NT should see some activity today on news, sitting hear its 52wk low...
>>Nortel to ink nearly $300 million in China deals
(UPDATE: Figures in U.S. dollars unless noted.)
By Susan Taylor
OTTAWA, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Nortel Networks Corp. (Toronto:NT.TO - news) (NYSE:NT - news), the world's largest supplier of
fiber-optic telecoms network equipment, will sign a string of deals worth nearly $300 million on Tuesday to sell communications
equipment in the burgeoning Chinese market, the company told Reuters.
The contracts, to be signed in Beijing as part of a high-level Canadian trade mission to China, are highlighted by a $101 million deal
for fiber-optic equipment and a $130 million contract extension for wireless gear.
``What we are seeing in China is all the investments we have made over the years are beginning to pay off,'' said Anil Khatod,
Nortel's president of Internet business. ``China is by far the fastest-growing market in the world.''
Nortel, which opened operations in China in 1972, said the country's carriers are boosting equipment spending amid rapid gains in
their subscriber bases. Last year, China represented half the world's growth in communications subscribers, Khatod said.
``Spending in China is growing,'' he added. ``The commitment to grow China's infrastructure is really serious.''
As proof, he points out that Nortel has won a one-year, $101 million deal to supply a range of high-speed fiber-optic equipment and
install a new 15,000 kilometre (9,300 mile) network for China Telecom.
The deal with China Telecom, which runs the country's largest land-based communications network, represents China's largest,
single optical contract to date, Nortel said.
The Nortel equipment will support up to 28 million simultaneous Internet connections on a single strand of fiber and boost by 640
times the Internet's speed and capacity to carry information.
Optical networks transport voice, data, and video as pulses of light over hair-thin strands of glass at lightning speeds. Unlike
conventional copper wire phone networks, optical systems are easier to expand amid growing traffic volumes and can move
information at faster rates.
Nortel has 70 percent of China's market for 10 gigabit per second optical systems, which send information at speeds of 10 billion
bits per second, Khatod said.
China Telecom's regional branches have also struck separate deals for optical switches, valued at a total of $27 million, Nortel said.
In a separate contract announced on Monday, China Telecom picked Nortel to build a new national network based on ATM, or
asynchronous transfer mode, switching technology, in a $10.6 million deal. That network will carry data for wireless customers.
Scheduled to be running by August, the high-speed digital network will support such standards as frame relay, Internet Protocol,
and ATM.
Nortel will also sign deals for wireless equipment on Tuesday in contracts valued at $162 million.
The Brampton, Ontario-based company, which said it ranks as the world's No. 2 supplier of wireless equipment after Ericsson , said
such contracts position it well to sell next-generation, or 3G, network equipment.
The largest deal, a $130 million contract, is for technology to expand a GSM dual-band cellular network for China Mobile
Communications, the country's largest wireless carrier. GSM, or global system for mobile communications, is a high-speed wireless
communication standard.
The sixth such network expansion, expected to be in service by mid-year, will boost the carrier's network subscriber capacity by
about 1.5 million to increase the total capacity to more than 4 million subscribers.
Nortel said it has also struck contracts valued at $32 million to expand GSM networks for China Unicom, the country's leading
alternative operator. |
