WCA January 2012

Telecom news

the stage for serious investment in the technology by European manufacturers and broadcasters. UHDTV sets will have a screen resolution of 33 million pixels (7,680 by 4,320), for 16 times greater refinement than in high-definition (HDTV) sets. The BBC plans to show the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in ultra-high definition on three giant screens in London, Glasgow and Bradford. ✆ ✆ Research commissioned by a number of leading Internet content providers – including the BBC and Yahoo! – has found that products such as theirs do not cause network bottlenecks, as claimed by some Internet service providers (ISPs). The new research, published 5 th October by London-based Plum Consulting, rejects the assertion that telecom providers’ costs are ballooning because of data growth. Instead, it suggests that online content and applications providers drive the demand for broadband connectivity which yielded fixed and mobile broadband revenues of approximately $207 billion in Europe in 2010. As reviewed by Joseph O’Halloran of RapidTVNews, the Plum report states that, without the content providers’ considerable investment in innovative consumer services to stimulate the uptake of high-speed broadband, telecoms would have experienced a rapid decline in revenues. Taking a strong stand in favour of an Open Internet, the report warns that investment in next-generation broadband would not necessarily increase, and could decrease, if content and applications providers are required to pay for access to consumers. ✆ ✆ Pakistan Telecommunications Co Ltd (PTCL) announced a net profit of $16.2 million for the first quarter (to 30 th September) of its current fiscal year, showing growth of seven per cent over the previous year. Revenue was reported at $167 million. In the quarter, PTCL launched Pakistan’s first-ever 3G enabled tablet with built-in EVO wireless broadband. Powered by the Google Android Froyo 2.2 operating system, “3G EVO Tab” supports Wi-Fi for customers in over a hundred Pakistani cities. PTCL commands close to a 90 per cent share of the national market.

of the US telecom major Verizon Communications – is considering introducing its enterprise services in India as part of a broader corporate investment strategy for the country. In the absence of legacy platforms and strict regula- tion, Verizon apparently sees opportunity in mobile services in India. In New Delhi for meetings with customers and potential clients, Verizon Business president Robert A Toohey told the EC (19 th October) that the company’s perception of local demand had influenced its thinking. Said Mr Toohey: “We talked about how [we might] do things here first instead of in Asia, Europe, or Japan.” ✆ ✆ Samsung is believed to have beaten Apple, of the US, in smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2011. As reported by Dylan Bushell-Embling on telecomasia.net (October 21 st ), a Wall Street Journal source supplied the information that the South Korean vendor shipped over 20 million smartphones during the quarter that ended 30 th September. That total, if substantiated, com- fortably outstrips the 17.1 million smartphone sales rung up by Apple in its own September quarter. Finland’s Nokia, in third place, said it sold 16.8 million smartphones in the quarter. In the Inquirer , the London-based technology newsletter, Lawrence Latif observed that, while Samsung might have shipped more smartphones than Apple, it has a large portfolio of products. He wrote: “Apple, on the other hand, managed to reach its 17.1 million devices sold with just the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4, [and] making a lot more cash in the process.” Even so, Samsung’s recent smartphone advances are very striking. According to Strategy Analytics, in the second quarter of last year the Korean electronics giant displaced Nokia as the world’s No 2 in smartphones. The global research and consulting firm had placed Samsung’s year-earlier smartphone sales, for 2Q10, at just 3 million. ✆ ✆ The International Telecommuni- cations Union in Geneva announced that agreement had been reached on the key standards for ultra-high definition television (UHDTV), setting

Americas that the interruption affected approximately 30%-40% of BlackBerry customers in that region. He said that customers of Entel Chile and the Telecom Italia units TIM Brasil and Personal Argentina were hit hardest because those companies have their services connected directly to the network operations centre (NOC) in Slough, England. Services dependent on NOCs in the US were out for only a few hours on 12 th October. The outage – resulting from a shift of the system onto a backup switch after the failure of a core switch – and the ensuing major backlog of messages infuriated users across the globe. On 19 th October, RIM announced that it was offering a selection of premium apps worth more than $100 to every subscriber who suffered a service disruption. In the face of a barrage of criticism on social networks, the Ontario-based company was able to look on the bright side. Mr Lino told Patrick Nixon of Business News Americas (19 th October), “I even believe it is a good opportunity for RIM because we can showcase some of [our] applications.” ✆ ✆ “We’ve played very low-key but now we are ready,” Robin Lee, chairman of Axin Ltd, told CommsDay Australasia . Together with partner Huawei Marine Networks, headquartered in Tianjin, the Chinese-backed consortium plans to construct a $100 million Australia-New Zealand subsea communications cable to connect Sydney and Auckland. Work on the 1,400-mile trans-Tasman link was to have begun before the new year. Time to completion was estimated at 20 months. Axin, formed in 2010, is a market representative of China Communications Service, itself a 51%-owned subsidiary of China Telecom. CommsDay ’s Petroc Wilton wrote (19 th September) that the proposed cable would offer New Zealand firms a link to Sydney in addition to the existing Southern Cross cable and the planned Pacific Fibre cable – “and from there outward via links like PPC-1 or the Australia-Japan cable.” ✆ ✆ A report in the Economic Times (Mumbai) indicated that Verizon Business – the $17.3 billion unit

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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2012