This is a convergence of mobile portability with the speed and multifunctionality of fixed-line broadband.
The fixed-line telecoms division has been a consistent loss maker for Siemens in recent months.
Many mobile-phone companies have much higher market valuations than fixed-line operators, despite their more recent origins.
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If current trends are any indication, mobile revenues will overtake total fixed-line revenues by 2004.
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"It's the dominant fixed-line operator because it had a monopoly until recently, " he says.
In Egypt, operators often depend on Telecom Egypt's fixed-line infrastructure to carry their mobile services.
If their attempts achieve lower transfers to the fixed-line networks, mobile networks could get more swamped.
From now on, traditional fixed-line operators will no longer look down on mobile folk.
Our initial goal is to complement both the fixed-line infrastructure and wireless configurations like Vodafone AirTouch.
Telmex is still the dominant fixed-line phone carrier in Mexico, two decades after Slim took it private.
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"The potential impact is no smaller than the shift from fixed-line phones to mobile phones, " he said.
One estimate suggests that revenues at fixed-line firms may fall by another 25% between now and 2010.
Elsewhere, regulators have chosen to allocate the funds to extending fixed-line networks, rather than cheaper mobile networks.
Movies have also become the latest weapon in the battle between cable companies and fixed-line phone companies.
His second-largest holding, Carso Global Telecom, which controls ubiquitous fixed-line operator Telmex, has jumped 15% in that time.
According to Motorola, the world has about 800m fixed-line subscribers, 200m wireless users and about 200m Internet users.
"We will provide 300, 000 fixed-line phones in Makati and other areas of the country by 1998, " says Berba.
Mario Monti, Europe's competition commissioner, now plans to go after the industry over connection fees for fixed-line calls.
Compare Thai cellular companies to Thai fixed-line operators, or TRI to Telekom Malaysia.
Fixed-line operators have now cut their infrastructure spending to focus on picking up clients rather than expanding their networks.
Two years ago, the company finished the task of connecting the country's 200-or-so inhabited islands to the fixed-line network.
"New World is really the poorest of the four fixed-line operators, " says Chang.
Siemens has set aside 300m euros to pay for the redundancies which will come in its fixed-line telephone unit.
Until then, all areas of Brazil will have at least two rival operators for both fixed-line and mobile services.
But wireless technology is not improving as fast as the kit behind fixed-line internet services did in the 1990s.
Vivendi and Vodafone will probably merge their fixed-line assets into a single entity.
We don't expect the status quo to budge much in the near future, whether it's on mobile or a fixed-line.
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By 2005, the American firm expects there to be 1 billion fixed-line, 1 billion wireless and 1 billion Internet users.
The sale of a 33.5% stake in Turk Telecom, the state-owned fixed-line monopoly, has not drawn a single foreign bid.
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