Nothing special :)

The switch from February to March left the "front page" of this blog strangely and surprisingly blank 8/! So I am writing just to put some content in so people don't think the whole thing has died.
It is, however, a pretty dead time in Latvian telecoms. The mobile operators are trying to outdo each other on quasi-flat rate deals (I am going to Paris with Tele2 next week, they may have something interesting to say). Tommorrow (March 3) I am going to Paris for Alcatel Lucent and will do the usual video blog reports, etc. New leadership, Pat Russo & Co. are gone. It will be interesting.

Gmail back, Alcatel-Lucent said to f**k up Lattelecom's network

Gmail, for now, seems to be back, but February 24 is a bad day for electronic communications in Latvia. Lattelecom in a press release is saying that "unsanctioned" work by equipment and systems supplier Alcatel-Lucent on the fixed network operator's intelligent network platform disrupted telephony services in Riga. It was difficult to call mobile phones, numbers that have been ported to other operators, as well as some free 800 and pay per call 900 (phone sex?) numbers.
Why the headline -- it got you to read this, I hope, and I was merely rephrasing what Lattelecom put in more polite terms. Besides, everyone makes mistakes. Alcatel-Lucent is a long time provider of central switches and other equipment to Lattelecom (since the 90s).

Alcatel Lucent offers green telecoms in the Baltics

Alcatel Lucent's business development manager for Nordic & Baltics, Johan Ragmo, was in Riga recently and talked about the company's energy-saving or so-called greener telecommunications solutions. These are based on, among other technologies, smart systems that draw down their electricity consumption when idle, and devices that combine several functions previously handled by different boxes into a one-box solution.
All of this sounds fine, since if thousands of companies in a country like Latvia were to cut their energy demand (and save on costs in the bargain), it would proportionately reduce the generation of ungreen energy (Latvia has lots of hydropower supplemented by some combined cycle coal and gas fueled power stations). However, the issue of the environmental impact of manufacturing processes and materials used in telco equipment remains. Why reduce energy consumption 50 % for the user if making the gadget leaves a Godzilla-sized carbon footprint. To this Johan said, off camera, that Alcatel Lucent manufactures in accordance with good industry practices. His main message was about the energy savings for business and organizational users.

Alcatel-Lucent's Baltic focus is on fixed networks

Before going to the US on September 19, I had an opportunity to interview Lars Boilesen, the head of Alcatel-Lucent Nordic & Baltics. Boilesen believes that the company's focus in the region will continue to be fixed network operators, even as Alcatel-Lucent has strong positions in the mobile market elsewhere. In Latvia, the focus on fixed networks goes back to a long-term relationship with Lattelecom.

Alcatel-Lucent and SMEs

I talked to Dany Jenneve, the Alcatel-Lucent honcho in charge of small and mediun business (SMB) solutions while at the Enterprise Forum in Paris recently. Here is the video, edited also for use on my Latvian-language blog.

Click To Play

Pat Russo's keynote, other stuff from Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum 2008

First some tidbits of local news from the Alcatel Lucent Enterprise Forum 2008 where I just spent a couple of days (strangely springlike Paris, daffodils blooming!). The interesting rumor is that TeliaSonera may be among a number of Nordic mobile operators looking at Alcatel Lucent's OmniAccess 3500 Laptop Guardian, which has now been launched in a European version (it operates on GSM/UMTS networks).
The idea of the gadget is that it remotely updates, monitors and protects corporate laptops, even if they are turned off. If stolen, the laptop can be encrypted rendering any confidential data useless to thieves. The Laptop Guardian is also a 3G/HSPDA modem. The gadgets can be installed and managed by a large corporation's IT department or sold as a service by mobile operators, opening it to a broader range of users.
However, that is not the story for me-- if TeliaSonera is testing this as a service (one way it can be used by small and medium businesses) it is also in the pipeline for all of the TeliaSonera owned Baltic operators, including Latvian Mobile Telephone (LMT). This would be a nice complement to its iBirojs (iOffice) HSDPA service. It would also allow TeliaSonera to deploy and support the service regionally.

Not to deceive with the headline, I also include my video excerpt (sorry about the occasional camera drift) of Alcatel Lucent CEO Pat Russo's keynote at the Enterprise Forum:

Click To Play

Alcatel-Lucent presents its WiMax solution

I just spent a day (as in get up at 5 AM, fly to Paris, watch a couple of hours of presentations, get back home just before midnight) at an Alcatel-Lucent WiMax event. It was on short notice and felt a bit improvised, but apparently the Alcatel-Lucent people wanted to make that everything was running as it should. The only thing they forgot was the "Don't try this at home" signs for the young man and woman who took turns riding around on a Segway while using a mobile WiMax terminal (a subcompact laptop with a camera).
On the way down, I went through Copenhagen Airport, which is rapidly developing the status of a monster airport, soon to challenge Frankfurt (as I remember it, last transit there was to Australia in 2003). Try kilometer walks between connecting flights. The airport has grown from being comfortable to a monstrosity that it takes, perhaps, 30 minutes to cross on foot in a rush, ignoring all the shops, restaurants, etc. etc.

I only have one thing to say about Paris Charles De Gaulle: the use of bad hallucinogenic drugs by French architects in the 1970s (or whenever the wacko thing was built). Also, the brilliant idea of separating the public toilets from the waiting area with the security checkpoint in Satellite 7 (WTF is a satellite, some mushroom munching froggie's cool idea while the other guy at the architect's office has left his drawing board and is giggling and shaving the office cat?)

OK, here is a video of my chat with Hyam Bolande, the American marketing director for Alcatel-Lucent's marketing director for its wireless business group. It will also be posted on my Latvian-language blog:

Click To Play

Alcatel-Lucent honcho speaks

Baltic journalists were given a chance to interview Hubert de Pesqiudoux, the head of Alcatel-Lucent's Enteprise unit. Here is part of the interview as I recorded it (the entire 15 minutes would not fit on YouTube).



My 11-year old insists on being credited for the use of his video camera, a Sony HDD recorded (hard drive, not high-def, easy to use with a Mac despite what has been written)

Pat Russo of Alcatel Lucent speaks in Paris

This is an excerpt of a presentation by Alcatel Lucent CEO Patricia Russo at the Alcatel Lucent forum in Paris. No particular Latvian/Baltic interest, but shows where the IT/teleco market is going generally.



Added February 15: The start and end titles for this clip are in Latvian as it was originally posted to my Latvian blog at LETA (www.nozare.lv). This is the blog I get paid for :)

Pirates of Place de Maillot

Made it to Paris. Charles de Gaulle is a "fantastic" airport, a 1970s or 1980s hallucination of what the future, that is now (2007) was supposed to be like, with no one walking, everyone riding on people conveyors. Trouble is, the froggers actually built the thing (OK, no snide remark about the French meant, the US has Epcot Center) The monitors are there to say that one's baggage will be delivered at this Spaceport 2000 (vintage 1978) like 40 minutes after the plane lands.
Arrived at the Hotel Concorde de Lafayette, rode the elevator to my floor, which opened on a scene out of what upscale whorehouses look like in the movies -- winered wall-to-wall carpeting and mirrored wall panels. The room is nice, 25 + TV channels, many of them bizarre Arabic TV shops and Japanese channels with elderly people doing strange things and huge captions in Japanese characters, apparently so the elderly watching can read what is going on.
The cathouse hallways were a premonition of what this place charges for wireless internet. EUR 30 for 24 hours (people do sleep and attend events, so figure it out). Fortunately, the press center set up by Alcatel Lucent has free wireless. Considering that the newly merged company went several hundreds of millions into the bag in Q4 2006, I would not have been surprised had they charged for it :). This promises to be interesting, as everyone is probably waiting to hear how the company will get it together over the next few years. It is a supplier of switches to Lattelecom (wrote that earlier).
I am yet again glad that most Baltic hotels have free WiFi by default (or for the price of a cup of coffee if you walk into one of the Revals in Riga off the street). EUR 30 is more than I pay for a month of 5 Mbps Lattelecom DSL, FFS*!!!! (for f**k's sake, if you didn't guess)

Off to Paris and Alcatel Lucent

I am off to Paris for an Alcatel Lucent event. It will be interesting to see how things go for a company that is in pretty serious trouble -- major losses, higher job cuts planned. Alcatel was a major initial supplier of switches to Lattelecom, though I suspect they are leaning toward Ericsson for their network upgrade, not the least because Ericsson, I believe, supplies their DSL equipment.
Otherwise fairly quiet on the Latvian front. Must ask someone soon how things are going with the half-mother (TeliaSonera).
I am also considering trashing the new Firefox 2.0 on my Macbook (Intel Core 2 Duo) as it seems to work at 1980s dial-up speed. Writing this on Camino, which shows all of the blogger.com system's options like bold, italic, the link thingy, which all vanish on Safari.