Teledata Networks is a provider of Access Network solutions designed to enable smooth migration to Next Generation Networks (NGN). It is currently supplying advanced BroadAccess Multiservice Access Gateways supporting broadband and traditional services to Telefonica Moviles Guatemala. In turn, Teledata Networks is working under an agreement between Italtel (which supplies products, solutions and services for next generation networks over IP) and Telefonica Moviles Guatemala, provider of both wireless and wireline services.
The agreement covers the modernisation of the access network, migration to IP backbone and the supply of high-speed Internet services to business and residential subscribers in the City of Guatemala. Where Teledata Networks comes in is with its strategic cooperation with Italtel to develop NGN solutions. Teledata Networks equipment supplied to Guatemala includes BroadAccess Multiservice Access Gateways supporting V5.2 and IP networks, and a mix of traditional and broadband services, from POTS to SHDSL and ADSL2+.
Timescale for the modernisation project is two years from the shipment of equipment right through to completion of the main project. Teledata Networks is then expecting an extension after this period when its expertise will be employed in certain specialist fields, for example, in order to boost the number of ADSL subscribers and also to deal with legacy issues.
A real challenge came to Teledata Networks when entering the Guatemalan market, and that was explaining to local customers the benefits of the solutions that the company was proposing. Even when the customers are successfully briefed, there will be a further challenge, and that is training personnel in the systems which are being installed, to ensure they are activated and fully exploited. In fact, training and installation are a full contract in their own right, and this is where Italtel's expertise will come into its own.
Teledata Networks' involvement in Latin America goes back to the early 1980s, when the company had only just been set up. In the case of Central and Southern America contracts in Brazil were won in the late 1980s. Since then Teledata Networks has gone on to supply expertise to Telefonica Brasil, Brasil Telecom and GVT, using Brazilian manufacturing facilities for the necessary equipment. In Costa Rica Teledata Networks has gone on to become the sole supplier of its different forms of equipment and expertise.
Again setting Guatemala in its regional context, Costa Rica and Mexico are considered much more advanced and experienced. However, Teledata Networks CEO Eran Ziv is not deterred: "Guatemala is not an exceptionally difficult market in which to work...We are heavily involved with the new technologies, although the basic state of Guatemalan telecommunications means that the market is not moving as fast as we would like. Very few Guatemalans, for example, have DSL.
"We would be very happy to see the end-users of our products using the Internet and enjoying its benefits. One problem is how children at school, most of whom are not from affluent families, will be able to use the Internet. It is one problem we have not yet solved."
One can not help feeling that commercial reality will help Teledata Networks succeed in Latin America. The last word is Eran Ziv's: "We are not one of the biggest players. We choose our opportunities very carefully. We win most contracts we tender for."
* Telefonica Moviles Guatemala supplies wireless and wireline services. It has more than 1.2 million subscribers nationwide and unifies all its operations in Guatemala under the Movistar brand name.
** Teledata Networks is a private company headquartered in The Netherlands and with R&D in Israel which has accumulated a installed base spanning millions of lines in over 50 countries worldwide.
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