BT Adjusts Wholesale Broadband Rate

BT announced a further price reduction for its DataStream wholesale broadband service aimed at fixed line operators. The end-user element of the broadband connection is being reduced by 50p to £8.05.


In addition, BT will be raising the monthly rental of its 2 Mbps business service, IPStream Office 2000, from £38 to £43. This compares with the rental fee of £80 which BT was charging in March. BT IPStream S2000 rental will also go up from £43 to £48; this compares with £85 in March this year.htttp://www.bt.com

• BT's DataStream service offers competing telecom carriers and service providers a dedicated ATM network on which to develop their own IP services. BT's IPStream service offers wholesale ADSL circuits from 1,650 central offices and access to BT's core IP network to other ISPs. Currently more than 150 ISPs buy BT IPStream providing service to more than 1,200,000 customers.



• In May 2003, BT cut the price for its wholesale, consumer IPStream ADSL service from £14.75 to £13.00.

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SBC to Acquire MMDS and WCS Spectrum from Bankrupt Nucentrix

Nucentrix Broadband Networks, a bankrupt broadband wireless operator based in Carrollton, Texas, reached an agreement to sell its FCC licenses for MMDS and WCS spectrum, certain leases of ITFS and MMDS spectrum, transmission tower leases and equipment, and other related assets to a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBC Communications. The deal was $15 million, subject to certain adjustments, and requires the approval of the Bankruptcy Court.


Nucentrix currently offers high-speed wireless Internet services in Austin and Sherman-Denison, Texas. Nucentrix holds the rights to an average of approximately 128 MHz of MMDS and ITFS spectrum, covering an estimated 8.2 million households, in over 90 primarily medium and small markets across Texas, Oklahoma and the Midwest. Nucentrix also holds licenses for 20 MHz of WCS (Wireless Communications Services) spectrum at 2.3 GHz covering over 2 million households, primarily in Texas.
http://www.nucentrix.net

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Ericsson Forms New Access Business Unit

Ericsson will form a new business unit, Access, by separating the responsibility for high volume radio products from its Systems business unit. Access will handle the production of radio base products, which are more standardized and of higher volume. The responsibility for customized projects and end-to-end offerings will remain within business unit Systems. This unit will include core network, fixed line products, service layer and broadband access.


Ericsson will also introduce a group function for sales and marketing.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Cincinnati Bell Closes Sale of Broadwing

Cincinnati Bell closed the sale of substantially all of the assets of its broadband business to privately held C III Communications, including all remaining assets located in states where regulatory approvals had been pending.
http://www.cincinnatibell.com

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UXComm Raises $6 Million for SAN Management

UXComm, a start-up based in Portland, Oregon, raised $6 million in first round funding for its development of software based management and control solutions for the storage, network and blade computer market. UXComm said its software provides an extensible, policy-based management fabric for the integration and unified monitoring and control of modular computing architectures across the domains of compute, storage and network The adaptive management solution is currently undergoing beta-testing by telecom and computer OEMs.
http://www.uxcomm.com

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Nakina Systems Introduces its Network Discovery and Tracking OSS

Nakina Systems, a start-up based in Ottawa, Canada, introduced its suite of intelligent network applications that address service providers' needs for multi-vendor layer one network discovery and automation of operational tasks. The Nakina suite supports both legacy and next generation equipment utilizing interfaces such as TL-1 and TMF-814 over OSI and TCP protocols. The Nakina OSS searches out and identifies network elements, topologies, resources and inventory of Layer One network assets. The platform aims to help service providers reduce their operating expenses and increase revenue by unlocking additional network capacity without additional capital expenditures. Nakina will show it suite at this week's NFOEC in Orlando, Florida.


Separately, Nakina has appointed Mike Unger, former Nortel Optical President to its board of directors.
http://www.nakinasystems.com

• Nakina Systems was founded in late 2001. The company is headed by Dave Vicary, who previously led Preside Optical R&D. Nakina's technical team is headed by Sergio Pellizzari, who spent 17 years working at Bell Northern Research and Nortel Networks.



• In January 2003, Nakina Systems announced Series A financing through VenGrowth Capital Partners. The funding amount was not disclosed.

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Panasonic Debuts CableLabs Compliant Digital TV Set

Panasonic introduced its first cable-ready digital TV set for the U.S. market featuring certification by CableLabs. The TV can connect directly to a digital cable and terrestrial broadcast system. With the use of an authorized CableCARD (which may be available from some cable operators, at a fee), the TV can receive digital cable services, including premium channels, without requiring a cable set-top box. In addition to being digital-cable-ready, the set has Photo Viewer SD Memory Card and PCMCIA card slots for viewing still picture images up on the TV screen. The set also has an HDMI (High Definition and Multimedia Interface) connector with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection),http://www.panasonic.com

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ITU Adopts H.350 Architecture for Directories

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) will adopt H.350 as a standard protocol for storing and finding information related to video and VoIP addresses in an enterprise directory. H.350 links account management and authorization automation to the enterprise directory using the lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP). It supports H.320, H.323, session initiation protocol (SIP) and non-standard protocols. The new protocol was initially developed by the Video Middleware Group, a joint effort between the Internet2 Middleware group and the Video Development Initiative (ViDe). The developers expect the new standard will make it easier for companies and universities to scale up video and VoIP operations and to share their directories amongst multiple vendors' equipment.http://archives.internet2.edu/guest/archives/I2-NEWS/log200309/msg00000.html

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DISH Network Expands HDTV Offerings

EchoStar Communication' DISH Network is adding four more HDTV channels to its DBS line-up: ESPN HD, Discovery HD Theater, HDNet and HDNet Movies in a new package for $9.99 per month or $109.89 annually. DISH Network is also introducing a high-definition receiver/decoder with an MSRP of $399, as well as a high-definition digital video recorder (DVR) will carry an MSRP of $999. The DVR has a 250 GB hard disk, enabling it to record up to 25 hours of HD or 180 hours of regular programming.
http://www.dishnetwork.com

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France Telecom Plans First TV over ADSL in December

France Telecom has signed a partnership agreement with TPS, a satellite TV company owned by French TV networks TF1 and M6, to provide content for its forthcoming TV-over-ADSL service. France Telecom plans to launch its initial TV-over-DSL deployment in Lyon in December 2003, followed by Paris in Spring 2004. An ADSL connection will support the simultaneous use of phone lines, broadband access and delivery of the TPS TV channels to a set-top box. France Telecom will market on-demand programming using a kiosk model similar to the successful Minitel videotext system. The company plans to promote the service through various retail channels and partners.


Commenting on the launch, France Telecom Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thierry Breton described the coming TV-over-ADSL rollout as a "major innovation that takes broadband into new territory beyond the Internet and creates groundbreaking models for content distribution."http://www.francetelecom.com

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