Motorola Chips in With Core Technology

Telecom giant Motorola is not satisfied with its current status as a wireless terminal provider and said it wants to further consolidate its leading position by providing core technology to Chinese telecom companies.

Motorola Computer Group (MCG), the computer subsidiary of Motorola, unveiled its 2001 telecommunications strategy last week in Beijing aimed to explore China's embedded chip's market.

Embedded equipment is a core part of mobile telecommunications and plays a driving force in the upgrading of telecom technology.

China, as the potentially biggest wireless telecom market in the world, still cannot satisfy the demand of the domestic embedded equipment market.

Motorola, the first international wireless telecom power, entered the Chinese market in the 1980s. Executives recently outlined the firm's newest strategy to explore China's market.

Under the plan MCG would place computing technologies into telecom systems running wireless, enterprise, networking and transmission applications.

"The position of MCG in the Chinese market and the whole group will be more significant," said Wayne Sennett, senior vice-president and general manager of MCG.

Sennett made the comments at a telecom forum supported by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

More than 50 decision-makers from leading domestic telecom equipment enterprises attended the forum.

After launching the new brand DigitalDNA for embedded technology and products last April, Motorola has gone further in China's wireless telecom industry.

"The embedded products will reach a significant growth in China in the coming year," Sennett said. "MCG is the provider of embedded equipment for nine of the world's top 10 telecom original equipment manufacturers."

Constantly changing technology and the Internet's phenomenal growth are driving the convergence of telecom's Internet, wireline and wireless networks, he added.

"This trend puts tremendous demand on the companies manufacturing these networks," Sennett said.

The vice-president estimated the converged network market would reach US$1 trillion.

"In China we are engaged with the top five telecom suppliers," said Phil Spivey, vice-president of MCG and director of the Asia Pacific region.

To better serve China's future market, Motorola has established a design centre in Shanghai and plans to start operations in the first quarter of next year.

In August Motorola announced a US$1.9 billion investment plan which made it the biggest foreign investor in China with US$3.44 billion.

Other leading international telecom giants have also increased their investment in China this year as forecasts show that cellular phone demand in China could reach a compound growth of 37 per cent over the next five years.

Nokia and Siemens are leading the investment with US$1.2 billion and US$1 billion.

(China Daily)



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