IEEE-USA Seeks H-1B Visa Cap of 65,000

Citing record unemployment among U.S. engineers and computer scientists, the IEEE-USA, a national chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), called on Congress to allow the yearly H-1B visa cap to return to 65,000. Currently, the yearly visa cap for hiring foreign high-tech workers is 195,000. This figure will revert to 65,000 on 30 September, if Congress takes no action to extend the cap. The Immigration and Naturalization Service claims to have processed 294,100 H-1B petitions during fiscal year 2002 in new, renewed and exempt categories. Because an H-1B petition can authorize admission by more than one person, the actual number of high-tech workers admitted may be substantially higher. The Department of Labor estimates that 120,000 high-tech professionals (electronics engineers and computer scientists) were unemployed in the United States as of Q4 2002.
http://www.ieeeusa.org/forum/issues/H1bvisa/index.html

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Nortel Announces US$750 Million Facility, Seeks 5-1 Reverse Stock Split

Nortel Networks has entered into an agreement with Export Development Canada (EDC), a financially self-sustaining Canadian federal Crown corporation that provides trade finance and risk management services, for up to US$750 million in performance-related support. The EDC Master Facility covers certain Nortel Networks obligations arising out of standard business activities including letters of credit, letters of guarantee, indemnity arrangements, performance bonds, surety bonds, receivables sales, securitizations, and similar instruments issued or entered into for the benefit of Nortel Networks.

Nortel Networks also announce plans to seek shareholder approval for a five-to-one reverse stock split.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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US Dept. of Commerce Reorganizes Technology and Telecom Activities

The U.S Department of Congress plans to consolidate its office of Technology Administration (TA), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the e-commerce policy functions of the International Trade Administration (ITA). The new agency would focus on a range of issues including technical standards, spectrum management, and technology and e-commerce policy issues. The changes require Congressional approval.
http://www.commerce.gov

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Azure Signs Telenor for Telecom Revenue Assurance

Azure, the new spinout from BT specializing in telecom revenue assurance, today announced a major new deal with Telenor. Azure will provide Telenor Networks and Telenor Mobil with the latest interconnect and mediation management solutions to manage their interconnect billing processes and to enable Telenor to provide interconnect billing bureau services to members of the Telenor Group. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal with Telenor builds upon a contract signed by BT in 1997, which provided Telenor with its first interconnect billing system.
http://www.azure-solutions.com

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Comverse Mobile Data Gateway Adds Support for WAP 2.0

Comverse released version 4.0 of its Mobile Data Gateway (MDG), which is now compliant with Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) WAP 2.0 standards. The product lets mobile service providers perform real-time session management including traffic rerouting and access control. Comverse said its Mobile Data Gateway has already been chosen by more than 15 service providers worldwide operating GSM, GPRS, CDMA and CDMA2000 1Xnetworks.
http://www.comverse.com

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Deutsche Telekom Opens National IP Operations Center in Ulm

Deutsche Telekom opened a network operations center in Ulm that controls all traffic running on its IP network. The network center serves more than 100 ISPs, including its own T-Online subsidiary, as well as 500 companies operating IP VPNs. Deutsche Telekom said its MPLS installation is that largest of its kind in Europe. The center is staffed by 110 employees.
http://www.telekom.de/dtag/home/news_detail/0,14922,38624-E-1-1,00.html

• On 14-February-2003, Deutsche Telekom marked the 75th anniversary of the first telephone call between Germany and the USA.
  

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IEEE 802.11g Gains Working Group Approval

The IEEE 802.11 Working Group approved the 802.11g specification, which uses OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) to support data rates up to 54 Mbps for wireless LANs using 2.4 GHz spectrum. Final approval is expected in mid-June 2003 with publication in late July 2003. The 802.11g standard will create data-rate parity at 2.4 GHz with 802.11a, which allows for a 54 Mbps rate at 5 GHz. The 802.11g specification is backward compatible with 802.11b. Commenting on the fact that some 802.11g labeled products are already on the market, Brian Mathews, IEEE 802.11 publicity chair, said the 802.11g draft had technical changes made to it at the January 2003 session. He noted that further changes are expected starting in March 2003.p://www.ieee802.org

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