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Alcatel Earmarks US$53M for 3G
Rollout French telecom equipment maker Alcatel will roll out
locally-developed 3G applications as part of its US$53 million partnership
program investment to develop a mobile hub in Malaysia.
Ralph
Khoury, Alcatel Malaysia managing director, noted that the company is
currently working with 10 companies here to develop the applications.
"They are involved in different domains of the content and applications
delivery chain. These include content providers, content aggregators,
service providers as well as network operators."
Under the
partnership program, Alcatel will provide expertise, consultancy and
training that utilize its GPRS and UMTS infrastructure for content and
application developers. "The provision of direct seeding of funds and
formation of joint venture are also an option depending on the needs and
requirements of the partnership," said Khoury.
He added that the
new applications caters to both GPRS/EDGE and 3G/UMTS as it is the natural
evolution for the mobile applications to go from GPRS/EDGE to 3G, while
taking advantage of the increased features along their path.
"We
already have a real need for mobile applications in Malaysia, Southeast
Asia and Asia Pacific in general. Since our 3G Reality Center in Kuala
Lumpur is part of Alcatel's worldwide network of 14 centers, we can
support any partner that would like to join hands with Alcatel to provide
applications to all our customers. Language is not a barrier. Localization
of applications from country to country will ensure that," he
said.
GPRS/EDGE to 3G
A study by Pyramid Research
last year found a pool of 350,000 subscribers here who will pay between
US$10 to US$20 a month for mobile data applications, making Malaysia one
of the most attractive markets for high-bandwidth services in the
region.
Khoury cited Alcatel's established relationship with key
players in the advanced markets of Japan and Korea as examples of
successful international technology collaboration. In Japan, a joint
venture between Alcatel and Fujitsu was established in 2000 to create
Evolium SAS. Evolium SAS combines Alcatel's expertise in GSM, GPRS and
EDGE as well as in ATM and IP technologies, with the advanced experience
of Fujitsu. The JV has signed two licensing agreements with NTT DoCoMo
concerning patents, know-how and software.
Three years ago, Alcatel
installed its complete Evolium solution including the UTRAN (UMTS
Terrestrial Radio Access Network) radio systems, the Core network; the
radio network controller (RNC) and a dedicated application service
platform at its 3G Reality Center here. The Alcatel 3G/UMTS pilot network
provides data rates of up to 384kbps and can handle videophony calls
between two 3G handsets, online access to data and video streaming and for
transmitting video images from a remote Webcam and Internet surfing.
by Anita Devasahayam
(December 2003 Issue, Nikkei
Electronics Asia)
Copyright (c)
1996-2003, Nikkei Business Publications Asia Ltd,
Nikkei Business
Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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