Editor's Corner

I was at CTIA in Las Vegas this week, and I must say I heard everyone talking about IMS in every nook, corner and galley at the wireless event. The other talk was the recent Alcatel-Lucent mega-merger. In a press briefing, Ericsson President and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg responded that it is a sizable deal and will involve a lot of sweat to get through. Both Alcatel and Lucent are strong in wireline, but not in wireless, hence it is not a negative thing for his company. He pointed out that Marconi's revenues were half of Lucent's wireline revenues last year. As Ericsson was not involved in any large mergers, it was able to achieve organic growth. Ericsson acquired Marconi in January 2006 and made a bid on Ethernet equipment manufacturer Riverstone, but lost Riverstone to Lucent. Ericsson seems to be positioning itself in between the strong wireline Alcatel-Lucent duo and its wireless-only rival Nokia. - Leena