Telecom Asia articles from March 2002

Telecom Asia archives from March 2002

Are we becoming normal? (Inside Line).(telecommunications company management in Asia)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Whatever you think about the telecom sector in the last decade or so, it hasn't been boring. Since the late '80s we've gone from monopoly to competition, from circuit-switched to IP, from "subscriber" to "customer", from voice to multi-media;...

Fear and loathing in the Wi-Fi. (Tanner).(security problems lead to ban on wireless networks)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Last year's revelations that 802.11b wireless LAN technology had a serious security problem -- or, more specifically, that the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption specified for 802.11b and the RC-4 algorithm on which it is based had a...

Hawaiian broadband wireless tech reaches new spectrum heights. (First Mile).(Loea Communications)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The wireless broadband landscape is littered with proprietary technologies overshadowed by the rise and decline of standardized efforts like MMDS and particularly LMDS that showed great promise as a ticket to breaking open the local loop in...

Vietnam: racing to a stoplight? (Telecom Asia, January 1998). (Resend: flashbacks, update and nostalgia).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... SYNOPSIS: Despite Vietnam's impressive telecoms growth rate since 1992, the Department General of Posts and Telecommunications says it's not enough and announces an accelerated growth plan at a Hanoi telecoms trade show in November 1997. ...

Stat snap. (First Mile).(China's telecommunication industry statistics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Chinese Minister of Information Industry, Wu Jichuan, sketched a picture of the state of the Chinese telecoms sector during his keynote speech at January's Pacific Telecommunications Council conference in Honolulu. The statistics on offer --...

China's telecoms growth path. (First Mile).(forecasts for fixed line, mobile, Internet subscribers)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Illustration)
March 1, 2002... End of 2001 End of 2005 Both fixed and mobile 324 million 500 million Penetration rate 25.2% 40% Fixed line subscribers 179 million n/a Penetration rate 13.9% n/a...

Global Crossing: the telecom Enron: once the investors' darling, collapsed Global Crossing is in danger of falling into a vortex of legal actions and inquiries. (News Analysis).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... What began as a near-routine failure of a subsea bandwidth provider has quickly turned into an Enron-style scandal that raises further doubts about the viability of the global telecom business. Global Crossing filed for Chapter 11...

At last, India gets competition; with a combined war chest of some $10 billion, India's biggest players are ready to do battle. The opening salvos are over price, reports Tamanna from Bangalore. (News Analysis).(Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., Reliance Industries, Bharti Group, Tata Telecom Ltd.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... Finally, the wave of telecom competition is breaking on Indian shores. With huge cash caches, the country's biggest names are ready to do battle. Reliance, the largest corporate house in the country, is expected to invest $5.2 billion, Bharti...

Yahoo! BB puts life into Japan broadband. (News Analysis).(Yahoo! Japan's broadband service helps boost digital subscriber line market)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... Yahoo! Japan's entry into the broadband DSL market last August caused quite a stir in an already competitive sector. By undercutting rival offerings, Yahoo! BB, or broadband, has helped slash the price of DSL connections by over 50% in Japan....

Telstra riles market with net fees hike. (News Analysis).(Telstra Corporation Ltd. raises prices for broadband Internet services)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... Australia's Telstra Corp has restructured its fees for broadband Internet users for the third time in 12 months in a move welcomed by share market analysts, but criticised by user and consumer groups. The new pricing structure for...

Global Crossing files for bankruptcy in the US. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Global Crossing files for bankruptcy in the US. Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore Technologies Telemedia offer $750 million in cash to buy a combined 70% stake in GC. Barring any competitive bids, the restructure, which involves only...

The NYSE notifies Asia Global Crossing that it is not in compliance with exchange listing standards. (movements).(New York Stock Exchange Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The NYSE notifies Asia Global Crossing that it is not in compliance with exchange listing standards, which require maintenance of a minimum share price of $1 over a 30-day trading day period.

Ericsson announces on 25 January a net deficit of $329 million for its fourth quarter of 2001 and a $2 billion loss for the year. (movements).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... Ericsson announces on 25 January a net deficit of $329 million for its fourth quarter of 2001 and a $2 billion loss for the year, compared with a net profit for the same respective periods a year ago, but projects performance improvements and...

Qualcomm posts net profits of $139.2 million for its first fiscal quarter. (movements).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... Qualcomm posts net profits of $139.2 million for its first fiscal quarter, helped by increased revenues from chipset sales, royalties and its software revenue. Qualcomm lost $419 million during the same period a year earlier. Despite the...

AT&T narrows its losses in its 4Q01 results to $1.39 billion, or 0.39 per share. (movements).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... AT&T narrows its losses in its 4Q01 results to $1.39 billion, or 0.39 per share, compared with 0.52 a share for the previous quarter. The 4Q01 figure includes a restructuring charge of $1 billion. Chairman and CEO Michael Armstrong says the...

Symbian receives a vote of confidence from the world's largest mobile phone makers. (movements).(funding round)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Symbian receives a vote of confidence from the world's largest mobile phone makers, completing a new round of funding worth $29.3 million. Matsushita, Motorola, Nokia and Psion all commit to further funding, while Sony Ericsson takes over...

Motorola Broadband and Nortel Networks team up to tackle VoIP over broadband cable networks. (movements).(voice over Internet protocol)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Motorola Broadband and Nortel Networks team up to tackle VoIP over broadband cable networks. The non-exclusive agreement is intended to help simplify deployment of VoIP equipment by broadband network operators, the companies said. Nortel...

Microsoft announces a strategic alliance with speech specialist SpeechWorks to make available to developers SpeechWorks' speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies for the Microsoft .NET platform. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Microsoft announces a strategic alliance with speech specialist SpeechWorks to make available to developers SpeechWorks' speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies for the Microsoft .NET platform. They will also promote the .NET speech...

Beijing: China Railcom signs interconnection agreements with China Mobile. (movements).(deals also with China Telecom, China Unicom to expand service areas)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Beijing: China Railcom signs interconnection agreements with China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom respectively to extend the scope of services areas it can offer.

Hong Kong: Hong Kong Broadband Networks, the LMDS subsidiary of City Telecommunications International (CTI), says it has applied for a fixed license from the Office of Telecommunications Authority. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Hong Kong: Hong Kong Broadband Networks, the LMDS subsidiary of City Telecommunications International (CTI), says it has applied for a fixed license from the Office of Telecommunications Authority. The move is Hong Kong Broadband's latest...

Hong Kong: CLP Telecom abandons its proposed joint project with local pay TV licensee Yes TV. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Hong Kong: CLP Telecom abandons its proposed joint project with local pay TV licensee Yes TV. CLP Telecom managing director Peter Heavyside says CLP made the decision after an extensive three-month strategic review of the telecoms industry...

Bangkok: the Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT) is to be privatized by the Thai government in a 35 billion baht ($792 million) IPO planned for April. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Bangkok: The Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT) is to be privatized by the Thai government in a 35 billion baht ($792 million) IPO planned for April. Transport and Communications Minister Wanmuhamadnoor Matha says the government plans to...

Chennai: Network i2i, the joint subsea cable venture between Singapore Telecom and India's Bharti Group. (movements).(completes cable landing station)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Chennai: Network i2i, the joint subsea cable venture between Singapore Telecom and India's Bharti Group, completes construction of its cable landing station in Chennai. The company says the $250 million Singapore-Chennai link should be...

Kuala Lumpur: Telekom Malaysia denies a Dow Jones report that the telco was attempting to acquire a 45% controlling stake in rival Technology Resources Industries from both TRI chief Tajudin Ramli. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Kuala Lumpur: Telekom Malaysia denies a Dow Jones report that the telco was attempting to acquire a 45% controlling stake in rival Technology Resources Industries from both TRI chief Tajudin Ramli, which owns a 24% equity stake, and 21%...

Singapore: SingTel Mobile completes a trial on 3G packet data, and says it will award a 3G contract worth S$350 million ($190 million) by the middle of this year. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Singapore: SingTel Mobile completes a trial on 3G packet data, and says it will award a 3G contract worth S$350 million ($190 million) by the middle of this year. SingTel Mobile has been testing 3G equipment from Siemens, NEC and ITOCHU Corp.,...

Singapore: IDA launches a consultation on interconnect charging for Internet dialup traffic in the emerging multi-operator, multi-network environment. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Singapore: IDA launches a consultation on interconnect charging for Internet dialup traffic in the emerging multi-operator, multi-network environment. Deadline is noon, 12 April.

Seoul: KT Corp. posts a healthy profit for 2001 on the back of a burgeoning broadband subscriber base and surging wireless business. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Seoul: KT Corp. posts a healthy profit for 2001 on the back of a burgeoning broadband subscriber base and surging wireless business. Net profit for the year, including extraordinary items such as the company's sale of SK Telecom shares, was...

Taipei: FarEasTone, Taiwan's third biggest mobile operator by revenue. (movements).(raises NT$4.3 billion ($122 million) through nine-bank syndicated loan)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Taipei: FarEasTone, Taiwan's third biggest mobile operator by revenue, has raised NT$4.3 billion ($122 million) through a syndicated loan from nine banks.

Taipei: Chunghwa Telecom records an unaudited net profit of NT$37.3 billion ($1.07 billion) for the year 2001. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Taipei: Chunghwa Telecom records an unaudited net profit of NT$37.3 billion ($1.07 billion) for the year 2001, down 11% from NT$42 billion a year ago on lower revenues due to increased fixed line competition and a prolonged economic downturn,...

Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo says it will seek listings on both the New York and London stock exchanges by early March in a bid to finance its global expansion plans. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Tokyo: NTT DoCoMo says it will seek listings on both the New York and London stock exchanges by early March in a bid to finance its global expansion plans. DoCoMo's directors also authorized a one-to-five stock split to take effect in mid-May...

Tokyo: Japan Telecom will expand test areas of its 802.11b wireless LAN service. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Tokyo: Japan Telecom will expand test areas of its 802.11b wireless LAN service, with the addition of four new locations on the Japan Rail Yamanote line, according to Nikkei.

Tokyo: a study panel of Japan's Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications. (movements).(NTT fees)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Tokyo: A study panel of Japan's Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications concludes that NTT's interconnect fees for its two regional operations can be reduced as much as 19% during fiscal 2002.

Sydney: Hutchison Telecom Australia will take One.Tel's GSM network off the hands of vendor Lucent Technologies. (movements).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Sydney: Hutchison Telecom Australia will take One.Tel's GSM network off the hands of vendor Lucent Technologies -- the default owner of the A$654 million ($340 million) network following the mobile operator's collapse in May last year -- for...

Wellington: Telecom Corporation of New Zealand announces a management restructure for itself and Australian subsidiary, AAPT. (movements).(Simon Moutter, David Bedford appointed)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Wellington: Telecom Corporation of New Zealand announces a management restructure for Itself and Australian subsidiary, AAPT. Under the new structure, Simon Moutter will serve as COO in New Zealand and David Bedford as COO in Australia. Moutter...

Telco video: is video the full-service killer app? Telcos deploying DSL want to leverage their broadband connections to generate new revenue streams. Video over 26-megabit DSL is being touted as the ultimate full-service market play in more competitive markets. But telcos may find the video sector a tough nut to crack. (Cover Story).
March 1, 2002... Broadband access is a long way from taking over the world, but where it's been adopted, it's proving a hit with people who sign up for it. One study from Media Metrix estimates that DSL users spend an average of 25 hours a week online, compared...

All-optical growing pains: intelligent all-optical networks are just around the corner with the emergence of standards like GMPLS, but the sector meltdown is threatening to spoil the party for all-optical switches. (Network).
March 1, 2002... For years, the networking sector has grappled with the notion of the all-optical network. As optical transport technologies continue to pack more data into a single strand of fiber, optical switching vendors have been working overtime to come...

Teracable warrior: against the conventional wisdom of a massive surplus of underwater capacity, one group of cable entrepreneurs is now in the throes of raising funds for a teracable hooking up Europe to India's west coast. Jayne Stowell, vice chairman and president of Jersey-based Axone, tells group editor Robert Clark that the bankers and carriers are happy, but the hard part is drawing private investors. (One-to-One).
March 1, 2002... Telecom Asia: Anyone associated with the cable industry might ask, haven't you heard that there's a glut of capacity? Jayne Stowell: There is in the Atlantic, and there's a risk of it across the Pacific and to a certain extent on some of...

Reach's new bargain basement cost structure. (Dotconomy).(Reach buys bandwidth from Level 3 Asia)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... A lot has already been said about the deal between Reach and Level 3. Yes, Reach was handed a new submarine system as a gift because Level 3 just couldn't afford to keep it going. Just to recap the deal, Reach will take on $170 million in...

Unisphere's multi-service edge router comes to Asia. (Premiere).(Unisphere Networks)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Unisphere Networks has announced the Asian introduction of the MRX -- which the company says is the industry's first "Multi-Service Edge Router". The MRX is designed to meet the multi-service requirements at the edge of service provider...

Speaker authentication software for e-business in multi-languages environment. (Premiere).(from InfoTalk Corp.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... InfoTalk Corp., a provider of multilingual conversational speech understanding technology, has announced the availability of InfoTalk-Verifier speaker authentication software that operates in multiple languages. Integrated with InfoTalk's...

Portable W-CDMA testing tool to accelerate 3G service rollout. (Premiere).(from UbiNetics)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... UbiNetics has unveiled what it says is the world's first portable 3G test mobile TM200 for W-CDMA infrastructure testing. The TM200 is specifically designed for WCDMA networks and operates in the 3GPP frequency bands. It is lightweight and...

FLAG appoints new director. (Telecom Career).(Osama Jamjoom)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Osama Jamjoom, currently managing director of Dallah Telecom in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has replaced Adnan Omar as the designated director of Rathburn Limited, a subsidiary of Dallah Al-Baraka Holding Company, to the board of FLAG Telecom. ...

NWM taps finance head. (Telecom Career).(New World Mobility appoints Domingo Chen)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Hong Kong GSM 1800 operator New World Mobility has named Domingo Chen as vice president of finance and strategic planning. Chen joined NWM from Littauer Technologies Limited, where he was most recently managing director and head of Greater...

SVP Nokia Mobile Phones. (Telecom Career).(Robert Andersson appointed)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Nokia has appointed Robert Andersson as senior vice president to oversee the company's mobile phone operations in Asia Pacific. Andersson started his career at Nokia in 1985 as a controller, holding key appointments in finance and business...

Clarent Corp. adds two board members. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Clarent Corporation has appointed J. Mark Hattendorf and Tom Elliot to the company's board of directors. The company has also announced changes to its management team with several appointments: John J O'Shea as chief financial officer;...

Agilent OSS unit taps new head. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Agilent Technologies has appointed Jack Trautman as vice president and general manager of its communications management solution unit. Trautman joined Agilent earlier this year from Hewlett-Packard, where he worked for 26 years.

E.piphany's Asia Pacific VP and GM. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... E.piphany, a provider of next generation customer relationship management (CRM) software, has appointed Chris Ciauri as vice president and general manager for the Asia Pacific region. Prior to his new role, Ciauri held several other...

Yes TV Asia promotions. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Yes Television Asia has promoted Lanny Huang to general manager, commercial services, and Nigel Harper to general manager, technology, respectively. Charlene Lai has been appointed the company's content manager.

Core Solutions appoints managing consultant. (Telecom Career).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Core Solutions has appointed Desmond Ko, formerly with PricewaterhouseCoopers, to the company's newly created position of managing consultant to oversee CORE's financial service consultancy practice. In a separate announcement, Yehong...

Non-executive director at Softbank unit. (Telecom Career).(Kang Dian appointed at Softbank Investment International (Strategic) Ltd.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Softbank Investment International (Strategic) Limited, the flagship of Softbank Finance Corp in Asia (ex-Japan) and a member of the global Softbank family, has named Kang Dian as an independent non-executive director of the company. Kang...

IBM names new CEO. (Telecom Career).(Samuel Palmisano )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... US computer giant IBM has named its current president and COO Samuel Palmisano as the company's new CEO. Palmisano, 50, replaces current IBM CEO Louis Gerstner, 59, who will remain IBM chairman through to the end of the year. In the...

Yankee Group CEO. (Telecom Career).(Brian Adamik)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The Yankee Group has named Brian Adamik chief executive officer to lead research for the company's global businesses. Adamik most recently served as president and COO of the Yankee Group, and has been with the firm since 1994. ...

Carving out a niche: ambitious companies M3Com and Advantel are taking on established players in supplying services, although each comes from a different perspective. (Telecom Corporate).(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2002... After the deluge of backbone investment comes the shoots of fresh competition. The massive amount of longhaul capacity available at low cost is attracting smaller and focused carriers to Asian markets. Among these are Bermuda-based M3Com,...

Going with the small guy. (Telecom Corporate).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... M3Com may be a minnow compared to the carrier giants, but it is able to snare clients with high-level requirements. One such is US-based Savvis, an ISP and IP VPN provider, and the network underneath Reuters' MoneyLine financial services. ...

Can telecom reform withstand the regional cable shakeout? (Telecom Planet).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The sale of Global Crossing to Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore Technologies Telemedia for an effective price of less than four cents in the dollar continues the process of the Asianization of global telecom assets. For much of the last few...

Fraud. (Backpage Briefing).(Motorola and Nokia's lawsuit for fraud)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... At a time when multinationals are being blamed for global inequality and other ills, Motorola and Nokia have gone to court to claim they have been the victims of a $3 billion sting. The two rivals have filed suit claiming that the Uzan family,...

Travel. (Backpage Briefing).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Execs from major international telcos prefer to think globally but act locally, it seems. Both WorldCom Asia-Pacific president Bruce Willey and his rival, Sprint International president Yousef Javadi, both declined to receive email questions on...

Passage. (Backpage Briefing).(Asia-Pacific Telecommunications)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The annual Asia-Pacific Telecommunications index once produced by the computing department of the National University of Singapore has been discontinued. The index, issued from 198-2001, was one of the few attempts at providing a yearly,...

Waiting. (Backpage Briefing).(for PRC)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... A year ago the world's fixed wireless vendors were camped out all around China, running trial networks, nurturing customer relationships and lobbying Beijing. With six Licensed fixed line companies at that time and only one extensive local...

Junk. (Backpage Briefing).(unsolicited emails)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... The problem of unsolicited or spare email is on the agenda in the US, The Federal Trade Commission is about to launch a crackdown on deceptive spare using consumer protection laws, Newsbytes.com reports. In particular, the FTC is targeting...