WCA July 2009

in Nortel assets are Ericsson, of Sweden; Huawei Technologies, of China; and Finland’s Nokia Siemens Networks. Acquisition of Nortel’s carrier unit would strengthen the Finnish com- pany’s position in the lucrative US market. Nokia Siemens Networks is in fourth place behind Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, and Ericsson in the North American telecom equipment market. Huawei, the largest telecommuni- ✆ ✆ cations equipment supplier in China, posted on 22 nd April, results for 2008 showing a 20% rise in net profit to $1.15 billion on revenues up 43%, and an operating margin that rose three points to 13%. But, despite soaring sales, a five-fold increase in finance costs – to $971 million, up from $199 million in 2007 – took the bloom off the impressive results. The annual report confirmed that privately-held Huawei made $18.3 billion in sales last year, up from $12.84 billion in 2007.

It also said the company had signed $23.3 billion in contracts and expects to increase that to $30 billion in 2009. As noted on telecomasia.net , this ‘turbo-charged growth’ is closing the distance between Huawei and the world’s biggest telecom equipment vendors. Cisco Systems, of the US, made $39 billion in sales in 2008, up from $34.9 billion in sales in 2007. Its first-quarter gross operating margin was 20.5%. Ericsson, of Sweden, posted $24.4 billion in sales in 2008, up 11.3% from 2007. Huawei said it had shipped more than 25 million mobile broad- band terminals in 2008, as well as 38 million DSL modems and 20 million CDMA phones. It completed 231 turnkey network deployments, and its sales of networks and related services were up 111%.

Elsewhere in telecom . . .

China Telecom Corp the country’s ✆ ✆ biggest fixed-line phone operator, on 20 th April reported that it had gained 4.93 million mobile-phone users in the first quarter for a total of 32.8 million at the end of March. The statement also said that the company aims to add 30 million wireless customers this year, which would more than double the 29.1 million total when the mobile phone unit was acquired from China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd in October 2008. China Telecom intends to use as much as 30% of its mobile phone revenue this year for hand-set subsidies, company chairman Wang Xiaochu said in March. As reported in the ✆ ✆ Financial Times (London) for 15 th April, Canadian telecom equipment maker Nortel Networks is expected by analysts to be sold off piecemeal rather than emerge from bankruptcy protection intact. Among the companies said to be interested

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Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2009