Ronald Gruia writes that Nortel is enthusiastic about its Asian prospects based on the belief China will finally issue 3G licenses before the end of the year. Nortel apparently believes its incumbent position with China Unicom and a joint venture LG will lead to big business. That said, there wasn't much positive news for Asia for Nortel in the third-quarter of 2004 as sales fell 37% to US$227-million. For all the deal-making Nortel has done in Asia in the past six months, most of its competitors have been pursuing the same strategy while domestic suppliers are becoming more aggressive in and out of market. Given the rough times ahead, the appointment of Gary Daichendt as Nortel's president and COO makes a lot of sense given he's an operations expert - i.e. he's going to find ways to reduce costs even further through exercises such as improved logistics.