WCA November 2008

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2008 25
Carl-Henric Svanberg, chief
executive of Ericsson, said on
20 th August that his Stockholm-
based company’s connection
with STMicro would enable it to
provide “a complete offering.”
The largest phone company ✆ ✆
in Southeast Asia, Singapore
Telecommunications, reported
a second-quarter profit that
fell more than analysts had
expected. While sales rose 5.9%,
to $2.7 billion, net income fell
5.3%, to $623 million. SingTel
said strength in the Singapore
dollar would erode overseas
earnings this year. Profit from
its mobile affiliates declined
for the first time in 13 quarters.
SingTel generates about three-
quarters of its total sales from its
Australian telecom arm Optus as
well as other regional associates
in Indonesia, India, Thailand, and
the Philippines. In the quarter
ended 30th June the Singapore
dollar rose an average 7%
against the Indonesian rupiah,
the Philippine peso, the Thai
baht, and the Indian rupee.
Spain’s Telefónica intends to ✆ ✆
acquire 100% of the Chilean
fixed-line telecom Telefónica Chile
for some $984 million, according
to an 11th September notification
to the Madrid stock exchange. The
Spanish company was to launch
a tender offer through its wholly
owned subsidiary Inversiones
Telefónica Internacional Holding
to acquire all outstanding shares
of Telefónica Chile and thus
gain the 55.1% stake that it
does not already own. The plan
would require a change in a 45%
ownership restriction currently
imposed by the Chilean company.
Citing a report by Agence ✆ ✆
France Presse, telecomasia.
net said on 22nd September that
the Finnish government intends
to offer high-speed broadband
connections to nearly all Finns by
the end of 2015. The estimated
$289 million cost of building
fibre optic cable networks be-
yond commercially viable areas,
in a bid to boost productivity, is
to be borne one-third (around
$97 million) by the government.
Telecom operators, regions,
municipalities, and financial sup-
port from the European Union are
expected to cover the remaining
costs. According to the Finnish
communications regulatory auth-
ority FICORA, at mid-2008 there
were some 1.92 million broadband
subscriptions in the country, which
has a population of 5.3 million.
Following a first phase of at least
1 Megabyte per second (Maps)
by 2010, Helsinki hopes to offer
all Finnish households connection
speeds of at least 100 Megabits
(Mbps) by 2016.
KT Corp, the leading fixed-line ✆ ✆
and broadband provider in South
Korea, said on 18th September
that it would put $1.5 billion into
Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) by
2012 and expected to break
even on its investment as early
as 2011. As noted by Reuters,
after a long debate among
broadcasters, telecom operators
and South Korean authorities,
the country passed a law in
December allowing full IPTV
service including real-time TV.
KT Corp told reporters in Seoul
that it hoped to enrol 300,000
subscribers for its real-time IPTV
by the end of 2008, and bring
the total to 3 million in 2012.
It has 6.7 million broadband
subscribers – nearly 45% of the
home market, where it competes
with hanarotelecom inc KT is to
begin offering full IPTV service
in October.
France Télécom completed the ✆
✆
trial of its e-reader prototype in
September and said it expected
to start distributing the “Read
& Go” – in conjunction with a
subscription-based news service
of the same name – by the end
of the year. For a monthly charge
similar to a mobile service plan,
customers will be able to access
a stream of content from a wide
assortment of newspapers and
other information sources, to-
gether with advertising that helps
defray the cost of the service.
Digital books have not enjoyed
notable success, but the
popular Amazon Kindle and
the Sony Reader have sparked
fresh interest in e-reading of
periodicals. Through its Orange
cellular network, France Télécom,
which stresses that it is not
entering the news business, will
provide users with frequently
updated material from such
major publications as Le Monde
and Le Figaro. The service will be
available exclusively in France.
The non-profit Internet rights group ✆ ✆
Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF) is suing US president, George
W Bush and members of his
administration over their monitoring
of e-mails and telephone calls
without court-approved warrants.
The San Francisco-based civil
liberties group filed the lawsuit
on 18th September against the
National Security Agency (NSA)
and other government agencies
on behalf of AT&T customers, to
stop the “illegal, unconstitutional,
and ongoing dragnet surveillance
of their communications and
records.”