Alcatel Shanghai Bell Selected for US$80M Ghana Project

Ghana Telecom (GT), the largest service provider in Ghana, selected Alcatel to upgrade and expand its national telecom network. The contract was won through Alcatel Shanghai Bell and is valued at US$80 million. Under the agreement, Alcatel will provide and install 250,000 switching lines and will expand mobile network capacity to 630,000 subscribers. Alcatel will also upgrade GT's metro optical transmission network in the city of Accra. At the project's completion, Ghana Telecom will be able to extend telecom services to all secondary schools,...

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Comcor Deploys Terawave's PON in Moscow

Comcor, a Russian carrier offering residential and business broadband in the Moscow metropolitan area, has completed the installation of the first 1,000 nodes of Terawave's TW-600 and TW-300 Optical Access Platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.terawave....

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Convergys Announces Contract Extension with DIRECTV

Convergys Corp. was awarded a three-year contract extension to provide customer service to DIRECTV's more than 11.5 million customers. Convergys has been the major provider of customer management services to DIRECTV since it launched its service in June 1994. Convergys has more than 4,500 employees working on the DIRECTV account. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.convergys....

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OIF Launches Industry Survey on Common Electrical Interface

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) is conducting an industry-wide survey to solicit input on design practices and methodologies regarding the Forum's Common Electrical I/O (CEI) project. One goal of the CEI project is to define the specifications for electrical signaling at rates of up to 6+ Gbps and 11+ Gbps over a single differential backplane connection. The OIF's CEI survey is targeted at backplane designers who are interested in supporting serial data rates of 6+ Gbps and 11+ Gbps in their backplane applications. The survey is online....

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Sprint and RealNetworks Partner on Mobile Streaming

Sprint's PCS Vision wireless customers can now access streaming multimedia content from Real Networks' RealOne service. Customers can now see and hear breaking news, market reports, sports highlights, weather forecasts, and additional entertainment services such as horoscopes and movie reviews on the Sprint PCS nationwide network for $4.95 per month, plus airtime. http://www.sprintpcs.com http://www.realnetworks.comAs of the end of Q2, Sprint had 2.1 million PCS Vision custome...

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UTStarcom Announces Further IP-DSLAM Contract from China Netcom

UTStarcom announced a new contract to supply over 200,000 lines of its AN-2000 IB IP-based DSLAM solution to China Netcom for deployment in several major cities in the Heilongjiang, Tiangjin, Hebei, Shangdong, and Shanxi provinces. The contract brings UTStarcom's total IP-DSLAM deployments with CNC to more than 400,000 ADSL lines since March 2003. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.utstar....

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Telefonica Brasil Awards $20 Million Contract to Nortel

The Telefonica Group has awarded a series of contracts to Nortel Networks for expansion and maintenance of its nationwide multiservice optical network in Brazil and for support services for the data backbone operations of Telefonica Empresas. Under the contracts, Telefonica Brasil will deploy Nortel Networks OPTera Metro 4100, OPTera Metro 4200, and TN-1C. Telefonica Empresas will deploy Nortel Networks data networking solutions including Nortel Networks Passport 7000 Multiservice Switches, which are manufactured at Nortel Networks' Center of...

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Movielink and BellSouth Launch Co-Branded Movie Service

BellSouth will offer a customized version of Movielink's online movie rental service to its DSL customers. BellSouth broadband users will have a special Movielink site designed for them. Movies on the service currently range between $2.95 and $4.99 for a 24-hour viewing period. http://www.bellsouth.nethttp://www.movielink.comMovielink is a joint venture of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studios. Movielink content offerings are drawn from the current releases and...

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SkyStream Networks Targets VOD and Interactive TV

SkyStream Networks, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California secured additional private funding from key strategic investors to bring its total funding raised this year to $29 million. SkyStream's newest product is its Mediaplex Video Services Router, which is designed for video on demand (VOD) and interactive TV in cable networks. SkyStream's Mediaplex, first introduced in May 2002, is a digital video headend that has gained momentum with satellite operators and telcos, such as Belgacom, BT Broadcast Services, EchoStar Communications (DISH Network),...

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CoreTel Deploys Telica's Plexus 9000 for Wholesale VoIP

Core Communications (CoreTel), a CLEC based in Annapolis, Maryland, has deployed Telica's Plexus 9000 to expand its offerings to include wholesale VoIP services. CoreTel is using the Telica platform to offer ISP customers a combination of voice and data services, low rates, and an array of VoIP enabled advanced services such as unified messaging. Financial terms were not disclosed. The Plexus 9000 is a carrier-grade switch that includes all the elements of a softswitch-based solution - media gateway, media gateway controller and signaling gateway...

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Equant Targets Troubled Hosting Competitors

Equant launched a marketing program aimed at multinational companies that are currently hosting their servers with carriers planning to exit the hosting business. Equant's Server Migration Program combines fully managed services with SLAs. http://www.equant....

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Comverse Announces Media Server for VoiceXML Speech Recognition Apps

Comverse released a new version of its modular, standards-based VoiceXML gateway for delivering voice-controlled and DTMF-driven services in carrier networks. The Comverse Media Server 3.0 fully supports VoiceXML 2.0 applications for delivering voice-enabled Internet content and services to any phone. It supports speech processing solutions from multiple sources, including both Nuance and SpeechWorks. http://www.comverse....

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DSL.net Chooses Cisco for Integrated Voice and Data T-1 Service

DSL.net has selected Cisco Systems' routers and gateways as part of its integrated voice and data T-1 service offering, which is based on SIP. The service will provide business customers with low-cost long-distance calling and unlimited local calling. Equipment chosen includes the Cisco IAD2400 Series and the Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch. http://www.dsl.netIn July 2003, DSL.net, a broadband service provider, closed $30 million in new financing led by Deutsche Bank. VantagePoint Venture Partners, one of DSL.net's current major institutional shareholders,...

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Ipsum Networks Appoints MetaSolv Co-Founder as New CEO

Ipsum Networks, a start-up based in Philadelphia, announced the appointment of Dana R. Brown as its new CEO, replacing company co-founder and current CEO, Dr. Roch Guerin, will assume the role of chief scientist for Ipsum. Brown co-founded MetaSolv in 1992 and served as vice president of marketing. Prior to co-founding MetaSolv, Brown was with Texas Instruments' Advanced Information Management division, where she was responsible for identification of vertical markets for commercialization of applications developed using the company's software...

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Canada's EastLink Picks ARRIS as Exclusive Cable Telephony Partner

EastLink Cable of Nova Scotia, Canada's fifth-largest MSO, has chosen ARRIS as its exclusive voice partner in a three-year deal valued at approximately US$24 million. EastLink is deploying the ARRIS Cadant C4 CMTS. It is also installing ARRIS Cornerstone constant bit rate telephony products throughout its systems, until it decides to make the transition to IP telephony, at which point EastLink will deploy the ARRIS Touchstone telephony product line. http://www.arrisi.com http://www.eastlink...

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Marvell Introduces 10-Port Gigabit Switch Chip

Marvell introduced a new 10-port Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switching chip featuring QoS and management features for SMB and SOHO networks. The chip includes Layer 2 security networking functions based on the MAC-based authentication protocol (IEEE 802.1X). With this feature, customers will be able to implement both the Port-Based Access Control specified under the standard, as well as maintain a specific-client MAC address authorization table for authenticating and authorizing only known clients to access the LAN. QoS features supported include IPv4...

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Cypress Samples 2.4 GHz Radio System-on-a-Chip Priced Under $2

Cypress Semiconductor has begun sampling a 2.4 GHz radio system-on-a-chip priced at under $2 today and moving to below $1 over the next two years. The new Cypress WirelessUSB device communicates at distances of up to 10 meters, with an average latency of less than four milliseconds, and features a highly integrated radio transceiver plus digital baseband. When coupled with a USB controller, it becomes an end-to-end transparent USB solution providing non-line-of-sight, bi-directional or unidirectional RF transmission at 62.5 kbps. It uses a unique...

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