As a result of recent contract wins in China and the US, Nortel Matra Cellular, the joint venture between Matra Communication SA and Northern Telecom Ltd, is studying the best way to increase its production in those markets, the company confirmed late last year. In the last few months, Nortel Matra has been awarded a contract to install the first Groupe Speciale Mobile digital cellular network in Canton and another contract from long-distance carrier MCI Communications Corp n to build an experimental PCS 1990-based cellular network in Dallas and Washington. PCS 1900 is the US version of the GSM standard. Nortel Matra says the two contracts could translate into orders worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the first quarter of the year. We must significantly increase our production capacity for mobile phones in order to respond to these new markets, managing director Emile Gratton told La Tribune-Defosses. Nortel Matra says that it can rely on its factories in Raleigh, North Carolina and Toronto for the switching technology needed for the 15-odd requests for proposal for PCS systems, which it is preparing in the US. But its plant in Chateaudun, France cannot meet the local manufacturing requirement for mobile radio technology. For the same reason, the company says it is new seeking a joint-venture partner in China.
