When VOICE&DATA interviewed you in 1999 issue, you were marketing broadband in the sky. Now your focus is restructuring. How do you see both the positions?
Nortel and Teledesic are two different companies but there are some similarities. In 1999, Teledesic was changing the world thanks to the vision of Bill Gates and Craig McCaw. The company was focusing on higher bandwidth on the surface of the world and $10 billion was raised for the satellite network. We feel the same passion for technology in Nortel, as we devote around 20 percent of our total spend in areas like wireless, optical, and enterprise.

Things are similar to what we were doing with Teledesic: spreading communications and broadband to rural areas. Technologies like WCDMA, UMTS, VoIP, and meshed Wi-Fi can all provide excellent services to rural areas.

You took over as CEO of Nortel a year ago.How has the transition been in terms of restructuring, business stability, steps on integrity and ethics, recruiting new talents, and launching new products?
It was a year of hard work as there was lot of soul searching. Presently, Nortel is a reflection of technologies and great people-employees, shareholders, and customers. There is no issue and no suspicion regarding financials as it is accurate and unquestioned. We are transitioning toward a better Nortel.

How was 2004 for Nortel and how do you feel about 2005?
Well, 2004 was a year of transition. We opted for the ultimate in financial accounting and constituted a new board. For the enterprise part of telecom, we have acquired PEC, a company with credentials in the government space. This will help us strengthen market share in that space and also promote Nortel's solutions for e-governance projects.

The current year will be good as we have reset the company in terms of technology, manpower, and cost structures.

What is the agenda for your India visit? How do you see the Indian market faring for Nortel?
It is to learn about telecom service providers, enterprises, government customers, and India's market. Nortel is a large multinational company, which spends around $6 billion in equipment and services every year. And there is growing activity in India in terms of R&D and service provider partnerships. India is a great place to learn and establish partnership with vendors. In India, Nortel has implemented many products and solutions in service provider, enterprise, and government space is equally exciting for Nortel and India. We will compete with vendors in India and be reliable partners for carriers. India has the advantage in terms of quality education and professional excellence for deploying networks around the world and we will use Indian resources in many ways.

Will Nortel manufacture in India?
Nortel does not manufacture, but we will do some manufacturing. Indian partners must develop the capability of manufacturing infrastructure at low cost and we will use it more and more.

How will you compete with Cisco?
Nortel has a range of products where Cisco is not focusing-4G, CDMA, UMTS, and wireless mesh.

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