SBC and Yahoo! Rollout DSL Enhancements

SBC Communications and Yahoo! rolled out a number of enhancements to their co-branded DSL and dial-up Internet service, such as improved anti-virus protection, pop-up ad blockers, shared browsing, and expanded parental controls. As part of these enhancements, the companies also launched a new SBC Yahoo! DSL and Dial small business portal with features such as additional email storage and online marketing services.http://sbc.yahoo.com

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Tellabs and Nokia Networks Partner on ATM for 3G

Tellabs and Nokia Networks have integrated the Tellabs 8100 network manager into Nokia's NetAct radio access network management system to add ATM management to the existing PDH and SDH capabilities. The unified network manager will enable faster 3G service provisioning over the ATM transport layer. The companies said that since many carriers are still relying on traditional TDM for voice traffic, their migration routes through 3G will require ATM support.
http://www.tellabs.com
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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Sprint Launches Public Wi-Fi Service in Hundreds of Hotspots

Sprint announced the availability of PCS Wi-Fi Access in hundreds of hotspots across the U.S., including airports, convention centers, hotels and other public venues. The service is available at all Wayport airport and hotel hot spots and select Airpath Wireless locations as a result of roaming agreements. The company has also activated its first Sprint owned and operated hotspot.
http://www.sprint.com

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Nortel Networks to Invest $200 Million in R&D in China

Nortel Networks plans to invest US$200 million over three years to strengthen its R&D capabilities in China. The company plans to build a new, 55,000-square meter campus in Beijing's Chao Yang District. The company currently has R&D facilities in Beijing and Guangzhou. Major Chinese customers include China Telecom, China Unicom, China Netcom, China Railcom, China Mobile and others.


Separately, Nortel Networks announced that China Unicom is deploying CDMA2000 1X networks based on its platforms in four markets. These deployments are part of Phase 3 of China Unicom's expansion of its nationwide CDMA2000 1X network. Over the past two years, Nortel Networks has supplied solutions to China Unicom for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the expansion. The contract was valued at US$139 million.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

• In August 2003, Alcatel announced plans to invest an additional US$45 million in R&D programs in China focused on 3G infrastructure. R&D in 3G already was expected to constitute a significant portion of the US$100 million R&D commitment in China that Alcatel announced earlier this year.

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Sprint Optical Networking Solutions (SONS) Targets Enterprise Market

Sprint, in partnership with Nortel Networks, introduced a new metro optical connectivity service for "high-bandwidth" enterprise customers. SONS is an end-to-end managed solution that connects multiple metro locations via private ring-based networks while providing enterprise customers with high-speed, direct connectivity to the entire Sprint network. The managed service is especially targeted at large enterprises with offsite back-up requirements. Federal regulations that could set minimum requirements for the storage and recovery of sensitive data are looming in several vertical industry markets.


SONS customers will be able to choose DWDM, SONET, or a combination of both as the underlying transport technology. The service can carry voice, data, video, and multimedia traffic over a single, dedicated fiber. Capacity scales up to 32 channels of 10 Gbps traffic.


Sprint plans to make the service available across the U.S., with a focus on 12 major U.S. markets in 2003: New York City; Dallas; San Francisco; Chicago; Kansas City; Seattle; Houston; Minneapolis; St. Louis; Los Angeles; Atlanta; and Reston (VA).


SONS will use Nortel Networks' equipment, including its OPTera Metro 3000 and OPTera Metro 5000 Multiservice Platforms, which support next-generation SONET/DWDM.
http://www.sprint.com
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

• Earlier this month, Sprint announced the activation of two large fiber-optic rings spanning 180 miles throughout the Miami area. The Miami metro network is part of a nationwide Sprint initiative aimed at extending its fiber deeper into the metro areas of more than 30 U.S. cities before mid-2004. Other cities with newly active Sprint fiber networks announced this year include Kansas City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Denver, Phoenix, St. Louis, San Francisco and Boston.



• In May 2003, Sprint launched its migration from a circuit-switched telephone network to a packet network with the replacement of its entire local switching infrastructure in Gardner, Kansas. Sprint will be capable of combining three separate "overlay" networks into a single, ATM network for voice, data and private-line services. Class 5 circuit switches will be replaced using Nortel Networks' Succession Communication Server 2000 superclass softswitches, Succession Multiservice Gateway 4000, Succession Media Gateway 9000, and Nortel Networks Passport 15000 Multiservice Switches. Nortel Networks will be responsible for all delivery, installation and testing of the new packet equipment. Financial terms were not disclosed. In addition to Gardner, Kansas, the locations that are scheduled for conversion to packet switching in 2003 include five towns in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida and Ohio.

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iBasis Enters Retail Prepaid Business

iBasis named Jonathan Kaplan to lead its entry into the retail prepaid calling card business. The company estimates that revenues from calling cards sold in the U.S. will grow from $3.7 billion in 2002 to $5.1 billion in 2005. Kaplan held executive and senior management positions with long distance carriers and prepaid calling card distributors including with IDT and others.
http://www.ibasis.net

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SupportSoft Further Automates Customer Service for BellSouth

BellSouth has chosen SupportSoft as a software vendor for complete service automation to support all of its retail DSL Internet access subscribers. Specifically, BellSouth will be using SupportSoft's SmartAccess, HomeNet, and Knowledge Center products, in addition to its previous deployments of SupportSoft's Service Automation Suite. SupportSoft counts seven out of the top nine North American broadband service providers among its customers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.support.com

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Bridgewater Targets Telecom Clearinghouses with CDMA 1x - WiFi Roaming

Bridgewater Systems introduced a data roaming solution targeted at telecom clearinghouses working with CDMA 1x and Wi-Fi service providers. The Bridgewater Clearinghouse Solution enables brokering of real-time authentication of the roaming partner subscribers. It also collects and distributes usage information between the roaming partners, and handles dispute resolution. The company said its solution has been lab tested at Sun Microsystems and was shown to support 30 million subscribers and 9000 transactions/second.
http://www.bridgewatersystems.com

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HNS to provide its DIRECWAY Satellite System to Chinese Partner

Hughes Network Systems (HNS) will provide its DIRECWAY broadband satellite technology to ChinaCast, one of the leading satellite service operators in China. HNS will supply a DIRECWAY broadband satellite network, including a Network Operations Center (NOC) and its DW4020 remote satellite terminals. In addition, the companies signed a strategic relationship agreement to jointly market enterprise networking services in China.
http://www.hns.com

• ChinaCast's joint venture partners include Hughes Network Systems, Intel Capital, Sunevision (HK), and Technology Venture Holdings (HK).

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D-Link Unveils UPnP-Enabled Central Home Storage Drive

D-Link introduced a Universal Plug-n-Play (UPnP) network attached storage device designed to serve as a home network repository for digital photos, music, video and other content. The product uses an Intel IXP420 network processor, a 10/100 Ethernet port and a 20 GB embedded slim hard drive. The device provides cross-platform support for Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP, Apple Mac OS and Linux operating systems. The MSRP is $249.99.
http://www.dlink.com

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University of South Florida Deploys Avaya's IP Telephony

The University of South Florida, which ranks as the 12th largest U.S. university with 40,000 students and faculty, upgraded its communications network using Avaya's IP telephony equipment. The upgrade to a converged voice and data network allowed the university to reuse most of its existing network infrastructure to support more than 16,000 IP, digital and analog phones, at multiple campuses across Florida. Avaya described the project as one of the largest deployments of an IP telephony network at a university.
http://www.avaya.com

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KT Selects Laurel Networks ST200 for Edge Router Deployment

KT (formerly Korea Telecom) has deployed Laurel Networks' ST200 Service Edge Router to deliver advanced Internet services at the edge of its KORNET network. The deployment enables KT to leverage its metro Ethernet network to provide business customers with a high-speed upgrade path from TDM-based DS-3 circuits to 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps Ethernet connectivity. Using the ST200, KT is offering Internet services with BGP peering as well as an optional service to block undesirable websites as specified by their customers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.laurelnetworks.com

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Microsoft and ARM Announce 8 New Chip Vendors for CE .NET

Microsoft and ARM announced eight new silicon vendors -- Centrality Communications, Cirrus Logic, Conexant Systems, Globespan Virata, LSI Logic, MagicEyes Digital, NVIDIA and Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas -- that are developing ARM core-based solutions optimized for Microsoft Windows CE .NET 4.2. Potential applications for the Windows CE.ET + ARM solution could include consumer electronics, digital imaging, gateways, set-top boxes and VoIP phones. Existing developers of such products include Intel, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector, NeoMagic, Samsung Electronics Company Ltd. and Texas Instruments.
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.arm.com

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Verizon Enters Market for Data Storage Services

Verizon Communications began offering custom-designed storage backup and data retrieval services for large enterprises. The service is provided using Verizon's metro networks and storage systems, software and services from EMC Corporation. Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group manages the design, operation and maintenance of the end-to-end network.
http://www.verizon.com

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General DataComm Emerges from Bankruptcy

General DataComm Industries emerged from bankruptcy protection on 15-Sept-2003. Creditors will receive payment of 100% of their claims over a five-year period, and shareholders will retain their shares subject to a one-for-ten reverse stock split.

GDC offers a range of NEBS Level 3 Certified, carrier-class network access products including integrated access systems for T1/T3, xDSL, DDS and analog services; modems/CSUs/DSUs, routers, Ethernet switches, LAN extension devices; Frame Relay probes and monitors; and network management systems.
http://www.gdc.com

• GDC was founded in 1969 and was an early developer of data communications products.

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Intel Outlines Initiatives for Digital Convergence

"The convergence of computing and communications has gone mainstream," said Intel President and COO Paul Otellini, speaking at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) Fall 2003 in San Jose, California. As an example, Otellini said 76,000 new wireless cards are being deployed per day and by 2010 Intel estimates there will be more than 2.5 billion wireless handheld devices capable of providing communications functions. In addition to reviewing the company's focus on convergence, Otellini also described new technologies that go beyond processor frequency. These include:

• Hyper-Threading technology



• Centrino mobile technology



• "Vanderpool," which would enable multiple independent software environments in a single PC



• "LaGrande," which is a security enhancement for Intel processors, chipsets and platforms



• Technology for boosting digital media performance



• Participation in the Digital Home Working Group, which brings together content providers and the consumer electronics industry. In this arena, Intel is cooperating in the development of Digital Transmission Content Protection over IP (DTCP/IP) technology, which would enable home users to wirelessly share protected entertainment content among a variety of devices in the home.

http://developer.intel.com

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IP Infusion Adds DVMRP, DiffServ to Routing Suite

IP Infusion released version 6.0 of its ZebOS Advanced Routing Suite (ARS) featuring new support for Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP), Differentiated Services (DiffServ) and the ZebOS Integrated Management Interface (IMI). The ZebOS DVMRP Module is a multicast source code solution that provides connectionless delivery of data to a multicast group. The implementation conforms to the IETF RFC 1075 standard and the draft-ietf-idmr-dvmrp-v3-10.txt draft standard for DVMRP. New support for DiffServ over MPLS and DiffServ-Aware MPLS Traffic Engineering (DiffServ-TE) can be used to classify and prioritize network traffic. The new ZebOS IMI provides a management plane solution that centrally configures and controls all of the ZebOS ARS protocols.
http://www.ipinfusion.com

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