Telecom Asia articles from May 2008

Telecom Asia archives from May 2008

Betting on the 4G patent pool.(TANNER)
May 1, 2008... Patents are a fact of life in the technology sector, but they're also a major source of fear and loathing. Witness the current dithering over patents for 3G and so-called 4G technology. Much of the dithering has been directed at Qualcomm, which...

P2P: if you can't beat it, fix it.(FIRST MILE)
May 1, 2008... Peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic is the bane of both ISPs trying to keep control of their bandwidth resources and content companies worried about file sharinwg software that enable video and music "piracy" P2P filtering products that use deep packet...

Flat rates key to boosting mobile data revenue.(STAT SNAP)
May 1, 2008... Operators can take advantage of flat-rate pricing plans to boost their mobile data service revenues, but only if these are based on affordable price points. According to a Pyramid Research report, mobile data usage worldwide has been on an...

Thuraya comes to Asia.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
May 1, 2008... The handheld mobile satellite services (MSS) sector in Asia Pacific has a new player in town with the launch of Thuraya's satellite service in April--and while it's unlikely to result in price wars or massive subscriber uptake, it's bringing...

Interest picks up for mobile LBS.(IN SIGHT: ONE MONTH'S TELECOM RESEARCH)(Location-based services)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Wireless subscribers are finally taking notice of mobile Location-based services (LBS), with many now looking at various navigation applications as an important part of the mobile experience. ABI Research says the growth is also driven by the...

Outsourcing decisions critical to success.(IN SIGHT: ONE MONTH'S TELECOM RESEARCH)
May 1, 2008... Decisions on what products to outsource, which types of contract manufacturers to employ and what services to use are critical in separating the winners from the losers in the mobile handset space. According to iSuppli, 30.1% of mobile phones...

Scramble starts for mobile broadband rollouts.(IN SIGHT: ONE MONTH'S TELECOM RESEARCH)
May 1, 2008... Operators are making a mad dash to put the necessary mobile broadband infrastructure in place, in preparation for demand that is expected to significantly build up over the next several years. A Rethink Research report says mobile broadband...

Operators need to go beyond fiber.(IN SIGHT: ONE MONTH'S TELECOM RESEARCH)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... A network-generation access (NGA) strategy without rapid core transformation will not address the long-term problem of rationalizing a legacy of multiple network overlays, says Analysys. Service orientation, rather than NGA, is the key to...

OSS vendors on M&A hunt.(NEWS ANALYSIS)(Operations Support Systems )
May 1, 2008... Consolidation in the telecom BSS/OSS market is accelerating as large telecom IT vendors continue to expand and enhance their existing product portfolios to meet telecom operators' growing need for quick service launches and multi-play services...

China Telecom says its annual profits fell 13% last year as more customers switched to mobile phones.(BEIJING)
May 1, 2008... China Telecom says its annual profits fell 13% last year as more customers switched to mobile phones. Net profit in 2007 fell to 23.7b yuan ($3.4b), from 27.2b yuan ($3.8b) in 2006. Voice revenues fell 7.9% year-on-year, despite overall...

China Mobile offers commercial TD-SCDMA services in May in eight Olympic cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, in a new trial ahead of the Beijing Olympics.(BEIJING)
May 1, 2008... China Mobile offers commercial TD-SCDMA services in May in eight Olympic cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, in a new trial ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The operator will offer 20,000 free phones and 5,000 free PC cards to its...

Hutchison Whampoa reports that its 2007 net profit surged 53%, helped by smaller losses in its 3G mobile business.(HONG KONG)(Financial report)
May 1, 2008... Hutchison Whampoa reports that its 2007 net profit surged 53%, helped by smaller losses in its 3G mobile business. The company's net profit for the 12 months that ended December 31 was HK$30.6b ($3.9b), up from HK$20.03b ($2.6b) a year earlier....

SmarTone-Vodafone launches a new wireless fixed-line service that offers local, IDD and VoIP calls over its GSM/W-CDMA network, challenging fixed-line leaders PCCW and Hutchison Telecom.(HONG KONG)
May 1, 2008... SmarTone-Vodafone launches a new wireless fixed-line service that offers local, IDD and VoIP calls over its GSM/W-CDMA network, challenging fixed-line leaders PCCW and Hutchison Telecom. Consumers can sign up the service for a standard plan of...

An anti-graft body set up to investigate ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will seek to prosecute the ousted leader in connection with a government loan to Myanmar.(BANGKOK)
May 1, 2008... An anti-graft body set up to investigate ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will seek to prosecute the ousted leader in connection with a government loan to Myanmar for communications satellite services.

AIS may file a lawsuit against Hutchinson CAT Wireless for damaging its corporate reputation over alleged call blocking.(BANGKOK)
May 1, 2008... AIS may file a lawsuit against Hutchinson CAT Wireless for damaging its corporate reputation over alleged call blocking. AIS submitted a letter to the NTC asking it to rule whether the operator of the Hutch CDMA service violated price-dumping...

Samsung Electronics plans to build a $670m plant to make mobile phones in northern Vietnam.(HANOI)
May 1, 2008... Samsung Electronics plans to build a $670m plant to make mobile phones in northern Vietnam. The firm has been pushing for the Vietnam plant for nearly a year and submitted the proposal to authorities.

Qualcomm signs an agreement with Vietnamese operator S-Fone.(HANOI)
May 1, 2008... Qualcomm signs an agreement with Vietnamese operator S-Fone to launch BREW services on S-Fone's CDMA network.

Indosat posts a better-than-expected 23.6% rise in fourth-quarter net profit, thanks to strong growth in its subscriber base.(JAKARTA)(Financial report)
May 1, 2008... Indosat posts a better-than-expected 23.6% rise in fourth-quarter net profit, thanks to strong growth in its subscriber base. The firm sees its mobile subscriber base expanding by 47% to 24.5 million last year, beating 38% growth for the...

Telkom cuts its long-distance call rate by up to 46% in an attempt to boost landline service usage.(JAKARTA)
May 1, 2008... Telkom cuts its long-distance call rate by up to 46% in an attempt to boost landline service usage amid increased competition from mobile phone services.

Globe Telecom expects slower revenue growth this year as rising oil and food prices soak up income used for texting and calling.(MANILA)
May 1, 2008... Globe Telecom expects slower revenue growth this year as rising oil and food prices soak up income used for texting and calling. The firm also says it's going to be difficult to achieve the double-digit growth rate last year.

SK Telecom will invest 389.9b won ($395m) during the second half of the year.(SEOUL)
May 1, 2008... SK Telecom will invest 389.9b won ($395m) during the second half of the year to improve the quality and increase the capacity of its network.

Samsung Electronics trims its sales forecast for this year on global economic woes.(SEOUL)
May 1, 2008... Samsung Electronics trims its sales forecast for this year on global economic woes, but said profit will be up because of growth in key areas such as memory chips, fiat-panel displays and mobile handsets.

An investment fund managed by Australia's Macquarie Group and private equity house MBK Partners completes a $2b joint acquisition.(SEOUL)
May 1, 2008... An investment fund managed by Australia's Macquarie Group and private equity house MBK Partners completes a $2b joint acquisition of South Korea's No. 2 cable TV operator C&M.

Ericsson signs a deal to expand Far EasTone's HSPA network for an undisclosed amount.(TAIPEI)
May 1, 2008... Ericsson signs a deal to expand Far EasTone's HSPA network for an undisclosed amount. The deal will also expand the mobile operator's transmission network capacity and mobile positioning service solutions.

KDDI lowers its annual operating profit forecast by 3.4%.(TOKYO)
May 1, 2008... KDDI lowers its annual operating profit forecast by 3.4%. The company now expects an operating profit 400b yen ($3.9b) for the year ended March, down from a January forecast of 414b yen ($4b).

DoCoMo loses its position as the dominant mobile operator in Japan.(TOKYO)
May 1, 2008... DoCoMo loses its position as the dominant mobile operator in Japan, after seeing its share slip from 50.2% in February to 49.7% at the end of March, according to figures by the Telecommunications Carriers Association.

Stephen Conroy, the new Communications Minister, requests tenders for a A$4.7b ($4.3b) project to build a national broadband network.(SYDNEY)
May 1, 2008... Stephen Conroy, the new Communications Minister, requests tenders for a A$4.7b ($4.3b) project to build a national broadband network that aims to deliver at least 12 Mbps to 98% of Australian households over the next five years.

Telstra and Alcatel-Lucent demonstrate a new 9,000 km submarine cable that will dramatically increase internet capacity between Australia and the US.(SYDNEY)
May 1, 2008... Telstra and Alcatel-Lucent demonstrate a new 9,000 km submarine cable that will dramatically increase internet capacity between Australia and the US. At full capacity, the cable is capable of carrying 160,000 concurrent high-definition...

The government approves a proposal by Telecom to split its operations into three separate units.(WELLINGTON)
May 1, 2008... The government approves a proposal by Telecom to split its operations into three separate units as part of regulatory moves to break up the company's monopoly.

StarHub has joined Hong Kong's City Telecom and mobile firm M1 in bidding for the city-state's S$250m ($181m) next-gen broadband project.(SINGAPORE)
May 1, 2008... StarHub has joined Hong Kong's Telecom and mobile firm M1 in bidding for the city-state's S$250m ($181m) next-gen broadband project. The trio will jointly submit a bid for the right to build the NGN network, for which contracts are expected to...

Motorola is to close its Singapore handset production plant by the end of the year, cutting 700 jobs.(SINGAPORE)
May 1, 2008... Motorola is to close its Singapore handset production plant by the end of the year, cutting 700 jobs. A company spokesperson says the closure was part of a global program to reduce annual costs by $500m. Motorola will maintain its Asia-Pacific...

Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson have agreed to a framework to license their patents for the emerging LTE technology.(movements)
May 1, 2008... Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson have agreed to a framework to license their patents for the emerging LTE technology. The companies have committed to keeping royalty levels for...

NTT Communications is set to launch its new Russia-Japan cable by this quarter.(movements)
May 1, 2008... NTT Communications is set to launch its new Russia-Japan cable by this quarter. The Hokkaido-Sakhalin Cable System, built by NTT Communications and Trans-Telecom, will be initially lit tip at 20 Gbps and significantly cut latency on the...

Motorola bows to pressure from investors.(movements)
May 1, 2008... Motorola bows to pressure from investors, announcing a plan to split its struggling cellphone business from other operations to form two separate publicly traded companies.

Ericsson wins $1.44b contracts from China Mobile and China Unicom to upgrade the companies' GSM networks.(movements)
May 1, 2008... Ericsson wins $1.44b contracts from China Mobile and China Unicom to upgrade the companies' GSM networks. Under the $1.3b deal with China Mobile, Ericsson will supply core and radio network equipment and related technical support and services....

Yahoo surrenders some of its advertising space to internet search leader Google in an unusual test that appears designed to frustrate Yahoo's unsolicited suitor.(movements)
May 1, 2008... Yahoo surrenders some of its advertising space to internet search leader Google in an unusual test that appears designed to frustrate Yahoo's unsolicited suitor, Microsoft.

Google starts pitching its plan to use TV "white space," unlicensed and unused airwaves, to provide wireless internet.(movements)
May 1, 2008... Google starts pitching its plan to use TV "white space," unlicensed and unused airwaves, to provide wireless internet. Google is pressing the government to open up the white space for unlicensed use.

The European Union will allow mobile phone service on European flights.(movements)
May 1, 2008... The European Union will allow mobile phone service on European flights, making the 27-nation bloc the first region in the world to scrap bans on the use of cellphones in the sky.

The US Justice Department approves Sirius Satellite Radio's proposed $5b buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings.(movements)
May 1, 2008... The US Justice Department approves Sirius Satellite Radio's proposed $5b buyout of rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings, saying the deal was unlikely to hurt competition or consumers.

A jury orders Microsoft to pay $367.4m to Alcatel-Lucent for infringing on two patents.(movements)
May 1, 2008... A jury orders Microsoft to pay $367.4m to Alcatel-Lucent for infringing on two patents, a decision the software maker vowed to appeal.

EU is extending an antitrust probe into Nokia's proposed $8.1b acquisition of US-based digital mapmaker Navteq.(movements)
May 1, 2008... EU is extending an antitrust probe into Nokia's proposed $8.1b acquisition of US-based digital mapmaker Navteq. An initial investigation found a combination of the companies could pose serious concerns about competition in the market for...

Nokia agrees with worker representatives on a $314m plan to soften the blow from its closure of a factory in Germany.(movements)
May 1, 2008... Nokia agrees with worker representatives on a $314m plan to soften the blow from its closure of a factory in Germany. The company said the agreement allows for the plant to close June 30 as planned.

The European Union gives its final approval to the much-delayed Galileo satellite navigation program.(movements)
May 1, 2008... The European Union gives its final approval to the much-delayed Galileo satellite navigation program, whose $5.35b costs will be borne by taxpayers.

UK regulator Ofcom confirms plans for the UK's single-largest release of radio spectrum to date.(movements)
May 1, 2008... UK regulator Ofcom confirms plans for the UK's single-largest release of radio spectrum to date, suitable for a range of new services such as mobile broadband and advanced wireless services delivered using Wimax and 3G technology.

Asia's telecom stars 2008.(telecom asia AWARDS 08)(Cover story)
May 1, 2008... This year's 11th Telecom Asia Awards was a mix of fresh and familiar faces. The big winner on the night was Australian incumbent Telstra. Following in the footsteps of SK Telecom last year, it claimed the double of Best Mobile and Best...

Choosing Asia's best.(telecom asia AWARDS 08)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Telecom Asia Awards are the joint efforts of three groups--the Ovum Asia-Pacific telecommunications team, the judging panel and Telecom Asia editors. The judging takes places in three stages. In the first, Ovum researchers conduct...

Turnaround story.(BEST ASIAN TELECOM CARRIER/ BEST ASIAN MOBILE CARRIER)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At a time when growth is hard to come by, Australia's market Telstra has defied the expectations, rebounding in the mobile market and actually increasing its traditional voice subs. The centerpiece of its...

Finally, broadband on the move.(BEST NEW TECH)
May 1, 2008... HSPA (high-speed packet access) is the mobile technology that has finally brought broadband to the mobile device. Two years ago judges voted HSDPA as the technology of the year. Now its fully-featured successor is accelerating 3G takeup and...

Leveraging your core assets.(BEST CEO)
May 1, 2008... It's been a bumpy road for Bill Barney since moving in as COO of Asia Global Crossing in December 2001. Perhaps roller-coaster ride would be more accurate. Within a month of his appointment, the board named him CEO, and he quickly discovered...

BT's winning race.(BEST MANAGED SERVICES PROVIDER)
May 1, 2008... In the telco transformation race, BT is one of the leaders. The UK incumbent draws 37% of its income from what it calls non-traditional businesses, mostly IT services and broadband. For BT Global Services, the corporate and wholesale...

Maintaining the high road.(BEST WHOLESALE CARRIER)
May 1, 2008... In a business red in tooth and claw as telecom wholesale, there's only two ways to go: cut prices or improve services. No prizes for guessing which path was chosen by NTT Communications, the IP and managed services subsidiary of the NTT...

Closing the divide with the humble phone.(TELECOM INNOVATION OF THE YEAR)
May 1, 2008... For all the fuss over HSPA and mobile internet as the future of cellular data, developing markets face a different reality. Mobile outsells landlines exponentially, but it's mostly a 2.5G play, and SMS remains the non-voice service of choice....

Beyond IPTV and valued-added content.(BEST BROADBAND CARRIER)(internet protocol television)(Company overview)
May 1, 2008... PCCW's broadband access side of the business has been constantly evolving, and as of last November went from DSL to FTTx with its FiberDirect service, which offers 100-Mbps and 1-Gbps connections to around two-thirds of Hong Kong as of April...

Data business keeps Inmarsat flying.(BEST SATELLITE CARRIER)
May 1, 2008... Inmarsat's position as a mobile satellite services provider aimed at select vertical niches has helped see the operator through some turbulent times, as has its determination to push into new services areas and take MSS into the broadband age....

Continued diversification.(BEST EMERGING MARKETS CARRIER)
May 1, 2008... Like any other established carrier, PLDT is feeling the pangs of disruption on its fixed-line business and mobile businesses. But as befits its status as the country's oldest telco--now in its 80th year--and its largest and most actively...

Market leader eyes foreign opportunities.(BEST CARRIER INDIA)(Bharti Airtel)(Company overview)
May 1, 2008... Bharti Airtel has consolidated its position as India's biggest mobile operator and is now planning to expand beyond the borders of India. "During the past year we have logged a subscriber base of 60 million which has catapulted us in the...

Always room for fiber: Asia Pacific still rules the global FTTx roost, but while growth is inevitable, fiber's dominance is by no means assured in the region's heterogeneous landscape. And where fiber is flourishing, there's still likely a regulatory incentive behind.(TECHNOLOGY)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] First things first. Any discussion on the growing prominence of fiber to the home--the ultimate end game in the fixed-line broadband business--requires a little perspective. For a start, there were almost 350 million...

Privatization, subscriber boom heat up in Vietnam mobile: privatization and ballooning subscriber base will fuel fast growth in Vietnam mobile space, but waning ARPUs will drive the crowded market toward consolidation.(VIETNAM FOCUS)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Vietnam is set to take center stage as one of Asia's most dynamic wireless markets in 2008. Home to nearly 50 million residents who still do not own a mobile phone, the emerging Southeast Asian tiger is planning to...

Routers fuel Carrier Ethernet market.(ANALYST VIEW)
May 1, 2008... The Carrier Ethernet market has transitioned from one in which the driver of revenue growth are switches that deploy mostly business applications into one in which the push comes from routers for large infrastructure deployments for residential...

LTE platform for mobile devices.(PREMIERE: Latest products and services)(Long Term Evolution)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Ericsson has unveiled the M700 mobile platform, which it claims is the world's first commercially available LTE-capable platform for mobile devices. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The M700 has peak data rates of up to 100 Mbps in the downlink...

New HSDPA test gear options.(PREMIERE: Latest products and services)(Willtek Communications Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Willtek Communications has introduced two new options for tests and measurements on HSDPA-enabled wireless devices. The options to the 4400 Mobile Phone Tester Series complement the system options already available for standards including...

Highly scalable EV-DO base site controller.(PREMIERE: Latest products and services)
May 1, 2008... Motorola has released a new IP-BSC-DO, a highly scalable EV-DO base site controller (BSC) platform that lets CDMA operators quickly and cost effectively upgrade the DO broadband data capacity. The new IP BSC provides 12 times the site...

Support for Wimax technology.(PREMIERE: Latest products and services)
May 1, 2008... SwissQual's Diversity Network Optimisation and Benchmarking system now supports monitoring and analysis of Wimax technology, on top of data, video and voice services, including VoIP. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to SwissQual,...

Revolutionary optical solution.(PREMIERE: Latest products and services)
May 1, 2008... Nortel has launched what it claims is the industry's first optical technology that can deliver both 40G and 100G network enabling four times the network throughput while providing the foundation to simply and affordably increase capacity...

Easy migration from legacy networks.(PREMIERE: Latest products and services)(Telrad Telecommunications Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Telrad Networks' TL6500 is a multi-service access gateway for service providers wanting to migrate from legacy systems to triple-play networks. It supports a wide range of user interfaces, including ADSL2+, VDSL, G.SHDSL, Fast Ethernet,...

Additional productivity-enhancing applications.(PREMIERE: Latest products and services)(Polycom Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Polycom has unveiled a suite of software-based applications for its SoundPoint IP desktop phones. The new Polycom Productivity Suite includes several productivity-enhancing applications that help both end users and IT managers communicate and...

Comprehensive data quality product suite.(PREMIERE: Latest products and services)
May 1, 2008... Nokia subsidiary Identity Systems has released the Information Quality Server (IQS), a comprehensive data quality product suite, which is positioned as a forerunner of the next generation of data quality solutions. The company says the...

BT appoints new CEO.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... BT has named its retail unit head Ian Livingston as its new CEO, succeeding Ben Verwaayen on June 1. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Livingston joined BT as group finance director in 2002 and took over as CEO of BT's retail unit in 2005. ...

Ex-AT&T boss chairs Motorola.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Motorola has appointed former AT&T chief executive David Dorman as chairman of the board. Dorman assumes the non-executive position on May 5, after chairman and former chief executive Ed Zander retires at the company's annual meeting. ...

Telecom NZ names finance chief.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Telecom New Zealand has tapped Russ Houlden as CFO to lead its finance teams across New Zealand and Australia. Houlden, who assumed his new role on April 10, is now based in Auckland. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Prior to joining Telecom NZ,...

Sony Ericsson gets new marketing boss.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications has appointed its Asia-Pacific head, Lennard Hoornik, as new head of marketing. Lennard has been running Sony Ericsson's Asian business since January 2006. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

NSN appoints marketing head.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Nokia Siemens Networks has promoted Frederic Astier to the position of marketing head, succeeding Michael Hofmann, who will now lead the Deutsche Telekom account. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Astier will take care of NSN's overall marketing...

New CEO for Sagem Orga.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Smartcard provider Sagem Orga has named Philippe d'Andrea as its new CEO, replacing Patrick Samier who has been reassigned elsewhere in the SAFRAN group. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] D'Andrea was previously EVP and COO. He started his career...

Sullivan takes helm at Vanco Asia.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Global virtual network operator Vanco has assigned Tim Sullivan as its new CEO for Asia Pacific. Sullivan, who has been with Vanco for 10 years, will be based in Sydney. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

PMC-Sierra appoints president and CEO.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Greg Lang has taken over the helm at PMC-Sierra, replacing Robert Bailey as president and CEO. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lang, who was formerly president and CEO at Integrated Device Technologies, has also been appointed to the...

Citrix names Greater China VP.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Citrix Systems has hired Victor Tsao as VP and GM for Greater China to lead and manage the company's business operations in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Prior to joining Citrix, Tsao has worked in leading...

Shanda Interactive assigns division head.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Shanda Interactive Entertainment has appointed Hai Ling as president of Shanda Games, its online game business unit. Ling joined Shanda in 2003 and most recently served as SVP. Meanwhile, Zhang Xiangdong has been named chief producer of...

Lavell Systems hires COO.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Satellite industry veteran Brian Skimmons has been named COO of Lavell Systems. He comes to Lavell after seven years at Loral Corp., where he most recently served as GM of network services at company subsidiary Loral Skynet.

Ordyn Technologies appoints SVP.(TELECOM CAREER)
May 1, 2008... Ordyn Technologies has tapped Idris Vasi as SVP for global strategic sales and alliance. Based in the company's Singapore regional headquarters, he is in charge of initiating and managing alliances, partnerships and channels. [ILLUSTRATION...

Networking opportunities: across Asia.(Calendar)
May 1, 2008... Networking opportunities Date Event Location May 12-15, 2008 Asia Pacific Billing & OSS Singapore 2008 May 12-16, 2008 Mobile Content World Sydney, Australia...

It's not about the network.(OSS/BSS SUMMIT)
May 1, 2008... The ubiquitous theme at the OSS/BSS Asia-Pacific Summit was customer centricity--understanding it, transforming to it, managing it and profiting from it. Another common thread at the event, organized by Frost & Sullivan at the end of March in...

Telecom's ever-present regulators.(INSIDE LINE)
May 1, 2008... Why do we still have telecom regulators? When telecoms ministries began deregulating 20 years ago, conventional wisdom was that industry-specific regulation was a stopgap to compensate for the lack of competition. Some regulators even...

Injury by textwalking.(BACKPAGE BRIEFING)(Survey)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... In a publicity stunt to increase awareness of walking-while-texting danger, pedestrian advocate group Living Streets padded light poles with rugby goalpost foam bumpers on London's trendy Brick Lane. A popular internet video of intent texters...

All talk.(BACKPAGE BRIEFING)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Johnny McCain teaches a mandatory taxi driver safety course for would be Washington, D.C. hacks. Among his lessons: pull over to the side of the road to talk on the cellphone. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Anyone who has ever taken a cab in...