Not about GEMS but Wirless Industry canoe.com mentioned
Nortel inks $60M in deals with China
Wireless networks: Telecom giant to expand Chinese
manufacturing
By JILL VARDY
The Financial Post
OTTAWA - Northern Telecom Ltd. used a visit from Zhu Rongji,
the Chinese premier, to its Ottawa research and development
campus as an opportunity to announce $60-million (all figures in
U.S. dollars) in contracts to build wireless networks in China.
It's not a huge contract for Nortel, which is expected to report
$22-billion in sales this year. But it signals a growing area of
business for the telecommunication equipment supplier, said John
Roth, the company's vice-chairman and chief executive.
Mr. Roth said wireless equipment sales account for about 20% of
Nortel's revenue. "It's a very important part and one of the
fastest-growing pieces of Nortel's business," he said. The China
deal will see Nortel expand two digital wireless networks in
Zhejiang province for China Unicom.
"A $60-million contract for a $22-billion company, that's a
rounding error," said Robert MacLellan, technology analyst at CT
Securities Inc. But it reminds investors that Nortel is one of the two
biggest providers of wireless technology, he said, which is pegged
to be a fast-growing subsector of the telecom industry.
"You can consider Nortel to be one of the leaders in the wireless
market. It and Lucent Technologies Inc. offer the most complete
suite of wireless systems," Mr. MacLellan said.
Mr. Roth said the industry is seeing a blurring between wireless
and wireline operations as wireless prices come down. "I've seen
people in the airport in a phone booth -- because it's a comfortable
place to sit and use their cellphones," he said.
"The whole way we're thinking about wireless phones is changing
and we're seeing a real marriage between wireless and wireline. My
prediction is, in a few years, it will be hard to figure out which
business is which."
He noted that Nortel has won several contracts to supply a
combination network of wireless and wireline equipment. That will
be more common as more data is sent over wireless networks.
"We think, in the next five years, wireless data could be one of the
bigger parts of the wireless business. We're well-positioned in that
area because of the strength that we have in doing wireless and
data-networking," Mr. Roth said.
To prove it, the company gave the Chinese premier a
demonstration of cmda2000, which is next-generation wireless
Internet technology that can send very high-speed data and video
signals.
Nortel's China deal also coincides with an announcement it will
put another $30-million into its joint-venture company, Guangdong
Nortel, to begin Chinese manufacturing of wireless equipment.
The increased business in China could compensate for
unexpectedly slow sales of wireless networks in South America this
year.
"There's reasonably good speculation out there, confirmed by the
company in some cases, that wireless expansion in South America
is below plans," Mr. MacLellan said. |
