WCA January 2007

From the Americas

The roll-out also gives T-Mobile an advantage in competing with Sprint and other cellular carriers trying to develop similar services. The first new phones were made available to T-Mobile customers in Seattle, Washington, on a trial basis. Carlyle Group, the Washington-based global private equity investment firm with at least $44.3 billion of equity capital under management, on 10 th October said it had agreed to buy a 33.5% stake in Hyundai’s cable unit for $168.6 million. Hyundai, of South Korea, said it would retain a 65% stake in the unit, Hyundai Communications and Network. Former US president George Bush was senior advisor to Carlyle’s Asia Advisory Board from April 1998 to October 2003; and current President George Bush served briefly on the board of a Carlyle unit, giving it up in 1992 to run for governor of Texas.

about two-thirds of the needed capacity is in place. The number of miles of transmission lines, which can help redistribute supplies, will increase by only about 7%, NERC said. Montana, announced plans on 23 rd October for a $2-billion power transmission line to carry energy from his northwestern state to the fast-growing cities of the Southwest. The line would run from the coal fields of Montana to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, its electricity created by either wind power or synthetic gas derived from coal to meet the new clean energy standards in the Southwest. Developers hope to complete the project by 2011, said Brad Thompson, a vice-president of TransCanada, an independent power and infra-structure company. The line would carry enough power for about 3.5 million people, Mr Thompson said. In brief An informal survey conducted in mid-October by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) disclosed that almost 90% of its 2,500 members worldwide were not aware that US customs officials have legal authority to scrutinise the contents of a traveller’s laptop computers and even confiscate it, without offering any reason. Some 87% of ACTE members expressed themselves less likely to carry confidential business or personal information on international trips now that they know a laptop may be seized or its contents examined at customs and immigration checkpoints in the US. Susan Gurley, ACTE’s executive director, said, “We are telling our members that they should prepare for the eventuality that this could happen and they have to think more about how they handle proprietary information. Potentially, this is going to have a real effect on how international business is conducted.” ACTE is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, with regional offices in Brussels and Singapore. Its membership includes business travel executives in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Latin America, and the United States. Mandarin-speaking nannies from China are in great demand in affluent American households whose children are being groomed by ambitious parents for success in the global social and business sphere decades hence. Au Pair in America, a 20- year-old agency in Stamford, Connecticut, that sponsors nannies willing to work in the US, reported having received no requests for Chinese au pairs until 2004; since then, it has received 1,400. Au Pair in America, a unit of the American Institute for Foreign Study, a privately owned US corporation with wholly-owned overseas subsidiaries, ‘matches carefully screened young women and nannies from around the world who provide live-in child care during a year-long cultural exchange.’ One of 11 such agencies sanctioned by the Office of Exchange Coordination and Designation of the US State Department, it has begun to recruit in China. More relaxed US regulations for cultural-exchange visas for Chinese are easing the recruitment effort. Dorothy Fabian – Features Editor ❖ ❖ ❖ Governor Brian Schweitzer, of

❖

Before the next blackout

The power grid serving the US and Canada is inadequate

US companies are not building power plants and power lines fast enough to meet growing demand, according to a group assigned by the federal government to assure proper operation of the nation’s power grid. In its annual report, released on 16 th October, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) said that over the course of the next two to three years the amount of power that could be generated or transmitted in the US on peak-usage days would drop below the target levels for ensuring an uninterrupted power supply from Texas to New England. After the blackout of 2003, which covered a vast swath of the US Midwest and Northeast, as well as the Canadian province of Ontario, Congress inaugurated a process that would eventually give the council authority to fine American companies that did not follow certain operating standards. It is seeking a similar designation in Canada, since the two countries share power supplies – and problems. Since its establishment in 1965 the council has often issued worrisome reports but this is the first to be officially filed with federal agencies. The president of the council, Rick Sergel, said in a telephone interview with the New York Times , “The situation has existed for a long time, but we cannot let it continue.” Matthew Wald, of the Times , noted that planning for adequate capacity has become more difficult with the restructuring of the electric industry in the US. He wrote, “Where a handful of top-to-bottom companies once generated power, transmitted it, and delivered it, hundreds of companies are now involved in only one or two phases of the process. At the same time, getting permits to build new power lines has become more difficult.” (‘ A Power-Grid Report Suggests Some Dark Days Ahead, ’ 16 th October). The NERC report predicts that demand will increase by about 19% over the next 10 years in the US — slightly less in Canada — and that the construction of power plants and transmission lines to carry that load will fall far short of what is needed. US utilities have contracts with new power plants for only about a third of the capacity that will be needed; in Canada,

27

Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2007