C&W reaffirms commitment to Japanese voice market

UK-based Cable & Wireless (C&W) has revealed that sales at its voice telephony business in Japan are growing at an annual rate of more than 10%. The company has repeatedly denied rumours that it is planning to close down the voice services division of its Cable & Wireless IDC subsidiary, which was less affected than operations elsewhere by the parent company’s restructuring of its unprofitable global services segment. Adrian Chamberlain, head of global services in Europe and Asia, was quoted as saying that C&W remains committed to being a complete services carrier in Japan, where it derives more than half its revenue from voice calls. He added, however, that the company does not intend to expand its Japanese operations through either mergers or acquisitions. The announcement comes as other Japanese carriers turn their attention to data and VoIP telephony in a bid to offset declining revenues in the voice sector; according to Bloomberg, turnover from voice telephony in Japan has fallen 20% over the past twelve months. C&W commenced the review of its global division late last year after it posted a GBP4.5 billion net loss for the six months to the end of September. 3,500 jobs will be lost at the division, taking the number of employees to around 9,000. The effects of the restructuring will be most keenly felt in Europe and the US. In a separate development, yesterday C&W launched a new network infrastructure services operation known as ALLnet, which is designed to explore opportunities in the ICT services markets in the UK and Ireland. ALLnet was formed from the merger of six C&W subsidiaries acquired between 1998 and 2000: the original ALLnet, ML Integration, Grant & Taylor, ML Careline, BTN and Cable & Wireless Integration (Ireland). Analysts have highlighted a potential conflict of interests between ALLnet and C&W as a possible pitfall, but ALLnet managing director Ian Burnley has pointed out that his firm relies on the parent company for just 10% of its business and is keen to maintain its independence.