The economic crisis in the region, beginning in the second half of 1997, has continued to dog Asia and the Pacific Rim. Jobs have been cut in certain industries, and the economy has not permitted telecommunication's infrastructure modernization to proceed as fast as predicted a year or two ago.
Even so Asia is ready not only for SDH, but WDM as well. Long distance and sprawling metropolitan regions provide DWDM manufacturers many opportunities to sell their products. DWDM is being installed in China, Korea and Japan, plus on submarine cables. Ciena and Lucent got there first, and have made concerted efforts, particularly to upstart carriers to deploy DWDM. Lucent announced in mid 1998 it was opening a new Bell Labs research and development organization new Tokyo that will focus on developing prototypes for next generation passive optical networking (PONS) systems.
NTT has been one of the most innovative companies testing new technologies, especially faster telecommunications systems. In eh fall of 1998 researchers announced that they were developing 1 Tbt/s optical communications system, that will be 100 times faster than current systems. Research showed that 20 Gbt/s signals could be carried on 59 different optical signals over a distance of 600 km between Tokyo and Kobe, Japan.
Some issues facing Asia are mainly linked to the eroded economy and China. China has still not been asked to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). The governments however did sign the International Technology Agreement that eliminated tariffs on information technology imported into China. This is very important as the country's need for telecommunications grows. In the meantime the Ministry of Electronics Industry (MEI) and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) plan to draft performance and design standard for electronics products sold there. This had led not only to number of products being manufactured there, but developing research and high tech facilities. Nokia, Lucent and a number of other international telecommunications companies have announced research facilities so that they will not be hindered in developing products that meet Chinese standards.
