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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2010
25
Telecom
news
by the United Nations International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) is
strongly resisting any tendency toward
inertia. At the six-month mark, the ITU
was in fact striving to accelerate the
reconstruction of Haiti’s information
and communication technology (ICT)
system, destroyed in the 12
th
January
earthquake that killed more than
200,000 people.
At a 1
st
July meeting convened by
the ITU in Barbados and attended by
representatives of its own member
states, UN agencies, the World Bank,
the Caribbean Development Bank,
civil society and the private sector,
the ITU’s secretary-general Hamadoun
Touré stated the agency’s vaulting
aims for a greatly enhanced Haitian
ICT future.
He urged, “Let’s do everything
we can to ensure that Haiti gets
state-of-the-art twenty-first century
infrastructure, instead of simply
replacing outdated twentieth century
equipment. Let’s build in resilient
features which will help to reduce
network vulnerability in the future. Let’s
make sure that Haiti gets broadband
infrastructure, giving the country
communications networks which are
worthy of such an indomitable nation.”
According to the UN News Service the
Barbados meeting wrapped up with
participants pledging their support
for a trust fund for Haiti to be set up
within the ITU. Mr Touré probably can
be relied upon to make sure that those
pledges are honoured.
Elsewhere in telecom . . .
The
Telecommunications
✆
✆
Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the
United Arab Emirates confirmed
on 3
rd
July that both telecom
operators in the country –
Emirates Telecommunications Corp
(Etisalat) and Emirates Integrated
Telecommunications Co (Du) – are
technically ready to provide each
other with access to their fixed
telecommunications infrastructure.
The two operators currently provide
all fixed-line telephone and Internet
services in the UAE. As reported
by the Middle East business
site
AME Info
,
in line with a TRA
policy of promoting competition
in the telecom market, Etisalat
and Du have been negotiating an
agreement that allows them to
offer services across each other’s
copper and fibre networks to both
sets of customers.
England’s BT is teaming up with
✆
✆
Cisco Systems to provide uni-
fied-communications services in
the US. The company will target
economy-minded clients with
desktop solutions for combined
voice, mobile and data, along
with cloud support. As reported
by
VON/xchange
(1
st
July), BT is
hoping that the converged offering
will enable it to stand out among
the likes of Verizon Business, AT&T
Inc and Microsoft Corp, and niche
players like Alteva and PanTerra.
Both BT and infrastructure
partner Cisco Systems (San Jose,
California) will sell the service via
all channels. The medium-term
prospects look good: Infonetics
Research has forecast the unified
communications market to return
to strong double-digit annual
growth once the world’s economies
recover, with sales surpassing
$1 billion by 2013.