WCA May 2008

the European market analysis and consulting firm. The researchers found that, for the first 15 years of net- work implementation, greenhouse gas emission savings-per-user were found to be 330kg: equivalent to the emissions of a car driven for 2,000 kilometres. Christian Ollivry, Chair of the Council’s Sustainable Develop- ment and FTTH Committee, told Telecommunications, “Beyond the 15-year time scale, which is quite conservative, the research shows that FTTH provides only positives for Europe.” Power consumption represents only 6% of the total environmental impact over the full network life cycle, while the production and deployment of the equipment totals over 80%. Mr Struthers-Watson noted, however, that “with continuing innovations taking place in the industry these processes are becoming cheaper, quicker, and less disruptive, [holding promise of] reducing the environmental impact and further increasing the sustainability of fibre networks over time.” Tata reports deployment of ‘world’s largest commercial WiMax network’ Tata Communications reported on 4 th March that Telsima Corp has been chosen to provide infrastructure for the WiMax network Tata is building to serve more than 110 cities in India. Telsima (Sunnyvale, California) is a provider of WiMax solutions that enable mobile, multimedia, 4G wire- less networks. WiMax – worldwide interoperability for microwave access – is defined by the WiMax Forum as ‘a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last-mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL.’ For the Tata project, Telsima will deploy 3,000 base stations. Tata said that the deployment of the wide-area high-speed wireless network – already underway and serving more than 5,000 customers in 10 cities – will be the largest commercial WiMax network in the world. “The Indian broadband market, which today serves only 3.1 million customers in a nation with a population of over 1.2 billion, is forecast to grow significantly,” said Shankar Prasad,

Hoping for a sale, Siemens slashes jobs at its last remaining telecom asset

Europe’s biggest engineering conglomerate, Siemens AG, will cut 6,800 jobs at the corporate telecommunications division it has had up for sale for some two years now. The cuts will affect about 39% of the 17,600 workers at Siemens Enterprise Communications, and are the biggest reductions announced by the German company since 2006, when the newly created Nokia Siemens Networks venture said that it would eliminate 9,000 jobs. The unit makes such products as the Siemens Gigaset for business. Munich-based Siemens said on 26 th February that it would eliminate about 3,800 jobs outright, and about 3,000 more as factories are sold or partnerships set up. About 3,200 of the jobs are in Germany, according to Siemens, which will also sell or find partners for the telecom unit’s operations in Greece and Brazil, and sell call centres in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. As recapped from London by Simon Thiel of Bloomberg News , Siemens put the Enterprise unit on the block when it created a network partnership with Finland’s Nokia, the market leader in cellphone manufacturing. Recently, contacts about disposition of the unit were reported between Siemens and companies including Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel Networks, and buyout firm Cerberus Partners. “Something had to happen as the unit just doesn’t fit into the [Siemens] portfolio any more,” analyst Michael Bahlmann, of MM Warburg, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg . He added, “The job cuts will hopefully make it easier” to sell the business. (“Siemens to Cut 6,800 Jobs at Enterprise Division,” 26 th February) Siemens is seeking a deal with either “a strategic buyer” or “a financial investor who has some operational experience in that market,” the company’s chief financial officer Joe Kaeser told reporters at a press conference in Munich. Siemens would be open to operating the corporate network division in a joint venture for a transitional period, Mr Kaeser said, although it wants to exit the business at some point. Mr Thiel noted that the unit is Siemens’s last remaining telecommunications asset apart from cordless phones. Siemens was founded on telegraphy services 160 years ago, and the telecom division – one of its six major businesses – was the company’s largest before the partnership with Nokia was created. The division bore the brunt of job cuts as demand dried up after 2000.

FTTH Council Europe sees environmental benefits to fibre use

Fibre to the home (FTTH) is exactly what the name suggests: fibre optic communication delivery in which the optical signal reaches the end user’s living or office quarters. And now, after the fifth annual FTTH Council Europe, held 27 th -28 th February in Paris, its environmental benefits are likely to be promoted along with its general service value. Joeri Van Bogaert, president of FTTH Council Europe, reported on research that will provide a foundation for further inquiry into the subject by the group. He said, “The results clearly demonstrate the overall service and environmental benefits of FTTH. They stand as testament that fibre is a sustainable and future-proof technology for the 21 st Century.”

Writing in Telecommunications magazine, Kendrick Struthers-Watson noted the council’s findings that, even as it maximises opportunity for new servi- ces while minimising the materials and maintenance required, FTTH contributes to reduced road travel, less transport infrastructure, and the introduction of innovative services. (“It’s Official: Fiber Is Environmentally Friendly,” 28 th February) For its analysis of the impact of an FTTH network, the study took into account the full life-cycle of a typical fibre infrastructure – from production of passive equipment and transport, through implementation of all active equipment and power consumption, to the end of service life. The council worked with the projection of 20 million FTTH users by 2015 supplied by IDATE,

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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2008