai: Unicom Guomai, the paging unit under China Unicom, launches China's first iDEN public network. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Shanghai: Unicom Guomai, the paging unit under China Unicom, launches China's first iDEN public network, with 40 stations serving 50,000 customers across the city.

Hong Kong: Premier Zhu Rongji publicly scolds both the MII and China Telecom for introducing a massive rate hike on international call terminations. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Hong Kong: Premier Zhu Rongji publicly scolds both the MII and China Telecom for introducing a massive rate hike on international call terminations. Zhu says the MII's "handling of... the rate increase is a reflection that it does not know...

Hong Kong: information Industry Minister Wu Jichuan defends the MII's policy of slow liberalization and warns against excessive network investment. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Hong Kong: Information Industry Minister Wu Jichuan defends the MII's policy of slow liberalization and warns against excessive network investment. He says in a speech delivered at ITU Telecom Asia that the MII is against duplicate...

Hong Kong: Japanese operators NTT DoCoMo and KDDI exchange words at ITU Telecom Asia on each other's 3G prospects. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Hong Kong: Japanese operators NTT DoCoMo and KDDI exchange words at ITU Telecom Asia on each other's 3G prospects. KDDI president Tadashi Onodera questions whether the W-CDMA services from its rivals would attract customers. DoCoMo senior...

Hong Kong: online news stories, SMS messages, hyper links and items sold from auction sites could be considered to be seditious under Hong Kong. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Hong Kong: Online news stories, SMS messages, hyper links and items sold from auction sites could be considered to be seditious under Hong Kong's controversial draft security law, warns legislator Sin Chung-kai, who represents the tech sector.

Hong Kong: mobile carrier Sunday Communications sacks 88 people--10% of its staff. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Hong Kong: Mobile carrier Sunday Communications sacks 88 people--10% of its staff--and cuts the salaries of remaining employees to lower its operating costs amid fierce competition.

Hong Kong: PCCW spins off a quarter of its workforce into a new company, Cascade Ltd. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Hong Kong: PCCW spins off a quarter of its workforce into a new company, Cascade Ltd. The 3,000 workers will have their salaries cut an average of 10%, but some will face pay cuts of up to 25%. PCCW says it will compensate with bonuses, and...

Ho Chi Minh City: Vietnam is set to further cut telecom charges in 2003, following cuts of 15% to 25% announced last month in an effort to introduce new competition into the market. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Ho Chi Minh City: Vietnam is set to further cut telecom charges in 2003, following cuts of 15% to 25% announced last month in an effort to introduce new competition into the market. The price cuts are part of the government's goal to make...

Jarkata: Singapore's ST Telemedia agrees to pay $634 million to buy a 42% stake in Indosat. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Jarkata: Singapore's ST Telemedia agrees to pay $634 million to buy a 42% stake in Indosat, at a price per share 50% above the market rate.

Kuala Lumpur: DiGi Telecommunications selects Huawei Technologies' C&Co8. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Kuala Lumpur: DiGi Telecommunications selects Huawei Technologies' C&Co8 switching system for the construction of a new international gateway.

New Delhi: Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan proposes to reduce the fees it charges cellular service providers, who now pay 80% to 12% of their sales to the government as a "revenue share" fee. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... New Delhi: Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan proposes to reduce the fees it charges cellular service providers, who now pay 80% to 12% of their sales to the government as a "revenue share" fee. With the sector losing money, Mahajan plans...

New Delhi: Bharti group plans to merge three of its firms--fixed line firm Bharti Telenet, long distance service provider Bharti Telesonic and Bharti Broadband--into a new entity, Bharti Infotel. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... New Delhi: Bharti group plans to merge three of its firms--fixed line firm Bharti Telenet, long distance service provider Bharti Telesonic and Bharti Broadband--into a new entity, Bharti Infotel. The merger will be carried out after regulatory...

Vientiane: Laos threatens to ditch foreign partner ABCN from its joint satellite project because the company has refused to comply with a Laotian court order last month that it pay the government $9.67 million in principal and interest. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Vientiane: Laos threatens to ditch foreign partner ABCN from its joint satellite project because the company has refused to comply with a Laotian court order last month that it pay the government $9.67 million in principal and interest. ABCN...

Seoul: KT Corp plans to transform its public switched telephone network. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Seoul: KT Corp plans to transform its public switched telephone network into an IP-based next-generation network starting in 2003, says company chief Lee Yong-Kyung.

Seoul: KT ICOM is currently trialing a W-CDMA network in Seoul. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Seoul: KT ICOM is currently trialing a W-CDMA network in Seoul with equipment from LG Electronics scheduled for commercial launch in June.

Taipei: the Ministry of Transportation and Communications plans another attempt. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Taipei: The Ministry of Transportation and Communications plans another attempt at selling off Chunghwa Telecom, this time hoping to sell 13.5% of the carrier.

Tokyo: the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) raids the offices of J-Phone, reportedly investigating the possibility that J-Phone forced retailers to stick to designated prices to prevent handset prices from tumbling amid heated competition. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Tokyo: The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) raids the offices of J-Phone, reportedly investigating the possibility that J-Phone forced retailers to stick to designated prices to prevent handset prices from tumbling amid heated competition. The FTC...

Tokyo: NTT and NTT-X are in the final stages of developing a "next generation" search engine, which the two companies say covers the approximately 80 million Web pages in Japan. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Tokyo: NTT and NTT-X are in the final stages of developing a "next generation" search engine, which the two companies say covers the approximately 80 million Web pages in Japan and enables retrieval of information that has been placed on a Web...

Canberra: the Australian government postpones a plan to sell off Telstra Corp. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Canberra: The Australian government postpones a plan to sell off Telstra Corp by at least a year, as it continues to face major political hurdles and a poor sales climate.

Canberra: Australia's High Court rules that online publishers could be sued for defamation in the place where their material is viewed, not the country of origin where it is uploaded. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Canberra: Australia's High Court rules that online publishers could be sued for defamation in the place where their material is viewed, not the country of origin where it is uploaded. The ruling follows a defamation case involving Melbourne...

Sydney: Telstra signs 10,000 customers to a new service bundling pay TV, telephony and Internet services. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Sydney: Telstra signs 10,000 customers to a new service bundling pay TV, telephony and Internet services. The company also announces the launch of a cdma2000 1x trial aimed squarely at the business market in Sydney, Melbourne, and Sale in the...

Sydney: Hutchison Telecom and Ericsson sign a network outsourcing agreement, under which Ericsson will take care of the build-out and day-to-day network operations of Hutchison's 2G CDMA, 3G W-CDMA and paging networks. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Sydney: Hutchison Telecom and Ericsson sign a network outsourcing agreement, under which Ericsson will take care of the build-out and day-to-day network operations of Hutchison's 2G CDMA, 3G W-CDMA and paging networks. Hutchison retains...

Singapore: M1, SingTel and StarHub agree on MMS interconnection, making in the city-state the first in the world to offer MMS interoperability. (Asian telecoms this month).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Singapore: M1, SingTel and StarHub agree on MMS interconnection, making in the city-state the first in the world to offer MMS interoperability. The service is initially free of charge and allows Singapore mobile users to exchange multimedia...

Asia Netcom, a joint venture between China Netcom, the Softbank and Newbridge Capital, is to buy Asia Global Crossing's regional network and customer base for $120 million in equity and a reported $150 million in finance. (movements).
January 1, 2003... * Asia Netcom, a joint venture between China Netcom, the Softbank and Newbridge Capital, is to buy Asia Global Crossing's regional network and customer base for $120 million in equity and a reported $150 million in finance. Not part of the deal...

SingTel signs an agreement with the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) and Indonesia's Telkom to build a cable network linking Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * SingTel signs an agreement with the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) and Indonesia's Telkom to build a cable network linking Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. The three firms also contract NEC to construct the...

Hutchison unveils initial 3G price packages for its UK service, starting at just under $95 a month for a bundle of voice calls, video calls, messages and Internet content, though exact amounts are unspecified for now. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * Hutchison unveils initial 3G price packages for its UK service, starting at just under $95 a month for a bundle of voice calls, video calls, messages and Internet content, though exact amounts are unspecified for now. A more expensive package...

The Internet address agency ICANN approves a host of new address suffixes to join the likes of ".com" and ".org". (movements).(Internet Corporation for Assigend Names and Numbers)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * The Internet address agency ICANN approves a host of new address suffixes to join the likes of ".com" and ".org". The new domains will be limited to organizations in specific fields such health care, and will follow the model of existing...

European ISPs say they are being overwhelmed by a barrage of requests to remove Web sites that violate copyright or contain defamatory statements, are ordered by the E-Commerce Directive, a European Union law enacted this year. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * European ISPs say they are being overwhelmed by a barrage of requests to remove Web sites that violate copyright or contain defamatory statements, are ordered by the E-Commerce Directive, a European Union law enacted this year. Under the...

The European Commission. (movements).(Logica PLC)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * The European Commission gives its approval to Logica's planned $804 million takeover of rival CMG.

Siemens transfers 6,500 of its telecom and industrial services staff to a new assembly and services unit. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * Siemens transfers 6,500 of its telecom and industrial services staff to a new assembly and services unit. Those transferred include 4,100 from its ICN fixed-line telecoms unit. Siemens stresses that the ICN staff wouldn't have been sacked if...

Trans-Pacific circuits to Asia are relatively highly utilized--with the exception of Japan. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * Trans-Pacific circuits to Asia are relatively highly utilized--with the exception of Japan, which appears to be suffering from a massive bandwidth glut, despite being the single biggest Asian destination for US circuits, the FCC reports.

International PSTN traffic rose just 10% in 2001, the slowest growth rate in 20 years, TeleGeography reports, while international call revenue plunged by $10 billion for the year--a record. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * International PSTN traffic rose just 10% in 2001, the slowest growth rate in 20 years, TeleGeography reports, while international call revenue plunged by $10 billion for the year--a record. However, those figures do not include the...

Despite the economic downturn and growth slowdowns reported throughout the telecoms industry, Internet usage is still on the rise, according to an annual report by the UN development agency UNCTAD. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * Despite the economic downturn and growth slowdowns reported throughout the telecoms industry, Internet usage is still on the rise, according to an annual report by the UN development agency UNCTAD. It expects Net users to total 655 million by...

Backbone operator 360networks emerges from bankruptcy protection. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * Backbone operator 360networks emerges from bankruptcy protection. In good health but free of global ambition, 360networks is now a North American-based network with $100 million in cash, $215 million in debt ad former creditors as owners. The...

US high-speed ISP Genuity files for bankruptcy protection and agrees to sell its assets for about $242 million to long-haul provider Level 3. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * US high-speed ISP Genuity files for bankruptcy protection and agrees to sell its assets for about $242 million to long-haul provider Level 3. The deal gives Level 3 Internet access services, more than 3,000 customers including America Online,...

Nokia announces a 3G enhancement, GW-CDMA, primarily aimed at the 1700 and 2100 MHz bands in the Americas. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * Nokia announces a 3G enhancement, GW-CDMA, primarily aimed at the 1700 and 2100 MHz bands in the Americas. It combines two 3GPP features, DSCH and HDSPA to improve W-CDMA downstream throughput, and will be commercially available in 2004-05.

A US court has approved a pay package for new WorldCom chief Michael Capellas, 23% less than an initial proposal which the judge criticized as excessive. (movements).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... * A US court has approved a pay package for new WorldCom chief Michael Capellas, 23% less than an initial proposal which the judge criticized as excessive. The former Compaq CEO will receive $8 million over three years plus $12 million in stock...

Network insecurity: why telecoms operators are behind on the security curve. (Cover Story).
January 1, 2003... Terrorist threats, denial-of-service attacks and Net worms have brought new awareness, to the importance of security--but telecoms players are finding out the hard way that they're further behind on the security curve than they thought. ...

OSS buyer's guide: provisioning slump buster: why provisioning solutions are in such demand--and how to sort out suppliers. (OSS).
January 1, 2003... To provision in the past was to interact on a personal level with a subscriber, fill out forms in triplicate, or perhaps in sextuplicate, and then see that the copies circulated through the organization. In due course, more forms were generated...

The broadband sweet spot: Melbourne-based Request believes it has found the meat in the broadband market--SMEs who can't afford frame relay or a leased line. It helps that it's not a market the incumbent is contesting--yet. Beyond connectivity, CEO Phil Sykes tells group editor Robert Clark he's looking next to VoDSL and even the ASP model. (One-to-one).(small to medium sized enterprises)(Interview)
January 1, 2003... Telecom Asia: Broadband startups don't have a terribly good record, especially in the US. How is Request different? Phil Sykes: We had the luxury of 20:20 hindsight. Most of those startups in the US probably started about two years before...

PCCW appoints Cascade head. (Telecom Career).(Chan Wing-wa)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... PCCW has appointed Chan Wing-wa as managing director of Cascade Limited, the carrier's new controversial new outsourcing subsidiary. Chan, 51, was previously president of PCCW's network services business division.

Vodafone Asia Pacific CEO. (Telecom Career).(Brian Clark)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Vodafone has appointed Brian Clark as CEO of Vodafone Asia Pacific--a new entity created by the merger of Vodafone Asia and Vodafone Pacific. Previously Clark was CEO of Vodafone Pacific. Bill Keever, CEO of Vodafone Asia Region, will...

AGC Australia--NZ head. (Telecom Career).(Deborah Homewood)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Asia Global Crossing has appointed Deborah Homewood as country manager for Australia and New Zealand. Homewood joins AGC from AT&T-Concert Networks where she was most recently sales director global markets.

Ericsson director to step down. (Telecom Career).(Tom Hedelius)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Ericsson board member Tom Hedelius says he will step down from his post in 2003. Hedelius is the chairman of investment company Industrivarden, which has 27.7% of votes in Ericsson.

Qwest president and COO resigns. (Telecom Career).(Afshin Mohebbi)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... US telecom carrier Qwest Communications International says its president and COO, Afshin Mohebbi has resigned from the firm. Qwest says it does not plan to fill the position.

ITXC India sales manager. (Telecom Career).(Vinayak Rajanahally)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Global wholesale voice carrier ITXC has hired Vinayak Rajanahally as country sales manager in India. Prior to ITXC, Rajanhally worked at Grand Infotech in Bangalore.

3Com names HK manager. (Telecom Career).(Rockies Ma as its Hong Kong country manager)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... 3Com has named Rockies Ma as its Hong Kong country manager. Ma joins 3Com from Alcatel China, where he served most recently as deputy director at the company's broadband network division.

SkyNetGlobal sales and marketing GM. (Telecom Career).(Damian Thompson)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Australian remote access service provider SkyNetGlobal has appointed Damian Thompson as sales and marketing general manager. Thompson joins SkyNetGlobal from IT security organization Zento, where he was most recently the national sales...

CA chairman Charles Wang retires. (Telecom Career).(Computer Associates founder )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Computer Associates founder and chairman Charles Wang has retired as chairman and as a member of the board of directors. He has been replaced by president and chief executive officer Sanjay Kumar. Wang, 58, was given the honorary...

Cisco Asia Pacific sales VP. (Telecom Career).(Chris Khang)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Cisco Systems has appointed Chris Khang as vice president of sales operations, Asia Pacific, based in Singapore.

Andrew Corp names CEO. (Telecom Career).(Ralph Faison)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... The board of Andrew Corporation has named Ralph Faison president and CEO. Currently Faison serves the company as president and CFO. He succeeds Floyd English, who will continue as Andrew chairman until February 2004.

Former Hutch sales manager joins Request. (Telecom Career).(Scott Carter)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Australian broadband provider Request has appointed Scott Carter to the new role of director of sales. Carter comes to Request from Hutchison Telecommunications Australia, where he served most recently as national manager for SME and 3G...

RSA North Asia MD. (Telecom Career).(David Fung)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... RSA has appointed David Fung as managing director of North Asia. Fung was previously general manager of Greater China for RealNetworks.

Senior promotions at Concord. (Telecom Career).(Concord Communications has promoted Douglas Batt)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Concord Communications has promoted Douglas Batt to executive vice president and general counsel, to handle all legal and corporate governance matters Concord has also promoted former country manager Peter Alexander to regional sales...

EDS China president. (Telecom Career).(Alex Wong)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... EDS has named Alex Wong president of EDS China. Wong comes to EDS from Unisys, where he served as president of Unisys China from 1998. Prior to that he served for more than 20 years in various senior management positions across the region.

Single-chip solution for VoIP terminals. (Premiere).(Infineon Technologies)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... A single-chip solution for VoIP telephones from chip-maker Infineon Technologies is now available. The INCA-IP chip is designed for IP phone systems with hands-free microphone, conference loudspeaker, handset and headset inputs comprising an...

OSS process framework. (Premiere).(Staffware)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Staffware says its new OSS process framework provides Tier I operators with an enterprise-wide process infrastructure capable of supporting the majority of their OSS needs. The framework contains ready-to-deploy business and...

Cisco unveils metro wire-speed performance solutions. (Premiere).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Cisco Systems has announced the availability of its ML-Series interface card, designed to deliver Ethernet/IP multipoint services over its ONS 15454 Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP) at multimillion-packet-per-second performance. ...

IP/MPLS for carrier class networking. (Premiere).(Alcatel)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Alcatel's new 7770 optical broadband exchange (OBX) is an IP/MPLS solution which the company says delivers guaranteed reliability and helps improve scalability and the economics of IP networking. Based on the Alcatel Carrier Environment...

High-density, low-bit rate video streaming. (Premiere).(Optibase)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Optibase has released the MGW 2400 platform, its high density, multi-channel video encoding and streaming server for the residential and enterprises markets. The server is designed to compress and stream--either in multicast or on-demand...

How telcos failed the soccer ball test ... and other stories from the new economy, through the eyes of two industry analysts who have long warned of the dangers of excessive capital spending and of the threats to the new networks from traditional powerbases. (Telecom Corporate).
January 1, 2003... One reason that the "new economy" whipped itself into its self-destructive boom and bust phase was surely because it was the first bubble to give itself a running commentary. Entrepreneurs who ushered in the industrial revolution weren't...

It's the stupid network, stupid. (Telecom Corporate).
January 1, 2003... In The Rise of the Stupid Network, David Isenberg argued persuasively in 1998 that the success of Internet--which relied on the simple Internet Protocol--proved that putting intelligence in the network itself wasn't clever at all. Network...

TA30 telecom stock index: for the period from 1 Nov-2 Dec. 2002. (Telecom Corporate).(Illustration)
January 1, 2003... In what is hopefully a good omen for the Asian telecoms industry, the TA30 index not only saw its second consecutive month of growth, but also performed twice as well sequentially compared to the previous month, leaping 7.2%. PCCW, the...

In the free market, quality is as important as quantity: consumer expectations are a constantly shifting quantity. (Telecom Planet).
January 1, 2003... One of the biggest concerns for Asian telecom regulators in 2003 will be how to more effectively focus on the quality of competition, as opposed to the quantity of it. A quick review of the annual reports and symposium presentations of sectoral...

Firewall. (Backpage Briefing).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... FIREWALL: Chinese authorities have blocked close to 20,000 Web sites, more than any other government in the world, according to a study by Harvard University. "Chinese network filtering is an important instrument of state Internet policy,"...

Opportunity. (Backpage Briefing).(ITU Telecom Asia show )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... OPPORTUNITY: The winds of opportunity blew a little cooler across the ITU Telecom Asia show for TD-SCDMA, the Chinese-backed 3G technology. China's Information Industry Minister Wu Jichuan said at the event the government would let market...

Divide. (Backpage Briefing).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... DIVIDE: Asian governments and telecom carriers have made great strides in spreading voice services throughout the region, yet rapid technology change is creating a new divide. That's the message from the latest ITU Asia-Pacific...

Loser. (Backpage Briefing).(trans-Pacific capacity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... LOSER: FCC figures on trans-Pacific capacity give a sense of the staggering bandwidth growth in the region. They also map out the shifting balance of telecom power. Japan continues to be the region's biggest tele-hub, with a total 37,381...

Shocking. (Backpage Briefing).(SingTel)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... SHOCKING: SingTel's in-house magazine Keylines recently featured a "cover story" on fixed wireless convergence, starring an interview with Mobile chief Lucas Chow. Backpage Briefing's eye was caught by the quotation in large-type that doesn't...