Multimedia computing may, and pen computing might, but probably won’t, be a big hit over the next few years, but the nearest thing to a cast iron certainty that anyone can forecast in this turbulent and deceptive economic climate is that across the world, telecommunications is on a fast growth tack. Accordingly, Hewlett-Packard Co has formed a new worldwide Telecommunications Systems Business Unit the better to serve customers in the market. The company cites figures suggesting that computer-related spending in the global telecommunications industry is expected to jump to $26,000m by 1996 from $14,000m in 1991, and says the new unit was formed in response to rapid changes in the telecommunications industry fuelled by new technologies and services. It reckons it is one of only a handful of companies that can provide tools to design, install and test telecommunications networks; integrate measurement and computation to help build network-management systems; and provide the computing power needed to meet customer demand for new services. The new unit brings together three product entities – the Singapore Network Operation; the Telecommunications Network Operation in Grenoble, France; and the Telecommunications Platforms Operation in Sunnyvale, California; and three business-development teams – the America’s Telecommunications Marketing team, in Cupertino; the Asia Pacific Business Development team in Singapore; and the European Business Development team, in Grenoble.
