Nortel catches the GSM wave

Cannes, France--

Nortel's Dave Mirashige says his company has a bit of a chip on its shoulder. Nortel isn't viewed as a global GSM player when in fact it holds its fair share of the business.

However, Nortel's newest contract with Canada's Microcell might change some of the misperception. The company just announced a three-year agreement, estimated to be worth roughly $100 million for upgrades to Microcell's network.

Nortel will supply GSM radio base station and switching equipment to support the carrier's delivery of next-generation wireless services. This includes EDGE and adaptive multirate GSM services.

Being from California, Mirashige says his surfer analogy best explains Nortel's less-than-dominant position for front-of-mind GSM providers. "When we got involved in GSM, all the big waves were gone. We got in on the 1800 waves. With TDMA, the same thing happened. We pretty much missed out on North America, but we are strong in South America. With CDMA, we got in on the momentum early, pushed hard and found our wave."

Mirashige said Nortel won't be waiting on the waves for UMTS. "We have 17% of all announced next-generation contracts," Mirashige said. "People don't recognize the progress we have made."