Bell Canada Positions for New Broadband Landscape

The telecom landscape in Canada is changing quickly and radically, said Michael J. Sabia, President and CEO of Bell Canada Enterprises, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XII Conference. Sabia cited three fundamental forces that are reshaping the industry. First, customer preferences are evolving to demand new technological solutions and less complexity. Second, the level of competitive intensity is increasing. There will soon be genuine local competition as cable companies launch their VoIP services. Third, there is a major trend...

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BT to Offer Wholesale Access to Wi-Fi Hotspots

BT will offer wholesale access its to public wireless broadband network. BT Openzone will market the wholesale service to mobile operators, ISPs, fixed line operators and even "virtual mobile operators." The company plans to put BT Openzone Wi-Fi access points in many of the thousands of payphones across Britain. http://www.bt....

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SBC Trims Introductory DSL Pricing

SBC Communications trimmed its introductory DSL pricing by $3 per month. Pricing now begins at $26.95 per month for a one year commitment on basic DSL service (dynamic IP address) with a downlink speed of 384 kbps and 128 kbps uplink. Various other pricing tiers are offered. http://www02.sbc.com/DSL_new/content_new/1,,18,00.h...

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PanAmSat and JSAT Jointly Launch HDTV-Ready Satellite

PanAmSat and Japan's JSAT Corporation's jointly owned Galaxy XIII/Horizons-1 satellite was successfully launched into orbit by Sea Launch. The spacecraft, which will be located at 127 degrees west longitude, has 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders covering the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. Galaxy XIII/Horizons-1 will operate under dual licenses, with the C-band payload licensed through the FCC in the U.S., and the Ku-band licensed through Japan's Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications. PanAmSat...

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ST Announces Volume Shipments of VDSL Chips

STMicroelectronics has begun volume shipments of its ZipperWire DMT VDSL chipset to manufacturers of central office and customer premise equipment. ST expects the VDSL market to grow to 6 - 7 million lines deployed by 2005. The majority of VDSL deployments are expected to occur in Asia. http://www.st.com In March 2003, STMicroelectronics introduced its "ZipperWire" DMT-VDSL chipset, claiming the ability to deliver an aggregate data rate in excess of 100 Mbps over short copper loops. ST's new ZipperWire chipset, which is designed for both central-office...

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Level 3 Names Wholesale Ethernet Customer

Level 3 Communications is supplying its new wholesale Ethernet data networking service to InTechnology, a UK provider of data storage solutions and services. More specifically, InTechnology is using Level 3's (3)Flex Ethernet service to securely transport data between London, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Milan and Madrid. InTechnology recently acquired Allasso, one of Europe's leading specialist distributors of IT security products. InTechnology also purchases (3)Center Colocation services from Level 3. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.Level3.com...

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Salira Names Former Nortel and Qwest Executive as CEO

Salira Optical Network Systems named Ross Bernard Lau as its new president and CEO. Prior to joining Salira, Lau was president and CEO of Qwest Asia. Before that, he was president and COO of Nortel Networks (Asia) Ltd.'s service provider solutions group. Earlier, Lau was instrumental in launching Nortel's carrier-class fiber optics business. Salira has its major operations in Santa Clara, California and Shanghai, China. http://www.salira.com In September 2003, Salira announced a contract to supply a "triple-play" optical network solution to...

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Starbucks and T-Mobile Offer Digital Content to Wi-Fi Users

T-Mobile, HP and Starbucks will begin to offer an "enhanced digital entertainment experience" to Wi-Fi users at Starbucks coffeehouses. Throughout October, customers using a Wi-Fi enabled notebook computer while at select Starbucks locations can watch classic blues performances from legends like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters, listen to an array of great blues tunes, and see videos of noteworthy musicians sharing how blues music and artists influenced them. Starbucks is currently offering Wi-Fi at 2,600 locations across the U.S. The companies noted...

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SaskTel Selects Kasenna for Telco VOD

Canada's Saskatchewan Telecommunications (SaskTel) selected Kasenna's video delivery platform to power its new VOD service launched this week. SaskTel has been offering an IP broadcast TV service over its DSL network since last year. The new VOD service is available to subscribers in all 9 cities where SaskTel's television service is offered and is expected to grow to 50,000 subscribers by 2005.Specifically, SaskTel is using Kasenna's MediaBase XMP software to manage, distribute and deliver video content for the new VOD portion of their triple-play...

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Veraz Networks and NetCentrex Confirm SIP Interoperability

Veraz Networks and NetCentrex completed interoperability testing for their respective Contact Center and IP Centrex solutions. Specifically, the testing confirmed interoperability of the Veraz ControlSwitch and I-Gate media gateways with the NetCentrex Saga800 network-based contact center and IPCentrex hosted telephony solutions. SIP was the common protocol used for interoperability between the products from both companies. http://www.veraznetworks.com http://www.netcentrex....

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XO Launches MPLS-based MultiTransport Networking Service

XO Communications launched a new MultiTransport Networking Service (MTNS) designed in the initial phase to enable legacy Frame Relay-to-Frame Relay and Ethernet-to-Ethernet wide-area-network connectivity.The service is carried over XO's MPLS-enabled IP backbone using physically diverse OC-192 circuits. Future releases of MTNS will support Class-of-Service (CoS) capabilities allowing customers to set parameters that support the customization of traffic prioritization. The service will also enable the integration of legacy access methods with more...

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Verizon's Babbio Confrims FTTP Commitment

When asked "do you feel better about the telecom business today than you did a year ago?", Larry Babbio, Vice Chairman and President of Verizon Communications, replies with an unequivocal "yes" -- except on the regulatory front. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XII Conference, Babbio said traditional telecom services now represent 45% of Verizon's' overall revenues, compared to 52% in the first half of 2001. The revenue mix is shifting from POTS to new growth areas. Customers are continuing to adopt new technologies at a significant...

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Deutsche Telekom Credits DSL and Cost Cutting for Turn Around

Booming DSL growth is a major reason for the stabilization of Deutsche Telekom's fixed line business, said Kai-Uwe Ricke, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XII Conference. A second reason for Deutsche Telekom's on-going turnaround is that the company has made significant progress in improving its overall efficiency, reducing its size, and cutting its debt. Ricke is confident that DT's net income will be positive for the full year 2003 -- the first time it has achieved this positive result since 2000. The company's...

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DIRECTV Selects Space Systems/Loral for 2 New Satellites

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) received orders to proceed with the design and construction of two satellites: DIRECTV 8 and DIRECTV 9S. Aggregate revenue for the construction of the two satellites will be in excess of $220 million. DIRECTV 8, to be delivered in the late first quarter of 2005, will provide national coverage from the 101 degrees West longitude orbital slot, DIRECTV's primary orbital slot. The satellite will carry 16 high-power transponders. DIRECTV 9S, scheduled for delivery in the late second quarter of 2005, is designed to operate...

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Cisco and Huawei Stay Litigation

Cisco Systems and Huawei agreed to stay the litigation that is currently pending in a district court in Texas. As part of the agreement, the two companies have agreed on a course of action that they expect -- upon full implementation and pending completion of an independent expert review process -- will lead to the end of the lawsuit.Specifically, Huawei agreed to continue to abide by the terms of a Preliminary Injunction Order. To address Cisco's concerns, Huawei has voluntarily made changes to certain of its router and switch products. The parties...

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BellSouth's Ackerman Sees Growth in New Services

Although the process is gradual, four major and historic network transformations are underway at BellSouth, said Duane Ackerman, the company's president and CEO, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XII Conference. These transformations include: narrowband-to-broadband; electrical-to-optical; circuit-to-packet; and overlay-to-shared. The major goal is to arrive at a more flexible infrastructure with quicker provisioning and rearrangement of services. BellSouth is focused on pushing fiber to the outer edge of the network. By the end of...

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IBM Unveils Thin-Silicon SiGe Bipolar Transistor

IBM demonstrated a "thin-silicon" SiGe bipolar transistor that promises a fourfold boost in performance or a fivefold reduction in power consumption in wireless devices compared to the state-of-the-art thin-silicon bipolar technology. IBM said its new chip design uses a revolutionary thin wafer that combines CMOS and SiGe bipolar technology. The company presented details of its new chip design at this week's 2003 Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting. http://www.ibm....

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Comcast Sees Acceleration in Cable Modem Growth

Sales of cable modem services are accelerating, said Brian Roberts, President and CEO of Comcast, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XII Conference. Comcast is on track to add 1.6 million cable modem customers this calendar year, which would give it a total of 5.2 million subscribers by year's end. New customer additions in July-August 2003 were up by 30% compared to the same period in 2002. Penetration rates are in the 12-13% range, leaving significant room for subscriber growth. Roberts said the revenue opportunity for cable modem...

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Shaw Licenses Universal Studios Content for its VOD Offering

Shaw Communications, which provides cable TV services to approximately 2.9 million customers in Canada,entered into a long-term licensing agreement with Universal Studios Pay-Per-View (USPPV) to provide major Hollywood movies and other programming content for Shaw's Video-on-Demand (VOD) and Pay-Per-View (PPV) services. Universal Studios, which is part of Vivendi UNIVERSAL Entertainment (VUE), is now licensing and marketing its movies to pay-per-view and video-on-demand distributors worldwide. http://www.shaw.ca/http://www.universalppv.net/In June...

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Cablevision's Rainbow DBS to Introduce Nationwide HDTV Service

Rainbow DBS, the satellite service division of Cablevision Systems, is getting ready to launch an array of high-definition television (HDTV) programming to customers across the continental U.S. The new "VOOM" satellite service will eventually carry as many as 39 HDTV channels, as well as 88 channels in standard-definition format. VOOM will initially broadcast in MPEG-2, with an upgrade to MPEG-4 currently expected for the third quarter of 2004. Using MPEG-4, Rainbow DBS will be able to broadcast more than 200 channels, including at least 39 HDTV...

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Hawaii's Oceanic Cable Upgrades its Transport Network

Oceanic Time Warner Cable, which serves the state of Hawaii, has deployed a Scientific-Atlanta Prisma DT digital transport system to provide a variety of interconnect services for its cable TV and cable modem customers on the islands of Oahu, Maui and Hawaii. A fourth segment of the system is currently being installed on Kauai. The Scientific-Atlanta transport system will be used to deliver five major applications for Oceanic on the four islands via an undersea fiber optic cable network: Video on Demand -- at the master headend on Oahu, library...

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Extreme Networks All-in-One Wired And Wireless Switch

Extreme Networks introduced a unified wired and wireless, Layer 2/3 stackable Ethernet switch designed for companies that want to deploy a single, secure network architecture for both wired and wireless access. Extreme's new Summit 300-48 switch is a 48-port (plus four copper and mini-GBIC ports) Layer 2/3 WLAN switch with an expansion slot for future upgradeability and emerging mobile applications. The product provides extensive encryption and security services -- such as AES, WES and WPA -- to the wireless ports. List pricing is $6,995. Extreme...

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Acme Packet Closes $15 Million for its Session Border Controllers

Acme Packet, a start-up based in Woburn, Massachusetts, raised $15 million in second round funding for its session border controllers for service providers. Acme Packet's Net-Net products solve the critical problems across IP network borders, including security, service assurance, revenue and profit assurance, and law enforcement. Current deployments include VoIP trunking network peering, hosted IP services for business and residential customers, and voice ASP services in the data center. The new funding round included Advanced Technology Ventures...

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Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Upgrades GSM Network with Nortel

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom is deploying Nortel Networks' radio, core switching and intelligent network equipment to upgrade its GSM network for GPRS wireless voice and data services. The upgrade will improve radio frequency (RF) coverage, prepare for seamless 2G/3G interworking, and provide a platform for new revenue-generating services like Personalized-Ring Back Tone, Prepaid Short Message Service, and others. The deployments are covered under agreements signed in June and August 2003 and collectively estimated at US$64 million. http://www.n...

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Lucent Supplies ATM Infrastructure for KPN Mobile

Lucent Technologies was awarded a multimillion dollar contract to supply ATM infrastructure and software for KPN Mobile's 3G UMTS network. Specifically, Lucent will deploy its GX 550 Multiservice WAN Switch at six locations across the Netherlands to develop a high-speed backbone network that is able to support ATM, Frame Relay and IP traffic. KPN Mobile will manage the ATM network with the Lucent NavisCore Element Management System and NavisXtend Fault Server to provide centralized end-to-end provisioning. Financial terms were not disclosed....

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Marconi Wins $9M Contract from US Government for Core Switch Router

Marconi Corporation has been awarded a $9 million contract to supply additional BXR-48000 multiservice switch-routers to the U.S. Federal government. The contract also includes installation services. The new routers will be used in a different Federal Government network and by a different department than the currently deployed BXR-48000 multiservice switch-routers, which the US Department of Defense purchased for its ATM network last year. Marconi also said that the federal government is currently evaluating the platform's IP/MPLS capabilities....

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EU Announces Major Investments in R&D

The European Union will commit one billion EURs for 236 R&D projects related to Information Society Technologies (IST). The R&R projects are aimed at extending today's Web, Internet and mobile communications technologies, transforming the delivery and performance of services and adding to their variety. Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for Enterprise and the Information Society, said the R&D funding would help ensure Europe's competitiveness. The EC has recently finalized selection of the 236 R&D projects out of 1,400 proposals...

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Siemens Adds Wi-Fi Calling to its Corporate Unified Messaging App

Siemens Information and Communication Networks introduced version 2.0 of its HiPath CorporateConnect application that allows employees to use a single communications device, telephone number and voicemail box for corporate voice communications. The new version offers two new graphical user interface options that allow users to leverage Windows Pocket PC PDA devices or a standard Web browser to manage their real-time communications anywhere they have wireless access, including WiFi 802.11b/e hotspots. This includes placing and receiving calls over...

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RAD Data Communications and ECI Announce Partnership

RAD Data Communications and ECI Telecom agreed to incorporate each other's equipment within their individual product portfolios. The first products to be paired are RAD's Multiservice Access Platform (MAP) and ECI's XDM converged optical platform, providing a solution for the metro access market. The companies said they have been collaborating for several years but have just recently formalized the agreement. http://www.rad.com http://www.ecitele....

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AudioCodes Selects Motorola's Network Processor for Media Gateways

AudioCodes has selected the Motorola C-5e network processor to perform packet forwarding in the company's next-generation gateways, including its high-density VoIP gateways, Voice over ATM (VoATM) gateways, 3G gateways, and media servers. The processor's architecture comprises 16 fully-programmable RISC cores that can support any protocol, including ATM AAL-2/AAL-5, VoIP/Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)/User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Packet-over-SONET/Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), and MPLS. It also supports interworking between IP and ATM, such...

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Path 1 Supplies Video-over-IP Gateway for Japanese Broadcaster

Path 1 Network Technologies is supplying its video-over-IP gateways to a major Japanese broadcaster for use in a trial transmitting live video material between stations in different geographic locations within Japan using a best effort service optical line. Path 1's platform offers Gigabit Ethernet capability, enabling uncompressed SDI, as well as compressed DVB-ASI MPEG2 video feeds over Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet network interfaces. http://www.path1....

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CinemaNow Introduces Television Interface to Internet VOD

CinemaNow is introducing a television interface that lets users of Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 browse, purchase and watch movies on-demand by using their remote control and television set or PC display. Font sizes and page layouts have been optimized for viewing on a TV display from a distance, rather than on a PC monitor. http://www.cinemanow....

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Microsoft Unveils Windows XP Media Center 2004

Microsoft unveiled its Windows XP Media Center 2004 operating system and announced key digital content providers. Major PC manufacturers planning to offer Windows XP Media Center PCs include Dell, Sony, Gateway, HP, Toshiba and more than 40 other OEMs worldwide.The key new capabilities of Windows XP Media Center 2004 include:the ability to connect the Media Center PC to a standard or widescreen TV or a high-resolution display, such as a plasma or projection TV, to create a dynamic home theater environment. This includes enhanced support for 16...

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PMC Sierra Supplies Chips for Lucent's Metropolis DMX

Seven of PMC Sierra's metro ICs have been selected by Lucent Technologies for its Metropolis DMX system, which provides seamless integration and interworking capabilities for adding data services onto SONET/SDH networks. The products are now being deployed in network trials. http://www.pmc-sierra.c...

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Level 3 Increases Network Capacity into Stockholm

Level 3 Communications is increasing its network capacity into Stockholm and expects to begin offering services in Copenhagen in October 2003. The Level 3 network serves 17 of the largest markets in Europe, as well as 66 markets across North America. In addition, the company operates metropolitan networks in 36 cities, including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt. Level 3 also has network capacity on high-speed transatlantic cable systems. http://www.level3....

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West Ridge Networks Raises $8 Million in Seed Funding

West Ridge Networks, a start-up based in Littleton, Massachusetts, closed an $8 million Series A round of funding. The company is developing technology to enable large network service providers to improve the operational efficiency and service quality of their networks. Product plans have not been disclosed. Bay Partners and Advent International participated in the round. http://www.westridgenetworks....

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AT&T Launches Local High-Bandwidth Ethernet Services

AT&T introduced a local Ethernet service for connecting multiple branch offices in a VPN within a metropolitan area. AT&T Ethernet Switched Service-Metropolitan Area Network supports the transport of data, voice and video at speeds of 50 Mbps to 1 Gbps. It is a committed bandwidth service that also offers a "self-healing" option for resilient access to critical servers, data and applications. The service is supported by 24x7 proactive monitoring, network management reporting and SLAs. The service is available in 67 metropolitan areas,...

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CapRock Teams Up with Eutelsat

CapRock Communications, a satellite communications provider for the drilling industry, will gain access to Eutelsat's SESAT satellite. Positioned at 36 degrees East, SESAT provides extensive widebeam and steerable coverage from the North Sea to India. http://www.caprock.com http://www.eutelsat....

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Marvell Scales its System Controller for Networking Applications

Marvell introduced its Discovery III line-up of system controllers targeted at routers, switches and wireless base stations, as well as storage and laser printer applications. Keeping pace with the continuous improvement of processors, the new system controllers support the 200 MHz interface for next generation high performance PowerPC and MIPS CPUs. Marvell's new devices have received support from leading CPU vendors, such as IBM, Motorola, and PMC-Sierra. The Discovery III system controller integrates several I/O peripherals on-chip, including...

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HyperTransport Consortium's DirectPacket Spec Targets Chip-to-chip Traffic

The HyperTransport Technology Consortium released a new specification aimed at increasing the efficiency of packet-based chip-to-chip traffic. The new DirectPacket HyperTransport 1.1 specification provides four new capabilities: native packet handling for efficient transport of user packets through board-level systems, a robust retry protocol for high reliability server and communications systems, peer-to-peer routing for direct connection between I/O devices, and three new sets of Virtual Channels including 16 channels optimized for streaming...

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N2 Broadband and ICTV Create Web Services Interface for VOD Menuing

N2 Broadband and ICTV are developing a new Web Services interface for providing VOD menuing capabilities on N2 Broadband's OpenStream solution, which is a widely-deployed commercial VOD back-office solution. The new interface, which combines HeadendWare's support of standard Web technologies with N2 Broadband's open platform, allows cable system operators to bring to market new applications. For example, operators and programmers delivering VOD via OpenStream's "plug-and-play" environment could deploy headend-based menuing and merchandising that...

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LightPoint Deploys Redback's SmartEdge 800 Router

LightPoint Communications, a service provider based in Portland, Oregon, has selected Redback Networks' SmartEdge 800 Router to build its broadband IP network, including aggregating customer data traffic and providing a reliable connection to Internet backbone carriers. LightPoint will utilize the SmartEdge Router to deliver IP services, such as hosting and network-based storage. The SmartEdge 800 can be partitioned into many separate virtual routers, each having it's own forwarding table and management console. Redback said this feature provides...

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DirecTV Increases its Guidance on Stronger than Expected Demand

DirecTV increased its full-year guidance to one million net subscriber additions in 2003, up from the prior guidance of approximately 900,000. The company cited its ongoing promotion with the NFL as well as solid churn management for the stronger than expected performance. DIRECTV U.S. expects to add about 320,000 net new owned and operated subscribers in the quarter. The company is also increasing its revenue guidance for the third quarter and full-year to approximately $1.93 billion and $7.6 billion, respectively, due to the higher demand...

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UTStarcom Announces $47 Million in New Contracts in China

UTStarcomm announced a new contract with China Telecom valued at approximately $27 million to expand its IP-Based PAS (Personal Access System) in Zhejiang Province. Separately, UTStarcomm signed a contract with China Netcom valued at approximately $20 million to expand its IP-based PAS platform in two cities in the province of Liaoning. http://www.utstar.c...

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Quintum Releases Call Relay Session Border Controllers for Service Providers

Quintum Technologies launched a Session Border Controller designed for call relay requirements of service providers. Quintum's original Call Relay session border controller supports 16 simultaneous VoIP calls, and is software upgradeable to 32; its new Call Relay SP supports 120 simultaneous VoIP calls, and is software upgradeable to 672. The products allow VoIP endpoints such as gateways, IP phones, and IP soft phones which are behind a Network Address Translation (NAT) firewall, to communicate with VoIP endpoints on external IP networks. h...

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Intel Releases NetMerge Call Manager Beta Software

Intel began beta testing of a new NetMerge Call Manager software that runs on Intel processor-based servers to enable speech and advanced voice solutions for enterprise customers. The software provides a way integrate the Microsoft Speech Server with an enterprise's existing telephony network. The software uses advanced capabilities within Intel's telephony hardware to construct complex telephone services from the simpler programming elements that are presented to the application developer. Intel also introduced Intel NetStructure Host Media...

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Updated U.S. Optical Fiber Communities List Released

A total of 94 communities across the U.S. are currently providing FTTH broadband services to customers, according to an updated list released by the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council and Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). The groups cited Provo, Utah as an example of where FTTH is making in-roads as a municipal goal. In Provo, city officials are reviewing a plan to make FTTH services available to all of the city's 32,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2005. Provo recently completed a FTTH pilot program and is currently delivering...

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Disney Launches MovieBeam Service using Over the Air Datacasting

The Walt Disney Company launched its "MovieBeam" on-demand movie rental service using over-the-air datacasting transmission medium and PVR-style set-top boxes. The service, which is being launched initially in three U.S. market (Jacksonville, Florida; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Spokane, Washington), provides access to 100 movies stored in digital format on the set-top hard disk drive. Each week, about 10 new movies are transmitted via a digital wireless signal to the MovieBeam receiver's small indoor antenna, replacing 10 titles. The data transmissions...

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Ericsson to Resell Atreus Systems' Service Fulfillment OSS

Ericsson will market and sell Atreus Systems' "xAuthority" as the service fulfillment engine within its IP service solution worldwide. The Atreus platform unifies front-end, customer-facing self-service portals with the back office operational systems that execute flow-through provisioning, authentication, and activation across the network. http://www.atreus-systems....

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Verizon Wireless Launches 3G CDMA 1xEVDO Networks

Verizon Wireless is activating commercial service on its 3G 1xEVDO (1X evolution-data optimized) networks in Washington D.C. and San Diego. The new BroadbandAccess service provides mobile VPN connections with typical access speeds of 300-500 Kbps with bursts of up to 2.0 Mbps. BroadbandAccess service is available for a flat rate of $79.99 a month. Verizon Wireless is offering a wireless PC card manufactured by Sierra Wireless for $149, after a $100 rebate. In the future, Verizon Wireless plans to offer additional BroadbandAccess products, including...

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SingTel Witholds Bid for Pay TV License in Singapore

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has decided not to submit a tender for the second Subscription Television Service (Pay TV) license in Singapore. The company said that after careful evaluation of the framework of the license, it concluded that "there is no viable and sustainable business case for SingTel to make the significant investment required to enter the Pay TV market in the current environment." Among the factors cited for not pursuing the second Pay TV license from the government were the size of the Singapore market, the well-entrenched...

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Swedish Start-ups Targets Mobile + Wi-Fi VPN Roaming

Aptilo Networks and ipUnplugged, both start-ups based in Sweden, announced a joint solution that enables automatic login at public hotspots for employees running a VPN client for GPRS, UMTS or CDMA services. Aptilo's technology manages the public hotspots and the public guests to the enterprises, while ipUnplugged's solution manages the corporate Mobile-VPN. http://www.aptilo.com http://www.ipunplugged....

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Samsung Announces 4GB Flash Memory

Samsung Electronics announced the world first 4Gb NAND flash memory, following a growth curve that doubles its density every twelve months: 256Mb in 1999, 512Mb in 2000, 1Gb in 2001, 2Gb in 2002, and 4Gb in 2003. The company said that with the new higher density level, nonvolatile memory is now a viable choice for solid-state data storage, potentially replacing magnetic tapes and low-density hard disk drives. NAND flash will also target mobile applications, such as notebook PCs, tablet PCs, mobile handsets, MP3 players and PDAs. http://www.sa...

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Juniper Opens Technical Center in Bangalore

Juniper Networks opened a new technical center in Bangalore, India and announced the expansion of its Technical Certification Program to give Indian candidates local training and certification for a wider range of Juniper Networks qualifications. The company also plans to appoint a Juniper Networks certified training partner in India to extend the training and certification available to IP professionals. http://www.juniper....

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TIA Calls for Health Care Telecom Cabling Guidelines

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is considering developing guidelines for the health care industry relative to providing a universal, generic telecommunications infrastructure. Such guidelines would serve as a supplement to ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.1-2001 (Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard), which specifies a generic cabling systems so that commercial buildings can support multi-vendor and multi-service communications. New health care telecom guidelines would enable the planning and installation of a structured...

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Emergent Networks Unveils Softswitch

Emergent Networks, a start-up based in Allen, Texas, introduced a vendor- and technology-agnostic switch call control and element management system that supports legacy as well as packet networks. The ENTICE (Emergent Networks Telecommunications Infrastructure Control Environment) bridges H.323, SIP, SS7, ISDN, IP, TDM, and other leading communications protocols. Emergent said its platform's open APIs allow extensive customization for applications such as voicemail, unified messaging, find me/follow me services, and others. Emergent offers the...

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Pirelli Supplies Undersea Cable linking Kuwait and Iran

Pirelli was awarded a contract for supplying submarine and land fiber optic cables as well as terminal transmission equipment for a network linking Kuwait City and Ganeveh in Iran. The network will use Pirelli cables with G654 fibers and initially operate at 2.5 Gbps. It will be DWDM upgradeable to 4 channels of 10 Gbps. The link will be complete by Q2 2004. Additional branches are also planned for Failakah (Kuwait) and the Kharg (Iran) islands and to an Iranian offshore oil platform. The cable system will be owned by the Ministry of Communications...

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Arianespace Launches 2 Communications Satellites

Arianespace successfully orbited two geostationary communications satellites: INSAT-3E for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and e-BIRD for Eutelsat. The INSAT-3E satellite, which was built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Bangalore, is equipped with 36 C-band and extended C-band transponders for telecommunications and TV transmission services for the Indian sub-continent. The e-BIRD satellite was built by Boeing Space Systems in El Segundo, California, and is equipped with 20 Ku-band transponders for providing high-speed...

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Paradyne Promotes is 'Pizza Box' DSLAM

Paradyne Networks announced a five week promotion for its "pizza box" sized GranDSLAM 4200IP product. A starter kit is priced at $65 per port and includes a GranDSLAM 4200IP and five endpoints. http://www.paradyne....

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TeleSym Secures Funding for Wi-Fi Phones

TeleSym, a start-up based in Bellevue, Washington, raised $12.5 million in second round funding for its Wi-Fi phone software. The TeleSym software enables voice calling from mobile computers or PDAs on wireless networks. The company's SymPhone System adds cordless phone capability to every computer on a Wi-Fi network. The funding round was led by the Intel Communications Fund and Siemens Venture Capital, and includes new investor Thomas Weisel Venture Partners. Original investors Bay Partners and Northwest Venture Associates also participated....

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RealNetworks Signs Two Asian Mobile Operators

RealNetworks will supply its Helix mobile technology to MobileOne Ltd. (M1) of Singapore and PT Indosat Multimedia Mobile (IM3) of Indonesia. The RealNetworks' Helix mobile technology is an open, multi-format mobile platform that enables operators to stream live and on-demand Internet audio and video content to mobile devices enabled with the RealOne Player or other multimedia-enabled applications. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.realnetworks.comIn February, Hong Kong CSL became the first Asian operator to announce plans to stream...

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Nokia announces Corporate Restructuring

Nokia announced a corporate restructuring aimed at re-focusing its business "on convergence, new mobility markets and growth." The change follows the reorganization of Nokia Mobile Phones into nine business units in the spring of 2002. The new structure consists of four business groups, corporate-wide sales, marketing, logistics, manufacturing and technology units, as well as a corporate strategy, development and research unit. The four business groups are: Mobile Phones -- which offers a global range of mobile phones for large consumer segments....

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Bookham Acquires Ignis Optics

Bookham Technology agreed to acquire Ignis Optics, a provider of small form-factor pluggable (SFP and XFP) single-mode optical transceivers, for $15.5 million in new stock. Ignis Optics is based in San Jose, California. Bookham said the acquisition would accelerate its move to provide a full XFP and SFP product set at multiple speeds and different reaches in order to address the majority of new datacom optics opportunities. http://www.bookham.com http://www.ignis-optics.comEarlier this month, Bookham announced plans to acquire New Focus.In July...

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NEC Selects Ixia to Speed Development of its 10 Gigabit GlobalOpenEthernet

NEC is using Ixia's load modules and Linux Software Development Toolkit (SDK) to facilitate the research and development process of their next-generation 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch, which implements NEC's newly developed GlobalOpenEthernet (GOE) scheme. GOE aims to enhance Ethernet functionality by inserting VLAN-compatible forwarding tags in order to route packets to their destination. The Ixia test equipment has helped prove 80G full wire rate forwarding under the protocol. The architecture of the TXS series of Ixia Load Modules includes a CPU...

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BellSouth Tests 2.3 GHz Fixed Wireless in North Carolina

America Connect and BellSouth are launching a trial of fixed wireless broadband service in two rural North Carolina counties using the 2.3 GHz WCS band. BellSouth holds WCS band licenses throughout the southeast. America Connect and BellSouth are performing this trial with the help of funding from the Rural Internet Access Authority, a state-created authority that is predominantly funded through a private grant from MCNC, a technology nonprofit located in the Research Triangle Park. http://www.aconnect.nethttp://www.e-nc....

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Verizon Calls on FCC to Clarify Broadband Policy

Verizon Communications issued another call on the FCC to clarify the broadband policy contained in its recently issued Triennial Review in order to reverse the "dramatic decline in capital investment in America's telecommunications infrastructure."In a presentation to Cato Institute Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., Tom Tauke, Verizon's senior vice president for public policy & external affairs, said the FCC's order with respect to broadband makes clear that incumbent telcos are not required to lease piece parts of new fiber networks to competitors...

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Equant Supplies Global MPLS VPN to Esselte

Equant will provide a global VPN with 50 locations across four continents to Esselte, a leading global office supplies manufacturer. Under a five-year, multimillion dollar agreement, Equant will implement an MPLS-based IP VPN, replacing a Frame Relay network provided by AT&T. In addition, Equant will provide an IP dial solution for about 500 traveling users. http://www.equant....

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Tellabs Introduces IP/MPLS Managed Edge Platform

Tellabs introduced a new carrier-class, medium capacity (42 Gbps) "managed edge" platform designed to extend IP/MPLS from the edge of the core network to the local exchange or even to the customer premises. The new Tellabs 8600 system could be used by service providers to implement MPLS VPNs and Ethernet over MPLS, delivering application aware services such as intranet interconnectivity, extranet, business Internet access and corporate voice with QoS. It could also be used for aggregating broadband traffic from consumers and small office home office...

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Extreme Networks Confirms Sub 50 Millisecond Ethernet Failover Capability

Tests conducted by BT's research, technology and IT operations business, BT Exact, have confirmed that Extreme Networks' Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching (EAPS) version 2 technology delivers sub 50-millisecond failover on both copper and fiber interfaces. Extreme said its performance is on par with Automatic Protection System (APS) for SONET/SDH-type network infrastructures, and surpasses the performance of the commonly deployed Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and the Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) running on a switched infrastructure....

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CIENA Signs Reseller and Investment Deals with Luminous

Luminous Networks, a start-up based in Cupertino, California, announced a reseller agreement under which CIENA will market, sell and support its "PacketWave" optical transport products worldwide. Luminous' PacketWave E-Series is a low-cost multiservice transport platform for 1 Gbps or 2.5 Gbps metro rings. Like Luminous Networks' existing M-series (metro core) and C-Series (metro access) platforms, the PacketWave E500 leverages RPR layer 2 technology to integrate Ethernet and TDM services using ring architectures that are cheaper and more bandwidth-efficient...

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Broadcom Realigns Its Businesses Into Four Groups

Broadcom announced a corporate reorganization into four strategic business groups. Previously, marketing and product development were conducted through six business units. The realignment is not expected to result in any reduction in companywide headcount. The new strategic business groups include: Enterprise Computing Group -- focused on large PC and server OEMs, storage system vendors and original design manufacturers (ODMs). Products from this Group include Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet controllers for network interface cards (NICs) and...

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ArrayComm Names New CEO

ArrayComm, a developer of broadband mobile and smart antenna technologies, appointed Sam Endy as President and CEO. He succeeds wireless industry pioneer Martin Cooper, who will continue to serve as ArrayComm's chairman of the board. Dr. Endy was previously Chief Operating Officer of ArrayComm and played an instrumental role in the technology and market development stages for ArrayComm's flagship products -- the iBurst Personal Broadband system and IntelliCell, ArrayComm's patented smart antenna array processing techniques. Previously, he served...

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Acterna to Emerge from Chapter 11

Acterna received bankruptcy court approval for its plan of reorganization. The company plans to emerge from Chapter 11 status in the next ten days. The debt restructuring process took approximately 5 months.Acterna plans to introduce 12 new products and enhancements over the next three months. http://www.acterna.comIn August 2003, Acterna filed a plan of reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York that would reduce its long term debt by $770 million, or 80%, and lower its annual cash interest expense by...

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Ohio's Bascom Mutual Builds Competitive Overlay FTTP Network

Bascom Mutual Telephone, an independent operating company, is deploying Optical Solutions' new FiberPath 500 system in the area surrounding the towns of Fostoria and Tiffin, Ohio. An "edge out" policy from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio allows independent carriers such as Bascom Mutual to expand their territory via a competitive overbuild and offer broadband services in a neighboring area - all without forming a separate CLEC subsidiary. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.opticalsolutions....

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China Unicom Awards $230 Million in CDMA Contracts to Lucent

China Unicom awarded CDMA mobile network expansion contracts valued at more than $230 million to Lucent Technologies. As part of the initial stage of China Unicom's phase III expansion, Lucent will supply CDMA2000 equipment to China Unicom's subsidiaries in six provinces including Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. http://www.lucent.com http://www.lucent.com...

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NTT Photonics Labs Announces KTN Crystal Breakthrough

NTT Photonics Laboratories reported a breakthrough in its efforts to develop better optical waveguides. Researchers at NTT have synthesized a KTN crystals that could be used in optical modulators and optical switches with a driving voltage one order of magnitude lower than that of conventional optical devices. KTN is a transparent optical crystal composed of potassium, tantalum, niobium, and oxygen. http://www.ntt.co.jp/news/news03e/0309/030924.h...

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DISH Network Reaches One Million Mark for Digital Video Recorders

The DISH Network has sold its 1 millionth digital video recorder (DVR). The DISH Player's DISH Video-On-Demand DVR service allows viewers to skip recorded TV commercials, record up to 100 hours of programming without videotape, pause live TV, perform slow-motion instant replays, and use four speeds of fast forward and fast reverse. http://www.dishnetwork....

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LightSand Introduces its FICON Extension Solution

LightSand, a start-up based in Milpitas, California announced a family of solutions for extending FICON over IP, SONET/SDH, or dedicated fiber without requiring SAN switches. FICON (FIbre CONnection) is IBM's preferred method of connecting its mainframe computers to storage devices such as the Enterprise Storage System (Shark). Native FICON is limited to 10 km. The cornerstone of LightSand's architecture is a product that extends traditional FICON links over distance using conventional IP. LightSand is also providing a SONET gateway. The two...

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Video Without Boundaries Shows Internet DVD/Set-top

A company called Video Without Boundaries introduced an Internet / DVD Player / Set-top Box designed to play a range of different media types on a TV. The MediaReady 4000 platform can play DVD/MPEG-1/MPEG-2/MPEG-4/MP3 content and has a hard disk drive, Ethernet 10/100BT wired and wireless connections, USB 2.0 and 1394 ports. The Linux platform could be used to download movies from the Internet. The platform was demonstrated to OEMs at this week's Computex show in Taipei, Taiwan.http://vwbinc....

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Pedestal Networks Names ADC Executive as its New CEO

Pedestal Networks, a start-up based in Fremont, California, named Greg Daily as its new CEO, replacing Dan Kohn, general partner of Skymoon Ventures, who served as the interim CEO during Pedestal's two-year product development phase. Daily previously served as general manager of ADC's $200 million Loop Transport Products division. Pedestal Networks developed a universal broadband solution designed to eliminate technical and economic barriers for DSL deployments. The company's first product is expected to be unveiled shortly. http://www.pedes...

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UTStarcom Signs $30M PAS Expansion Contract with China Telecom

UTStarcom announced a $30 million contract to supply its IP-based PAS (Personal Access System) for deployment in the city of Chengdu by China Telecom. Once the expansion is complete, PAS capacity in Chengdu City, with a population of 10 million people, will surpass 1.5 million. Since the initial launch of PAS in Sichuan Province in April 2002, more than 750,000 people have subscribed to receive basic service, while approximately 60,000 subscribers are also data users. http://www.utstar.c...

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AudioCodes is Key Supplier to 3Com for Gateways and Media Servers

AudioCodes is supplying 3Com with gateways and media servers for the IP telephony enterprise market. Specifically, AudioCodes is supplying 3Com with three types of products: Digital Gateways; Media Servers; and Analog Gateways. http://www.audiocodes.com http://www.3com....

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EC's New Radio Spectrum Policy Group Sets Work Agenda

The European Commission's new Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) held its second meeting last week and agreed on a work program of relevant policy issues. On the agenda are issues resulting from the recent World Radiocommunication Conference, the secondary trading of rights to use radio spectrum, and the radio spectrum implications of the eventual EU switchover to digital broadcasting. The RSPG has also launched a public website.http://rspg.groups.eu....

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European Commission Adopts Transition Plan for Digital Broadcasting

The European Commission adopted a plan for migrating to digital radio and television transmission, and ultimately switching off analog transmission, in a consumer-friendly fashion. The plan does not set a common date for mandatory digital transmission, instead calls on EU member states to provide incentives for consumers to migrate to digital television voluntarily. Member states are required to publish their switchover plans by the end of 2003. The EC is also opening debate on what to do with the resulting spectrum when analog broadcasting...

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WSJ: Digital Cable Suffers Higher Churn Than Analog

Leading North American cable operators (MSOs) are experiencing higher churn rates for their digital cable offerings (5% per month) than for their legacy analog services (2.5% per month), according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing market figures from The Yankee Group, the article notes that the sign-up rate for digital cable service has slowed sharply since 2001, leading some analysts to conclude that the long-term migration to all-digital TV is stalling. A chief customer complaint is that the dozens of additional channels provided by digital...

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Salira Supplies Triple Play EPON for Chinese MSO

Salira Optical Network Systems is supplying a "triple-play" optical network solution to GuangZhou Pantong Information Broadband Network (Panyu Cable), which provides cable TV and associated services to the Panyu district of the city of GuangZhou, China. The Ethernet, passive optical network (EPON) architecture is expected to scale to reach 260,000 endpoints and deliver 80 channels of broadcast TV, video on-demand (VOD), VoIP and high-speed Internet access.Panyu will be using Salira's 2500 optical line terminal, Salira 2300 multi-customer optical...

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SINA.com Sources Video Content from China Cable Company

China Cable and Communication, a cable network operator located 130 km south of Beijing, will provide web-based broadband interactive video to the SINA Group, which operates web sites serving the global Chinese audience. SINA's portals and web sites have more than 66 million registered users worldwide. There will be a monthly service fee for each channel of video content. http://www.sina....

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IPCC Names Industry Leaders to its Board of Directors

The International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC), which is dedicated to the development of the market for all products, services, applications and solutions that utilize packet-based communications, elected its new Board of Directors:Michael Khalilian, IPCC Chairman; CTO, NTT/CaerusMatt Collier, IPCC Treasurer; Senior Vice President, Enhanced Services, Level 3 Communications Martine Lapierre, Chief Technology Officer/Vice President Mobile Communications Group, Alcatel Doug Wadkins, Senior Manager of Customer Solutions, Cisco Systems John...

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MPLS/Frame Relay Alliance Approves Voice Trunking over MPLS

The MPLS/Frame Relay Alliance has approved the I.366.2 Voice Trunking Format over MPLS Implementation Agreement (IA), which enables the transfer of compressed voice over a converged MPLS backbone using existing ATM Adaptation Layer 2 (AAL2) technology. Such voice trunking capabilities could be supported by carrier or Provider Edge (PE) routers, multi-service edge switches and dedicated gateway equipment.Specifically, the I.366.2 Voice Trunking Format over MPLS Implementation Agreement defines MPLS transport of AAL2 Common Part Sublayer Packets...

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Spirent Introduces Fibre Channel Storage Routing Tester

Spirent Communications introduced a storage routing tester for Fibre Channel networks. Spirent's Storage Routing Tester (SRT) is a software module that runs on the company's SmartBits Test System. The solution can simulate an entire network of up to 239 switches with a single Spirent Fibre Channelmodule, enabling users to stress test SAN equipment. http://www.spirentcom....

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Alcatel Supplies DSL + Wi-Fi in Cambodia

Alcatel has supplied a DSL and Wi-Fi network to Cogetel, the leading ISP in Cambodia. For this project, Alcatel has delivered public WLAN "hot spots" covering prime locations in Phnom Penh, the country's capital. The hot-spots are connected through Cogetel's DSL lines over a multiprotocol network provided by Alcatel. http://www.alcatel....

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InfiniCon Secures $15 Million for its 10 Gbps Fabric Designs

InfiniCon Systems, a start-up based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, secured an additional $15 million in series C funding for its shared I/O and switching solutions for next-generation server networks. InfiniCon's designs are based on the InfiniBand Architecture. InfiniCon's InfinIO 3000 Switch Series, which targets the requirements of scalable HPC and database clustering environments, packs thirty-two 10 Gbps InfiniBand ports into 1U of rack space. InfiniCon also features an InfiniBand switching "Ports on Demand (POD)" technology that lets...

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Pulse~LINK and Fujitsu Microelectronics Develop UWB Chips

Pulse~LINK, a start-up based in San Diego, and Fujitsu Microelectronics America will jointly develop a digital baseband processor for Ultra Wideband (UWB) WLAN applications using Fujitsu's 0.11-micron CMOS SoC ASIC technology. Pulse~LINK has demonstrated 400 Mbps UWB transmission and is developing an FCC-compliant solution with about a 100-meter range. Under the agreement, Fujitsu Microelectronics will provide design and manufacturing services for the digital baseband processor, one of two SoC ASICs that form Pulse~LINK's high-speed secure WLAN...

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Marconi Introduces Next-Gen Multihaul WDM

Marconi introduced a new, scalable, WDM transmission platform that could serve metro, long-haul and ultra-long haul distances of up to 4,000 km. The Marconi "SmartPhotoniX Multihaul" platform leverages Marconi's SmartPhotoniX transmission technology, which uses dispersion-managed solutions. Marconi said the basic philosophy behind its new platform is to provide modular and flexible architecture with "plug and play" features that reduce the time taken to provision new services, such as lighting up additional wavelengths to satisfy bandwidth demand....

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