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Nortel in China
Location: Ottawa, Canada
There was a comment left recently by James, which referenced Nortel's efforts in China. To address this comment, I thought it might be interesting for you to hear directly from my colleague Michael Pangia, Nortel's President of Asia, who took me up on my invitation to do a guest blog entry.
John, thanks very much for the opportunity to talk about Nortel’s efforts in China.
China is absolutely important and strategic to Nortel's overall success. We have been building our presence and contributing to the communications industry in the country steadfastly for over thirty years. From providing the optical transport backbone for all service providers to helping emerging private sectors like banking and hospitality go from traditional voice to converged IP networks, Nortel has been among the top communications providers in China.
Admittedly, Nortel's divestiture of the UMTS access business has had an impact to our perceived market presence. This is quite understandable when you don't play in the one particular area that has been headline news for the last 2 years. However, this was a conscious decision the company made, taking into consideration all impact and implications. I should note that at the time I am writing this note, the 3G licenses still have not been awarded. On the other hand, The Academy of Telecom Research of MII is putting on a Wireless Olympic forum in Beijing this July, where WiMAX is very much a key part of the agenda. .
One can almost argue we have never taken China as seriously as we do now. On the market front, we are keenly aware of the challenges of a hyperconnected world and are focusing on the value that “true” broadband will bring, through 4G, WiMAX, Carrier Ethernet, transformed enterprises and services. And we have made great strides. Let me cite just two examples here. Shanghai Telecom deployed our new metro networking technology to provide broadband voice, data and video applications to customers in Shanghai late last year and the Westin Hotel in Beijing uses Nortel's Unified Communications solutions to provide IP and W-LAN services to its customers.
China is more than a market we sell into. The country offers a strong and large pool of technical talent and services that help us stay globally competitive in terms of time to market and pricing structure. In November 2006, our CEO Mike Z opened a 55,000 sq. m truly state-of-the art facility in Beijing to house our growing R & D community, as well as Asia's first Executive Briefing Center. I should point out the R & D we engage in in China has moved from the traditional sustaining of mature products to developing next-generation technology like WiMAX. John's recent visit to Tsinghua University in Beijing, for instance, was an outreach to the top students in one of the top universities in China to share with them what we are doing in this country and how they can develop and grow with us. In April 2007, we announced building Nortel's Center of Excellence for supply chain operations in Shanghai, China. The announcement was made at the same time as our first Global Suppliers' Forum held outside of North America with over 200 Nortel global suppliers gathered in Beijing to fully understand what this country has to offer in terms of price and quality. Our new Chief Procurement Officer, in fact, is also based in China.
Hope you haven’t found this response to James' comment too long-winded. I am obviously very passionate about what we are doing in China, and am pleased with the response and traction we have so far. Make no mistake, this is a tough market and everybody, including locally-grown players, is doing whatever they can to have a piece of the action. But I am convinced that the holistic approach Nortel has taken in China is the right approach and will pay back in more ways than one.
