A few months back, Nortel CEO Bill Owens spent some time Asia - an intriguing move given the company's financial woes. Clearly, he was hammering home the final details of a few deals as Nortel will enter into joint venture with state-owned China Putian Corp. and South Korea's LG Electronics.
The China Putian deal will give Nortel a front row seat to China's 3G party - whenever the government decides it will start. The agreement with LG appears to be focused on South Korea, which has one of the most developed high-speed Internet and wireless markets in the world. It's an interesting marriage because LG has been looking to sell or find a partner for its telecom equipment unit, which has been struggling apparently with declining sales and low margins. Nortel reportedly paid US$400 million to US$600-million for the privledge of joining forces with LG.
It is easy to get the feeling there is a big telecom dance happening in Asia, which is one of the few high-growth markets left in the world now that European and North American carriers have adopted a "let them come and we will build it" approach to investments in new infrastructure and services.
You get the feeling that no one (the multi-national equipment makers) want to be left without a (Asian) partner when the music finally stops. Nortel's willingness to cogh up some of its much-needed cash to hook up with LG reflects the reality iif Nortel hadn't done so, a rival such as Motorola would have happily made nice with LG.

Just when you thought all the cablecos had decided to go down the premium-pricing path, Videotron has thrown the market a change-up. The company became the first cableco in Canada to roll out an IP-based telephony service that starts at $15.95 a month. What's different about the service is its a la carte menu where customers can add individual features for a monthly fee. The first service costs $4 a month while additional services are $2 a month. There's also a $4.95 a month plan for LD within Quebec.
Give Videotron credit for trying a different approach, which appears in some ways to be a hybrid between the premium offerings of Comcast, and the discount deals at Vonage, Primus, AT&T, Yak, etc. My take is that Videotron management realizes price will be a key factor if it wants to win market share against Bell Canada, as well as its Internet telephony rivals.
As for Videotron customers, if you already use the company's high-speed Internet and cable-TV services, it's a no-brainer to sign up for the telephony service. The fact Videotron offers free installation that lets you use your in-house wiring, and you get to keep your phone number makes its service difficult to resist. Bell Canada has much to worry about.

Videotron's not-so-secret Internet telephony plans will come to fruition today when Canada's fourth-largest cableco unveils its service today in Montreal. This move was highly expected after it held several meetings a couple days before Christmas with industry analysts in Toronto. It will be interesting to see Videotron's pricing strategy. Do they go premium based on the idea of high-value services and high-reliability, or do they go low and battle Bell, Vonage, et al on price?

According to a couple British newspapers, it could be a matter of time before the world's most poular search engine offers a telephony service. This speculation is based on an ad on Google's Web site for a "Strategic Negotiator, Global Infrastructure" who would be responsible to help with the "development of a global backbone network".
Google has moved into a variety of online services such as blogs (Blogger), comparative shopping engines (Froogle), social networking (Okrut) and e-mail (Gmail), so why not VOIP. All Google would have to do is offer Skype-like software that would sit on a browser toolbar. If Google wanted to buy network capacity, there is no lack of wholesale carriers willing to offer bargain-basement prices.
From a strategic perspective, Google needs to find another home run to drive growth. It hit paydirt with AdSense by copying Overture's business model but its other diversification efforts have, at best, seen modest success. For example, Gmail has been out for several months, and it's not like Hotmail and Yahoo Mail are disappearing. Froogle's a great tool to quickly make sure you're geting a deal on eBay, while Blogger's still looking for ways to real money. The tiime will come - and it's coming soon - when investors start to lose their lust for Google and start demanding new high-growth vehicles. Then what?
That said, Internet telephony could be different for Google because voice is a mainstream application. Google could provide the Internet telephony market with a big-time boost by raising the technology's profle and credibility with the masses who are happy - at least for now - not be among the bleeding edge. If you want to take Google and telephony another step forward, why wouldn't it become a virtual wireless service provider? It has the same kind of brand recognition as Virgin, which has enjoyed great success in Australia, the U.S. and the U.K.