PARIS-Nortel Networks introduced a wireless data initiative and noted its commitment to the European market here last week. Included in the announcements was a partnership with Hewlett-Packard Co. to integrate Nortel’s wireless data technology into HP’s wireless hardware.
Nortel is looking to capitalize on the European third-generation market, which is expected to see 120 million wireless Internet users by 2004, the company predicted. Many European countries are in the process of 3G licensing, and the Continent’s number of wireless subscribers increased by 68 percent during the last year.
The company plans to hire 2,000 additional employees across Europe and allocate $3.3 million in university scholarships by the end of the year. Nortel also is establishing research laboratories and offices in Norway and Sweden.
Under a program called Wings of Light, Nortel said it is bringing together its optical, Internet Protocol and wireless data technology experience.
“Wireless Internet is about the Internet, not wireless,” said Clarence Chandren, president of Nortel’s service provider and carrier group. “We’re marrying wireless with IP.”
Under the program, the company released several new products, including IP Mobility, which is technology that assigns an IP address to a user. The address follows the subscriber regardless of which wireless device or network the subscriber uses.
“It extends the reach of a wireless Internet interface,” said Lloyd Carney, president, wireless Internet.
Nortel also announced e-mobility Acceleration software, noting the technology increases data speeds from four to 25 times and is compatible with all browsers and across air interfaces.
Herschel Shosteck Associates ranked Nortel first among major vendors for its next-generation wireless infrastructure strategy in April. Jane Zweig, executive vice president of Herschel Shosteck Associates, said the rankings were based completely on companies’ current and future positionings, including how they view IP technology and how effectively their acquisitions are building comprehensive strategies. “Nortel recognizes how network operators are being squeezed financially,” Zweig said. “They realize they have to be lower cost and offer more efficiencies.”
In Paris, executives highlighted Nortel’s ability to offer carriers end-to-end solutions. The company said its strength lies in its offerings for all the necessary network infrastructure pieces and its partnerships with content providers. Nortel believes the fact that it does not manufacture handsets works to its advantage.
“We are able to partner with handset manufacturers that are first to market,” Carney said.
Nortel has an alliance with Matsushita Communications Industrial Co. Ltd., which distributes mobile phones under the Panasonic brand, to collaborate on wideband Code Division Multiple Access and 3G market development.
The companies worked together on Nortel’s recent contract win in the United Kingdom as the principal supplier of BT Cellnet’s 3G network.
“Several of the contracts [Nortel has recently] won, including BT Cellnet and Verizon Wireless, show what an integrated strategy they have,” said Zweig.
Nortel said it moved from No. 3 to No. 2 in terms of wireless infrastructure contract wins between May 1999 and May 2000. It plans to increase its 10-percent combined voice and data revenue margin this year to 15 percent to 20 percent by 2005.
“Our goal is to have 25 percent of the 3G space by 2003,” said Carney. The company says it currently controls 11 percent of the market.
Nortel’s alliance with HP calls for the companies to work together on developing mobile portal solutions, mobile e-commerce services, and wireless device and networking solutions. The first products, expected later this year, most likely will be HP’s Omnibook notebook personal computers and Jornada personal digital assistants running Nortel’s e-mobility Acceleration software, said Carney.
Last October at Telecom ’99 in Geneva, HP announced its Mobile E-Services initiative, and it has since established several Mobile E-services Bazaars around the world.
“These announcement’s aren’t brand new stuff for Nortel,” said Zweig. “They are articulating a strategy in the making for three years,” she said, noting Nortel’s ability to partner with the right companies to make that strategy work.
Nortel’s global wireless Internet group is headquartered in Paris.
