Mark Evans

A Hint of Nortel CEO's Vision

Okay, I've been a little hard on Nortel Networks CEO Bill Owens over his reluctance to articulate the company's strategic direction. But today at the Progress and Freedom Foundation conference he scolded the U.S. government for its slow adoption of always-on wireless networks and location-identifying technologies. “I wonder if the cabinet members, the policymakers, the key people in our government understand how quickly this is changing,” he said in a CNet story. “Who in the United States government is at a level where they're seeing that vision (and saying) they must do something?”. Well, there you go: Bill Owens believes in wireless technology but we already knew that from his days at Teledesic. Wireless also happens to be Nortel's biggest business, albeit one whose growth prospects don't look as promising as they did a year ago. The upside is Owens revealed some of his strategic cards in terms of technology, which is a nice change of pace from the government, service and security mantra.