For telecom equipment makers (Alcatel, Nortel, Lucent?) who have pinned their hopes on China, they would be wise to not ignore opportunities closer to home. A report by Infonetics suggests capital spending in China will decline 3% in 2006, mostly due to a slow down in the wake of massive build-outs. "The capital intensity for Chinese carriers was over 30%, which is an unsustainable ratio," said Kevin Mitchell, a principle analyst with Infonetics. Meanwhile, capex in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific will grow 6% this year to $190 billion with similar growth expected in 2006. Most of the spending gains are focused on investments in next-generation technologies such as packet voice, broadband and metro Ethernet. A telling tale of the economic reality of breaking into new markets is Nortel's $500 million deal with BSNL. In theory, it is supposed to give Nortel a foothold in the fast-growing Indian market. To date, however, it has only given Nortel plenty of pain and red ink as losses have totaled $286 million on sales of $226 million. Even worse, it appears BSNL has an option to buy another $250 million of wireless equipment, which could mean even more losses for Nortel.