Siemens exits telecom

Sad day for the industry as Siemens exits telecoms sector after 160 years
14/08/2008 10:24:00 - by Martyn Warwick

It's been a long and glorious history. The German company Siemens was one of the very first companies ever to lay telephone cables and make telephony switches, but today it is exiting the industry after more than a century and a half.

The company was founded by Werner von Siemens on October 1, 1847, (the year that Sam Colt sold an early version of his epoch-making revolver to the US government, Denmark began its first railway service and Alexander Graham Bell was born) and the infant company's first product was a form of telegraph needle that, when activated, pointed out a sequence of letters transmitted from elsewhere. It was designed to compete with the highly successful and popular Morse code and telegraphy system but was not a great success except in Germany.

In 1848, Siemens built Europe's first long-distance telegraph line, a 500 kilometre link between Berlin and Frankfurt, and by 1853 (when the Crimean War was at its height, Vincent van Gogh was born and the keel of Brunel's massive paddle steamer, the Great Eastern was laid) Siemens was a multi-national conglomerate building a 6,000 kilometre-long telegraph system across Russia.

The first Siemen's telephone switch was designed and constructed in 1881 and the company designed the "Faraday", the first specialist vessel dedicated to the laying of submarine cable back in 1874.

But now it's all over. Siemens has agreed to sell a majority share of its cordless phone business (its sole remaining presence in telephony) to Arques Industries thus putting an end to its long history as a renowned and respected vendor of telecoms equipment.

The two organisations have agreed to transfer 80.2 per cent of Siemens Home and Office Communications Devices to Arques. Home and Office Communications, one of Siemens' last attempts to remain a major player in telecoms was set up as a stand-alone company only three years ago in 2005.

Earlier this week, Siemens divested 51 per cent of its enterprise communications unit (that, basically, sold call centre equipment) in a joint venture with the US-based Gores Group. And the company had already rid itself of its network equipment arm by entering a joint venture with Nokia of Finland as well as having, controversially and disastrously, sold its mobile phone business to Taiwan’s BenQ.