Siemens to merge its communications units

Siemens is merging its mobile and fixed communications businesses into a single group called Siemens Communications, adapting itself to a changing market in which wireless and wireline technologies increasingly overlap.

Siemens is merging its mobile and fixed communications businesses into a single group called Siemens Communications, adapting itself to a changing market in which wireless and wireline technologies increasingly overlap.

Siemens Communications, to be based in the global electronics and engineering giant’s home town of Munich, will have under its umbrella Siemens’ wireless and wireline infrastructure and devices, as well as products for converged IP data and voice networks, the company said in a statement Thursday. To form the new group, Siemens will merge its Siemens ICN (Information and Communication Networks) and Siemens ICM (Information and Communication Mobile) groups.

Each of those groups has a U.S. arm. The U.S. businesses also will be merged into a new company, the name of which is not final, according to Suzanne Crow, director of corporate communications at Siemens ICN’s U.S. unit. Andy Mattes, currently president and CEO of ICN’s U.S. unit, will become president and CEO of the merged U.S. communications group, which will be based in Boca Raton, Fla. ICN is already based in Boca Raton; ICM in the U.S. is based in San Diego.

Lothar Pauly, currently COO of the worldwide ICN group, will become president of the worldwide Siemens Communications group. The changes are set to become effective on Oct. 1.

The mergers are aimed at helping Siemens better serve customers in a changing industry, Mattes said.

“We’re in a market environment where a lot of things are converging,” including enterprise and carrier networks and wireless and wireline infrastructure, Mattes said. A merged business will help Siemens leverage technologies such as software-based telecommunications “softswitches” for both wireless and wireline networks. Newly developed features could more easily be made available for different types of products, he said.

Mattes also sees those changes helping Siemens bolster its presence in the U.S., where it he said lacks the market awareness it has in Europe and some other regions.

“It will help us to address more customers with a broader product portfolio (and) solutions portfolio, and it will help us to gain market share. I’m convinced of that,” Mattes said.

The changes at Siemens make sense in a world where wired and wireless technology is overlapping, according to analyst Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects, in Washington, D.C. For example, whereas wireless once meant primarily mobile phone technology, it now includes wireless LAN hotspots and fixed wireless broadband systems, he said. Other major vendors, including Lucent Technologies also are seeking to leverage their resources across wireless and wireline categories, he said.