Marden - Interesting that the last mile technology/arguments have
focused only on the disputed Air Interface, while no one seems
interested in the advances that Ericsson had made in
Data Subscriber Line (DSL) products
Several comments:
1) For telephony, the last mile is, I think, where most of the recent big advances are happening. The PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) stuff has already moved to microwave and fibre and most of the switching systems, in the US at least, have already moved to digital. Thus, when talking about telephony there is a natural tendency to concentrate on the last mile and the biggest advance in that area is wireless.
2) It is easier to concentrate on the things you see, rather than the things hidden behind the scenes. Everyone has seen handsets, few see the switching centers.
Having said that, I agree that there are other areas in Ericsson besides the handsets, and if Ericsson does well in them that they can still do well overall. But I dispute that that area is more important than wireless over the next 5 to 10 years. If anything I'd expect the reverse in terms of raw growth rate, but I don't actually have statistics.
Finally, I'd be very interested in a DSL discussion, but I myself know next to nothing about it. The only comment I would have on it is that for a variety of reasons it seems to be falling substantially behind cable modems in the US.
Clark
PS Other possible topics are the change over of telephony to ATM, the increasing amount of data (vs. voice) that the PSTN is required to carry, ... . |
