Verizon

Alca-Lu: Worldwide equipment market to fall 8%-12%, but committed to LTE

Paul Rasmussen — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:26 -0400

French-based Alcatel-Lucent believes that the global market for telecoms equipment will decline by between 8 per cent and 12 per cent - at constant currency exchange rates - in 2009. Speaking at a telecoms conference last week, the company's CEO, Pierre Barnabe, said that while investments appeared to be slowing, demand for capacity remained resilient.

Looking to halt suggestions that Alca-Lu was planning to exit the wireless business, Barnabe said that the company remained focused on the sector, and added that the multi-billion US$ contract with Verizon Wireless "had definitely anchored us strongly in that business."

This viewpoint was strongly reinforced by the recent announcement that NTT DoCoMo had awarded an LTE backhaul contract to Alca-Lu. The company has been requested to supply multipoint Ethernet connections using its 1850 transport service switches to support operations, administration, security and network management. DoCoMo has stated that it plans to deploy LTE starting next year having demonstrated downlink rates of 250Mbps in outdoor R&D trials.

However, financial analysts have recently downgraded Alca-Lu to underperform following reports that Nortel had agreed to sell its CDMA and LTE business to Nokia Siemens Networks.

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Telegeography

Nokia denies shift towards Linux handsets

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Reports that Nokia was planning to use Linux as a platform for its handset have been slapped down by its PR officials. This strategic shift--carried by many leading news organisations--that Nokia was to focus on Linux came from Rick Simonson, the company's financial director, who said that Nokia was 'well on the way' towards using Linux on handsets, and prompted widespread speculation about a tie-up with Google's Android platform.

However, this statement from the senior Nokia executive was labeled as no more than a confusion over what constitutes a mobile phone. The PR department hurried out a release stating that Nokia already uses Linux on its internet tablet class of devices, exemplified by the Nokia N810, and is planning to expand that class into more feature-rich devices. This says little about Nokia's confidence in using Symbian as a platform for internet tablet devices.

For more on this story:
-read IT Pro and The Register

Related stories:
How big can mobile Linux get? Linux story
Verizon backs LiMo; Linux is preferred OS. Verizon story

Rumour Mill: Vodafone denies MTN talks

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:59:58 -0400

While Vodafone spokesmen furiously denied that the company was talking with Africa's largest mobile operator, MTN, takeover rumours continue to circulate that the two firms would make an ideal match.

At the centre of this 'speculation' is Vodafone's likely interest in acquiring MTN's international operations which span across Africa and stretch into the Middle East. Any proposed deal would seem to exclude MTN's South African assets, where Vodafone already has Vodacom which it part owns with Telkom South Africa.

Industry analysts believe it's only a matter of time before a major European or Chinese cell phone operator strikes a merger deal--despite the absolute denials from within MTN and Vodafone.

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- read domain-b

SPOTLIGHT: IMS: The $300 billion opportunity

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:59:52 -0400

The much-hyped IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) technology could realise US$300 billion in extra revenues for mobile operators over the next five years. This is the main conclusion of a new study by ABI Research. Major operators such as Sprint, Verizon and British Telecom will increasingly deploy IMS across their networks in a quickening tempo starting this year. The major remaining challenge for operators is to integrate IMS without seriously disrupting existing services. That need is being met by the major infrastructure vendors such as Ericsson, Alcatel, and Nokia-Siemens, which have been packaging IMS (at additional cost) with the network upgrades they provide to operators. Article