WCA January 2016

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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2016
Telecomnews
Ø Sprint, which uses the special
access to connect its cell
towers, says it had to pay huge
termination fees to the larger
carriers when it switched many
of its 38,000 cell towers to
alternative providers. Denying the
allegations, AT&T, Verizon and the
other large carriers say the market
is competitive. Frank Simone,
AT&T vice president of federal
regulatory, said in a statement:
“The terms the commission is
reviewing are commonplace in
most commercial contracts.”
According to an agency official
the FCC investigation would take
at least a few months. Any action
taken as a result of the findings
will require approval from a
majority of the five commissioners.
Ø Mr Knutson noted that the
Telecommunications Act of 1996
gives the FCC authority to police
competitive behaviour in the
telecom market, but the agency’s
jurisdiction over these types of
contracts mainly covers older
technologies. AT&T, Verizon and
other carriers have invested in
newer network technologies that
are not subject to comparable
FCC oversight. The investigation
announced on 16th October is
separate from an FCC effort to
collect data about the special
access market as it considers a
broader set of new regulations.
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
Ø State-owned China United
Telecommunications Corp – the
second-largest Chinese operator
– has joined with SK Telecom
Co Ltd of South Korea for
development of fifth-generation
(5G) communication technologies.
As reported by Ma Si in
China Daily (10th October), the
partnership is expected to deepen
the ties of the two companies
and foster mutual progress
in mobile-based services. SK
Telecom is the largest Korean
wireless carrier.
Ø In October the US telecom
services provider Verizon said
it was retiring copper network
facilities in parts of New York,
Virginia and Rhode Island. Though
small markets for Verizon, their
conversion figured in a steady
advance toward the company’s
stated goal of switching a total
of 200,000 current customers to
fibre by the end of 2015. When
its copper-to-fibre migration is
completed Verizon will no longer
maintain nor offer services over
copper wires.
Ø It will continue to accommodate
private and business consumers
served by those facilities with
a 64 Kbps grade PSTN (public
switched telephone network) over
the fibre connection.
The migration to fibre has
prompted claims by some rival
providers that Verizon may have
engaged in de facto copper
retirement: permitting copper
plant to deteriorate to the point
at which replacement becomes a
necessity. And some murmuring
about heavy-handed persuasion
was reported in the areas
converted in October.
Ø As reported by Stephen Clark
on on
16th October a Russian Proton
rocket boosted a Turkish
telecommunications satellite
into space from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and
nine hours after liftoff a Breeze M
upper stage injected the 5.4-ton
broadcasting craft into orbit
22,300 miles over the equator.
Turksat 4B’s on-board propulsion
system will circularise it. The
satellite’s owner, Turksat AS of
Ankara, said the spacecraft –
produced by the Khrunichev State
Research and Production Space
Center – was to be commissioned
in December.
Based on the DS2000 satellite
platform made in Japan by
Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Turksat
4B is designed for a 15-year
service life. With an on-target
orbit following the October launch,
engineers expect the satellite will
have enough fuel reserves for 30
years of operation.
Ø A wave of mergers in Europe’s
telecommunications industry will
not necessarily boost investment
in networks and should be closely
scrutinised, the European Union’s
digital chief Andrus Ansip said on
13th October, echoing a warning
from the bloc’s antitrust chief
that consolidation could simply
lead to higher prices. As reported
from Brussels by Tom Fairless
of the Wall Street Journal, the
comments, to a conference of
telecom executives there, are
the latest indication that the EU’s
executive arm will look closely at
a number of recent deals in the
sector.
Telecom operators have argued
that they need to be allowed to
merge with rivals in the same
country to increase investment
in networks and share costs.
Mr Fairless noted, however,
that the EU’s new antitrust
chief, Margrethe Vestager has
signalled her scepticism of such
arguments. Ms Vestager, blocked
a mobile telecom merger in her
native Denmark in August, saying
she failed to see how promised
investments would materialise.
“Relaxing competition rules is
not the answer” to attracting
investment in telecom networks,
Mr Ansip said, according to the
WSJ. “That would only shift the
cost of the required network
investments onto consumers [who]
would then have less choice and
higher prices.”
Ø Citing data from the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI), on 16 th October, the Press
Trust of India reported that,
driven by growth in mobile phone
usage, Indian telecom subscribers
crossed the 1.01 billion mark in
August. In its subscribers report
for the month the regulator
said: “The number of telephone
subscribers in India increased
from 1,009.31 million at the end
of July to 1,014.70 million at the
end of August, thereby showing
a monthly growth rate of 0.53 per
cent.”
Growth in mobile over the
period was led by Bharti Airtel
with an addition of 1.312 million
subscribers. But the landline
subscriber base continued its con-
traction, with landline or wireline
connections declining from 26.1
million in July to 26.0 million by
the end of August. Sistema Shyam
and Reliance Communications –
both in process of consolidation
– lost 182,000 and 491,000 users,
respectively.
Reliance experienced the most
erosion in Bihar where its right to
use the 900MHz spectrum (2G)
would expire in December.