Huawei and Global Marine Systems announce new venture

DECEMBER 11, 2007 -- A new entrant in the submarine telecommunications market has been created with today's announcement that Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (search for Huawei) and Global Marine Systems (search for Global Marine Systems) have committed to launching Huawei Submarine Networks Ltd. A signing ceremony held this week in London commits both companies to launch the entity in early 2008. Huawei Submarine is the culmination of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by both parties in March 2007.

According to the companies, Huawei Submarine will deliver end-to-end submarine network equipment (search for submarine optical networking) and related services.

Representatives from the new company's leadership were present at Trinity House in Tower Hill, London, for the signing ceremony. London, a center of global commerce and maritime innovation, and Trinity House in particular, served as the ideal setting for the creation of a new venture dedicated to developing the tools and infrastructure for future global communications.

"Huawei Submarine Networks is a major focus for both companies and introduces a competitive new entrant into the submarine telecommunication market," contends Gabriel Ruhan, CEO of Global Marine Systems. "The continuing growth of the regional and long haul market has persuaded us that a credible, innovative new company is needed by telecoms providers. Since announcing the MOU earlier this year, we have received very positive feedback from customers and look forward to serving their needs with a company that combines Huawei's expertise as the fastest growing vendor in optical networks in 2006, and Global Marine's 150 years of enviable market-leading experience in submarine engineering," he says.

At the signing ceremony, Ping Guo, CSO of Huawei, emphasized the importance of the market developments leading to today's announcement. "Huawei is a trusted industry partner to many of the world's leading telecommunication carriers and providers," he noted. "There is enormous scope to improve the competitiveness of this market, and with Huawei's impressive global R&D and manufacturing capabilities and Global Marine's broad submarine engineering expertise, we intend to improve value for customers by offering unique solutions for all our customers' future network plans."

The global switch to all-IP networks and explosive global growth in bandwidth requirements for broadband multimedia applications and high-speed Internet are driving resurgence in telecommunications buildout in certain geographic regions. Telecoms market Analysts T Soja and Associates anticipate that annual global spend on this type of infrastructure will average $2 billion annually over the next five years.

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