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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2014
Telecomnews
category of “big picture SDN and
NFV management vendors.” For
her part, Ms Donegan noted that
Ericsson is not necessarily leading
that vendor pack. She quoted
Ms Chappell: “Ericsson is being
very cautious about this. They’re
saying, ‘We’ve got to get this
right.’”
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
Ø The Russian telecom MegaFon
has launched an all-terrestrial
fibre optic cable system stretching
from Germany to China. The entire
cable system has a potential
maximum capacity of 8 Tbps.
At first, it is offering access
to 10-Gbps DWDM (dense
wavelength division multiplexing)
channels.
Built with partners Kazakhtelecom
and London-based Interoute,
the Diverse Route for European
and Asian Markets (DREAM)
stretches 5,400 miles from
Frankfurt, Germany, to the
Kazakhstan-China border. It
passes through Austria, Russia,
Slovakia and Ukraine. As reported
by Nick Wood in Total Telecom
(17th October), the route was laid
out in part for its low seismic
activity.
Ø América Móvil SAB on 16th
October backed out of its planned
takeover of the Dutch carrier
Royal KPN NV, after failing to
persuade KPN’s management
to accept a $9.7 billion tender
offer. The Mexico City-based
wireless operator, owned by
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim,
has a financial stake of about 30
per cent in KPN. Even if Mr Slim’s
company retains its holding in
KPN, Dutch law prevents him
from making a new takeover bid
for six months. A move elsewhere
in Europe, such as an increase
in his stake in Telekom Austria
AG, would also help advance his
goal of expanding América Móvil
beyond Latin America.
“We probably expect them to
increase their stake in another
European operator, and the
natural option would be Telekom
Austria,” Carlos de Legarreta, an
analyst at Corporativo GBM SAB
in Mexico City, told Bloomberg
News (17th October). “Europe is
an attractive market, even if it’s
being pressured by the slowing
macro-economy. They are mature
markets with a good return.”
Ø A report from the Media
Department of the London School
of Economics and Political
Science (LSE) contradicts
widespread claims about the
decline of creative industries as a
result of copyright infringement.
Copyright & Creation – a Case
for Promoting Inclusive Online
Sharing – indicates that the
publishing, film and gaming
industries are growing and new
business models emerging as
a result of digital sharing. For
some in the creative industries,
copyright infringement may
actually be helping boost their
revenues, the report finds.
As noted by Colin Mann on
advanced-television.com (4th Octo-
ber), industry data shows that,
while the global music industry
has stagnated somewhat in the
last four years, since 1998 it
has experienced overall growth;
Internet-based revenues have
been a significant component
since 2004. In Britain, online sales
now exceed CDs or vinyl as a
percentage of total revenue for
recorded music.
Ø Effective 1st December, Canada’s
telecom regulator, CRTC, requires
wireless providers to suspend
a subscriber’s roaming charges
in excess of $100 in a single
month’s bill. The CRTC also
issued a request to Canadian
wireless companies to explain
their roaming pricing, information
previously unavailable to the
public.
Writing in the Toronto Star (8th
October), consumer issues
reporter Ellen Roseman noted
that “bill shock” is a common
experience for Canadians
travelling with a smartphone or
tablet. She cited the example of a
family of four visiting the US for a
long weekend. Each member uses
a cellphone “modestly” (for email
and texting: no streaming video
or uploading multiple photos). In
a previous Star column, University
of Ottawa professor Michael Geist
said such a family’s roaming costs
would range from $500 to $1,000
for the trip.
Looking into the hot-button
consumer issue of data roaming
costs, Ms Roseman found “a big
difference” between the services
available from some smaller
Canadian providers and those
offered by the majors. She wrote:
“I’m glad to see the CRTC putting
pressure on big telecoms to reveal
what goes into their pricing and
look for ways to reduce the cost.”
Ø On the vexed subject of roaming
charges, London-based
TelecomTV took note of some
“asymmetric behaviour” on
the part of Deutsche Telekom,
whose US subsidiary T-Mobile
has eliminated those charges
to its American customers
travelling overseas. Included
in the operator’s standard plan
“Simple Choice,” the dispensation
took effect 1st November and
covers 100 of the most popular
destination countries including
Britain, France, China and
Australia. The company also
announced a reduction in charges
for international calls made from
within the US. Meanwhile, wrote I
D Scales, “The German T-Mobile
[Telekom] manages to maintain
some of the highest mobile
prices in Europe.” (“T-Mobile
Scraps Roaming for the US,” 10 th
October).
TelecomTV pointed out that
T-Mobile is very much the
challenger operator in the US
pack, and this marks the third
phase of its “uncarrier” strategy
to put distance between itself and
incumbents Verizon and AT&T. In
the first phase it got rid of handset
subsidies and reworked the tariff
structure to separate service
and phone payments. Phase two
featured a new handset upgrade
programme.
Ø Huawei is not planning any
large takeovers, according to its
current CEO. On 11th October,
Welt am Sonntag reported that
Guo Ping said, however, that it
would be open to cooperation
with another handset company.
Welt am Sonntag reported that
he also rejected allegations by
the US Congress that technology
from Huawei might be used to
spy on its users, and discounted
European Commission concerns
about the dumping of goods onto
the market in Europe.