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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2008 27
president of Tata Communications’
retail business unit, in a statement.
As reported by W David Gardner on
InformationWeek, initially the WiMax
services will be made available to
commercial and residential customers
in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore,
Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chandi-
garh and Kolkata. (“Tata Picks Telsima
to Deploy WiMax for 110 Cities in
India,” 4th March)
Mr Gardner noted that Taiwan, too, is
racing to deploy an ambitious $664
million WiMax network and has enlisted
the aid of several US companies in its
effort. The WiMax effort in the United
States has sputtered as its major
nationwide deployment, by Sprint, has
been slowed by a series of mishaps
and problems at the mobile phone
company. “Once planning to spend
$5 billion on its US rollout,” wrote
Mr Gardner, “Sprint has recently pulled
back on the effort as it seeks additional
funding and partners for the project.”
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
An investigation continues into the ✆ ✆
cause of damage to four under-
sea telecom cables that caused
outages in parts of the Middle
East and south Asia last winter.
From 23rd January to 4th February,
in what may be an extraordi-
nary coincidence, five high-speed
submarine communications cables
were damaged, leading to disrup-
tion of Internet and telephone
services. The Indian telecom Flag
disclosed on 7th February that a
fifth rupture, to the Falcon cable
between the United Arab Emirates
and Oman, was caused by a ship’s
anchor. In late February there were
reports of yet another outage,
affecting a fibre optic connection
between Singapore and Jakarta.
According to the International Cable
Protection Committee, undersea
cables carry about 95% of the
world’s telephone and Internet
traffic. The 86-member group works
with fishing, mining and drilling
companies to prevent damage to
submarine cables, which transmit
information faster and more eco-
nomically than it can be moved
by satellite. Undersea cable trans-
mission is gaining market share,
the group said.
In its five-year OC (optical compo- ✆ ✆
nent) forecast for WAN, datacom,
and access components, Ovum
RHK on 25th February projected that
strong bandwidth demand will drive
the OC market to $6 billion in 2012.
“Bandwidth demand is strong in all
segments of the market as carriers
deploy new networks to support
rapid growth in bandwidth intensive
services,” said Daryl Inniss, vice
president of the ICT (information,
communication and technology)
consultancy. “The OC suppliers are
challenged with managing a torrid
market appetite for new products.
Fortunately, the demand exists.
But OC suppliers must ramp up
production, manage suppliers, con-
tract manufacturers, and introduce
and inventory new products to
maximise revenues and margins.”
It appears possible, even probable, ✆
✆
that Bain Capital (Boston) and the
Chinese network equipment com-
pany Huawei will renew their
$2.2 billion bid for 3Com (of
Marlborough, also in Massachusetts)
whose TippingPoint subsidiary sup-
plies the US government with some
intrusion-detection systems.
In February, Bain and Huawei
withdrew their application to buy
3Com after a committee of the US
Treasury Department – sounding a
familiar theme when a Chinese
company is party to such an
overture – raised security concerns.
Since the proposed acquisition
was announced in the autumn of
2007, American lawmakers have
expressed concern about Huawei’s
stake in the venture.
On 4 th March, however, the Wall
Street Journal wrote that, in their
eagerness to secure government
clearance, the applicants will
propose that the deal limit Huawei’s
access to some core US-related
network products, including certain
Ethernet items. Huawei would
still hold a 16.5% stake and the
purchase price is expected to
remain the same, the paper
reported. In their revived bid Bain
and Huawei also proposed selling
TippingPoint, which 3Com had
already planned to spin off.
Nokia, the world’s largest manu- ✆
✆
facturer of mobile phones, on
29 th January announced that it
had agreed to buy Trolltech, a
Norwegian maker of software
products, for $154 million. The
Finnish company said Trolltech’s
set of software development tools
would allow it to create new
applications compatible with the
operating systems on Nokia
phones. The purchase follows
Nokia’s $8.1 billion acquisition in
August of Navteq, an American
maker of digital map data.
France Télécom said that its net ✆ ✆
profit for 2007 went up 52%, to
$9.28 billion, on better margins and
lower taxes.
The company attributed the rise in
profit mainly to good sales in its
mobile phone businesses, but also
to some financial charges. Revenue
for 2007 rose to $77.99 billion,
helped by growth in France
Télécom’s mobile phone operations
across Europe, Africa, and the
Middle East.
On 2 ✆ ✆ nd March the Virgin Group, of
Britain, announced that it will
become a franchisee of Tata
Teleservices, a domestic telecom
player providing CDMA cellular
services in India.
Virgin Mobile will target the 400
million Indians between the ages of
13 and 30 who, Virgin founder
Sir Richard Branson says, have
been ignored by the country’s
current telecom operators. Hence
Virgin Mobile’s catchy tagline Think
hatke — Mumbai argot for ‘Think
outside of the box’. The company
will be offering handsets by Nokia,
Samsung, and Huawai Techno-
logies that will cost between
$60 and $120 each. (Business
Week, 3rd March)
Ericsson has been selected by ✆ ✆
E-Plus, the third-largest mobile
operator in Germany, to expand
and upgrade its 3G network.
The deal covers expansion and
enhancement of the microwave
transmission network that delivers
E-Plus mobile data services in most
parts of Germany.
Under the three-year agreement,
reported by telecomasia.net on
6th March, Ericsson will add new 3G
base stations to increase network
coverage and capacity.
The Swedish company will also
provide network technology consul-
ting services to E-Plus which, with
13.6 million German subscribers
in 2007, trailed only the Deutsche
Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile and
Vodafone, of Britain. E-Plus is
ownedbyDutch telecommunications
operator KPN.