we sit through the presentations so you don’t have to…
Siemens
Top line messages
After a market “collapse” the market will stabilise this year and even grow a little. 3G is happening now and we’ve got the contracts to prove it. Convergence is key in infrastructure and handsets. Simplicity is all. Open standards will bring both.
Meat on the bones
Nine of the 15 live 3G networks are Siemens/NEC networks. We’ve got contracts for all or part of 29 3G networks globally. We’re introducing 30 handsets this year, and we’ve got to get more full MMS phones into the market to drive uptake. We’re also introducing our new Next Generation Telecom Architecture — a modular carrier grade Linux-based network hardware layer, Siemens middleware with open interfaces and a top “transport and control” layer where we can make our money. Our IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is available for use. IMS can be used for push to talk, and other IP services.
Small print
Network hardware will increasingly be commoditised on “PC” platforms. We’re increasingly a systems integrator — vis-a-vis our partnership with Cisco —and can soak that up. But nothing on the lifetime of the relationship with NEC. HSPDA by 2005 with software upgrade was the message off-line. So many handsets, but nothing on moving towards operator-dominant UI and branding. Indeed, “Handset branding is a non-issue.”
Alcatel
Top line message
Come to Doitall. We’ve moved from being a carrier equipment supplier to a customer solutions provider. We’re up and running on UMTS. We’ve got a new content partner, media platforms, convergent billing solutions, the lot.
Meat on the bones
Operators are now generating significant free cashflow and we believe the significant challenge is to grow the top line by optimising networks and decreasing churn. We’ve got into Orange for its UMTS rollout in France and the UK. Tele.ring in Austria is on our Evolium platform and 3 Austria is using us for video streaming services. We won 40 new customers in 2003 for our convergent billing system and multimedia applications. We too are working with Intel and on Linux, especially for our very fast new MMS platform. We have a partnership with Universal Music for putting their content onto mobiles. Universal has 25% of the music market worldwide.
Small print
We have a European showroom for NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA. Still canny as to why. We need another 3G reference network in Europe, and we admit that. Vague on the Universal Music relationship. Do operators want vendors bringing content providers to the table? Can you maintain focus right across the value chain?
Nokia
Top Line Message
2004 will be the year of the smartphone and imaging will be king. We are guts out for the enterprise market. We are right in there on 3G infrastructure and are shipping handsets too. We’re delighted we’re to be supporting Vodafone Live! on our handsets. We’re ahead on other IP based services as well.
Meat on the bones
The 6600, after its introduction in October 2003, has become the best selling smartphone at two million sold. 2004 will be the year when content providers and application developers shift from PDAs to smartphones. See us go on enterprise integration with IBM software embedded on Nokia devices running Symbian OS, especially the new Communicator 9500. We have a Java environment for applications development. Enterprise mobility is at the beginning of the business cycle. Three operators are going commercial with Nokia push to talk. This year will see the launch of PTT globally. The 5140 GSM PTT phone will be shipping in Q2. Samsung is licensing Nokia’s P2T for its handsets too. We are going to develop handsets for Vodafone! for its 3G consumer launch. We’ve got eight out of the 14 3G commercial networks.
Small print
That handset deal represents a real change of position in the market. Our 3G infrastructure position is being challenged. We’re not as far ahead of the rest on PTT as we say we are. Haven’t we been here before on mobilising enterprise applications? Have we got all the pieces right this time? We’re not a systems integrator like Siemens but IBM’s not a bad partner to have. We’re still in great shape on the handsets and brand leadership, but its not as pervasive as we perhaps assume.
Nortel
Top Line Message
We’ve got a UMTS network up and running here in Cannes. We’ll get more when operators look more closely at moving to R5 IMS.
Meat on the bones
We’ve got a 33% market share in core packet switched networks globally, which is getting us into a lot of conversations. It’s misleading to talk about 3G market share at the moment because there is still so much up for grabs. Contracts are really only frame agreements. Key performance indicators will make it much easier to compare vendors. We’ve got a 60 node B network running here in Cannes and the quality and reliability in our demo centre has been great. Orange is very happy. IP changes the game. All about quality of service for voice and multimedia over IP and Nortel has put VoIP into 40 networks already.
Small print
Phew, it worked. We only had five months to get the Cannes 3G network up from scratch but here we are. It’s been hard for us but we’re making some small headway. We’ve got to leverage our fixed line IP and core network experience over the next two to three years or we’ll miss out on 3G like we did 2G.