The 3GSM World Congress 2004 in Cannes marked the beginning of the race by the wireless operators and equipment manufacturers to acquire new technologies and systems. The transition by the mass market to third generation wireless services is expected only in another three to five years, but procurement is already beginning, signaling the return of high-speed growth.
Nevertheless, everyone realizes that it will not be easy. Technology companies are well aware that, despite the optimism and a feeling that business is back on track, the industry will not soon return to the days when orders for new system were flooding in, and the hardest task facing technology companies was meeting their crowded timetables for supplying huge orders.
Technology company managers and systems developers are currently devoting most of their efforts to convincing the operators and equipment manufacturers that their systems are exactly what the operators and manufacturers need. The good news is that, in contrast to the situation in the past two years, this time their efforts have a good chance of succeeding. That chance is pushing all the companies to find the best possible jumping-off position.
As part of the preparations for the renewed contest in the marketplace, and in order to give Israeli technology companies a better start, the Israeli Mobile Association (IMA) organized brokerage events on two separate days at the 3GSM World Congress 2004 in Cannes. The events took place in a hotel opposite the buildings in which the exhibition was taking place. The events consisted of a marathon of meetings between Israeli companies and customers, distributors, and potential systems integrators. The events attracted the entire Israeli wireless industry, as well as senior people from the global wireless industry, including some from the world’s largest wireless operators, infrastructure and equipment manufacturers, computer firms, and systems integrators.
The industry players who came looking for cooperation agreements with Israeli companies included competitors of large Israeli companies like Comverse Technology (Nasdaq: CMVT) and Amdocs (NYSE: DOX). Those present at the events saw several of those two companies’ competitors expressing great interesting in cooperating with Israeli start-ups with complementary technologies to offer.
The feverish preparations for the brokerage events, which began before the exhibition, shifted into even higher gear during the two days on which the marathon meetings took place. IMA personnel, headed by founder and CEO Eyal Reshef, and Israel commercial attache to France Yinon Elroy, rushed about among the wireless operators, distributors, and equipment companies, introducing them to as many Israeli companies as possible. The results were evident. The brokerage events attracted such great interest from such a large number of wireless players that some Israeli companies had to split their forces in order to meet simultaneously with several concerns.
The Israeli companies reported very useful feedback from the brokerage events, and said that the meetings had been effective, because they had met with the people most relevant to them, those at a sufficiently senior level for the purposes of promoting the relationship. The companies said that at the meetings, they had gained a great deal of valuable business information about the road map of each operator, the technologies needed by the operators, planned launchings, and so forth.
The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor foreign trade administration took an extremely active part in the brokerage events, and contributed greatly to their success. Representatives of the Israeli consulates in Milan, The Hague, and Paris, worked indefatigably to maximize communication with the guests in their own languages.
Prominent wireless operators who met with Israeli companies at the brokerage event included T-mobile, Orange France, O2, Vodafone, Swisscom, Sunrise, TIM, Wind, Vodafone-Omnitel, Cegetel-SFR, Orange UK, Belgacom, Proxisimus, Optimus, Amena, TeliaSonera, Radiolinia, KPN Mobile, Monaco Telecom, and Turkcell.
Equipment manufacturers that participated in the meetings with Israeli companies included IBM, Alcatel (NYSE: ALA), Siemens (NYSE: SI; XETRA: SIE), Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY; SX: ERIC), Sony-Ericsson, QUALCOMM (Nasdaq: QCOM), Nortel (NYSE: NT), Nokia (NYSE: NK), Samsung, Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), Philips, Sendo, and Telit. Systems integrators that took part included Cap Gemini, ATOS, Accenture, IBM Global Services, Domininon, ETNOTEAM, Logica CMG, and T-Systems (DT Group).
This is the second straight year in which the brokerage has taken place,” says Apax Partners partner Sachi Gerlitz. “We think that it’s very effective, because it provides concentrated exposure of many Israeli companies to a great many concerns in the global wireless industry. This exposure enables Israeli companies to meet senior personnel, to whom it would otherwise be difficult, if not impossible, to gain access.
”In many cases, it’s very hard to get wireless industry people to visit Israel. The idea behind brokerage is to create a supportive environment that will enable Israeli companies to create initial connections that will continue after the exhibition.
”Keep in mind that because of the size of the 3GSM exhibition, and the many companies exhibiting there, the Israeli companies tended to get lost in the crowd, especially the smaller ones. The power of the Israeli wireless industry was evident on two occasions: the brokerage events, and the networking party held by the IMA. Incidentally, this year’s party also became a topic of conversation in non-Israeli circles, and significantly boosted Israel’s reputation at Cannes.”
Among the Israeli companies that participated in the brokerage events was MobileAccess Networks, which supplies infrastructure for wireless communications and for wireless local area networks (WLAN). “We held about ten meetings at the brokerage events, which were very productive, and greatly advanced our relationships with large players in the global wireless market,” said MobileAccess chairman and CEO Asaf Mohr. “In my opinion, it’s very worthwhile participating in this event, even for companies that have a stand in the exhibition.
”The main importance of the event lies in the creation of an ongoing dialogue with senior executives in major companies. This dialogue has great potential for producing future deals. At Cannes, Israeli companies won important exposure to market giants, with which the Israeli companies usually have no dialogue. Any other method of achieving this initial dialogue requires a lot of time and effort.”
This year’s exhibition featured two categories of technology, which were unofficially described as the next hit: wireless video and rich media streaming technologies, and push to talk technology. These two trends sent the industry players running after suitable technologies, and the technology companies were not slow to respond.
Among the Israeli companies with video and rich media content streaming technologies that participated in the brokerage events was Bamboo MediaCasting, which provides a platform for wireless operators for broadcasting rich media content simultaneously on 2.5G and 3G networks to an unlimited number of subscribers, while using minimal bandwidth.
Another brokerage event participant was CellGlide, which has developed a system for providing data communications and rich media streaming services. CellGlide’s system makes it possible to provide on 2.5 G wireless networks services usually provided on 3G networks.
Another Israeli company that took part in the brokerage marathon was InfoGin, considered a pioneer in the transmission of Internet content to all types of telephones.
Also present at the brokerage events were Cash-U Cellular Applications, which provides a wireless game platform, and LocatioNet Systems, which deals with technology for location-based services. The push to talk sector was represented by Mobile Tornado, which has developed technology for providing push to talk services on global system for mobiles (GSM) networks, and was a major focus of attention at the exhibition.
A tour of the brokerage tables also turned up a few companies that have developed infrastructure technologies, including Comsys, which provides infrastructure solutions for enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), general packet radio services (GPRS), GSM, and universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) networks; and Schema, which supplies optimization systems for wireless networks.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on March 4, 2004