From the Qualcomm thread:
Nortel Serves Up European Infrastructure Buffet
I especially like the commentary in 'The Bottom Line.' Some people are starting to get it.
(Thanks to Phillips Telecon)
Jeff Vayda
By Malcolm Spicer, mspicer@phillips.com
Nortel Networks [NT] unveiled a full plate of European business deals yesterday in an attempt to
extend its sway in markets where it is less visible than its wireless infrastructure competitors.
"Nortel has had limited success in Europe," Jake Saunders, European wireless market analyst at the
Strategis Group's London office, told Wireless Today.
Ericsson [ERICY] and Nokia [NOK] dominated the European market in the early to mid 1990s
during mobile providers' first wave of wireless digital buildout (GSM networks). Before that,
Motorola [MOT] led the competition in Europe for analog network projects. Nortel's best chance
to grow its European presence is with 2.5- and third-generation projects, Saunders said.
Toronto-based Nortel's announcements today at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes included an
agreement with one of its infrastructure competitors, Motorola, to jointly market wireless Internet
infrastructure equipment. The companies also will work together to perform interoperability,
verification and integration testing of infrastructure and handsets for 2G, 2.5G and 3G systems.
Nortel also announced it will provide universal mobile telecom service (UMTS, which is the
European market's term for wideband-CDMA) infrastructure equipment and services for Cegetel,
a subsidiary of Vivendi-Universal providing GSM service in Paris.
As with most 3G infrastructure contracts, Cegetel will use multiple vendors for its project. The
French carrier also hired Nokia as a packet core network supplier for its UMTS project.
Nortel started its European 3G push last year by signing on as a UMTS technology supplier for
British Telecom's [BT] BT Cellnet, Airtel and Xfera in Spain and for Deutsche Telekom's
[DT] T-Mobile in Germany. The company also will provide W-CDMA technology for AT&T
Wireless [AWE] in the United States.
In addition, Nortel announced it will test handsets and other mobile devices made by Mitsubishi
Electric Telecom Europe [MC] and by Samsung for interoperability with its 2.5 and 3G
infrastructure technologies.
Nortel also enhanced its European 3G image by signing joint marketing agreements with two
mobile-location technology vendors, MapInfo [MAPS] and Webraska. Those agreements could
prove valuable, Saunders said.
"Mobile location offerings definitely look like they're on the roadmap of most operators," he said. "I
really do believe the core element of 3G networks will be information on where you are and where
you want to be at a certain point in time."
Webraska and Nortel will jointly market location-based 3G services to service providers. MapInfo
and Nortel will jointly market an integrated platform for delivery of voice- activated wireless Internet
concierge services.
Scott Petronis, MapInfo senior marketing director for telecommunications, said Nortel and other
infrastructure vendors look at MapInfo's platform as a key element of 3G networks. Troy,
N.Y-based MapInfo also is working with other vendors to integrate its platform into their
infrastructure technologies.
"With each of the vendors that we're working with, or in discussions with, we're working on a very
specific area with them to offer them a unique differentiator in the marketplace," Petronis said. "We
want to make sure our partners are able to differentiate themselves through their work with us."
The Bottom Line
Nortel carries a bit of a handicap by not having as many existing relationships with European
wireless operators as Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia. But while operators are likely to initially show
more interest in 3G overtures from incumbent infrastructure suppliers, most eventually will listen to
Nortel and other newcomers to Europe, Saunders said.
That's because UMTS (W-CDMA) 3G technology is more like CDMA than the GSM standard
deployed by most European carriers in their 2G buildouts. And Nortel has more CDMA experience
than most of its European competition can offer.
"That's the big battle between European vendors who have long-term relationships with the
operators and the American vendors who are saying, 'We don't have the existing relationships, but
we have all this CDMA experience,'" Saunders said. "That certainly has to be worth something. It's
going to be interesting." |
