Fixed operator strategies - 15/9/05

India and Sri Lanka will build a 30-km long submarine cable link between the two countries. BSNL and Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) will fund 50:50 the system. The commissioning date is scheduled for early in 2Q06.

South Korea: following the SK Telecom and Hanaro deal on developing hybrid fixed and wireless broadband services, KT found Lucent as a partner on the same subject. They will conduct R&D work on convergence technologies and applications.

UPC in the Netherlands will upgrade its 2.2m cable subscribers to digital TV. It will supply each subscriber with a Thomson Mediavox set top box and introduce new services such as VOD.

Versatel (NL) has launched triple-play services over an ADSL2+ network supplied by Samsung.

China Netcom is planning to acquire provincial networks of Heilongjiang, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Jilin for $1.58bn.

Aurora Energy, Tasmania's electricity distribution and retail company, launched a commercial test of broadband over powerline (BPL), having the speed of 200 Mb/s, with the help of Mitsubishi.

AT&T targets RFID. It will not only deploy the RFID structure for its clients, but will also provide management services for the new technology.

France Telecom / Wanadoo will offer ADSL2+ free upgrade to 20 Mbit/s in the Netherlands.