Quick Talk, with Nortel's Dan Mondor

Despite depressed sales in the North American and European markets, Nortel Networks is making headway in the Asia/Pacific region. Last week, Nortel scored a resilient packet ring and OPTera Metro SDH platform build with China Mobile. The vendor also inked a $20 million OPTera Long Haul 1600 DWDM and OPTera DX optical switch deal with Chunghwa Telecom. Dan Mondor, Nortel’s senior vice president of marketing, spoke with Liane H. LaBarba regarding Nortel’s changing market dynamics.

Why are you getting stronger traction in the Asian markets?

Compared to the competition, we are doing very well there. We have a substantial investment in the Asia/Pacific market. And our products and solutions are certainly targeted into that environment. It’s also important to note that the market in Asia is by and large an emerging market in the sense that there are a considerable number of new networks being built, as opposed to North America and to a certain extent in Europe. A number of our wins have been the backbone networks, whether it’s metro or long haul or both together for wireless carriers.

Do you expect the momentum in Asia to continue? When will it reach a saturation point?

It’s an underserved market, and the growth of the Internet over there is exploding. China is the one that has been our biggest success story so far. We have built 40 10-Gb/s projects in China alone. Watch the Japan and India markets as well. The needs are profound there.

Are you taking a different strategic approach to the Asia/Pacific region?

Each of these has its own unique market engagement strategies. It is very focused in countries with teams dedicated to the markets. We are increasing staff where appropriate and commensurate with the customer base and deployments. Conversely as we have experienced in North America, some accounts have contracted, and we obviously have to do the inverse and re-deploy as appropriate.

What areas need improvement in the optical group to boost sales?

Areas of emphasis and focus are on metro optical segments. It was typically 85% long haul and 15% metro. It’s probably now closer to 55% and 45%, respectively. And clearly that’s a strong focus for us. We are also focused on providing networks into the enterprise space. The enterprise verticals like government, financial and education markets are a clear focus for us.