The two companies appointed the new entity's worldwide regional operation heads in August, including for China, which was listed as the only single country market for Nokia-Siemens Networks.

Simon Beresford-Wylie, executive vice-president and general manager of Nokia Networks and Chief Executive Officer Designate of Nokia-Siemens Networks, spoke to China Daily reporter Li Weitao last week about how the merger and pending regulatory approval is progressing the questions (Q) and answers (A) follow.

Q: Nokia Networks has been focusing on mobile networks and we know Siemens is strong in the fixed-line business as well. So what is the role and value of fixed network technology for Nokia-Siemens Networks?

A: When we looked at the merger, originally the logic very much was based on convergence. In the last couple of years, it's becoming increasingly clear that fixed-mobile conversions is a major industry trend.

With the merger with Siemens, I think we have a beautifully balanced convergence portfolio.

On June 19 when we announced this I commented that 22 per cent of our portfolio from a revenue perspective was based on fixed and 78 per cent based on mobile.

Currently there are 2.4 to 2.5 billion mobile subscribers (globally). Our expectations are that by 2008 it will grow to 3 billion and it will touch 4 billion in 2010.

Other growth areas are very much in broadband, the fixed broadband, and around the convergent call. So fixed actually has, if you like, a nice dovetail from a growth point of view on broadband access and convergent call with the mobility business so we see a wonderful complementary here.

We feel great about the balance in our portfolio, because as Nokia-Siemens Networks we may start as No 3 (player) but we aspire to be No 1 and we think our portfolio gives us a great foundation to reach that goal.

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