Ericsson Wins $150 Million CDMA2000 1X Contract in India

India's TATA Teleservices awarded a contract valued at US$150 million to Ericsson to deploy CDMA2000 1X wireless infrastructure in India. The contract includes deployment of Ericsson's end-to-end CDMA2000 1X network solution in the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka regions. In addition, Ericsson will provide core network equipment in other cities. Deployment will begin immediately and the network is expected to be put into service in Q1 2004. Within the last year Ericsson has signed CDMA2000 contracts with 15 CDMA operators worldwide.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Symantec Acquires SafeWeb for SSL VPN appliances

Symantec agreed to acquire SafeWeb, a developer of SSL VPN appliances, for $26 million in cash. Symantec intends to offer the SafeWeb SSL-based VPN technology on the Symantec appliance platforms as a standalone offering beginning in Q1 2004. In addition, Symantec plans to integrate the clientless VPN capabilities into the next version of the Symantec Gateway Security Appliance series later in 2004.


SafeWeb's SEA Tsunami is an SSL VPN appliance that enables companies to selectively grant secure remote access to network resources without the need to install additional VPN client software on the remote user's computer.
http://www.symantec.com/PressCenter

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Volo and Galaxy Internet Services Offer Unlimited VoIP for $20 Month

Galaxy Internet Services, an ISP based in Newton, Massachusetts, will begin offering an unlimited local and long distance VoIP calling plan within the U.S. for $19.95 per month. The package bundles local and long distance phone services along with advanced features such as voicemail, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Caller ID, 3-Way Calling, Repeat Dialing, Call Transfer, Caller ID Block, and Virtual Phone Numbers. These services are accessible from a standard PC, telephone or IP phone over broadband or dial-up lines.


The service is being delivered in partnership with Volo Communications, a next gen service provider offering voice, data and enhanced services to businesses and wholesale carrier customers.
http://www.gis.nethttp://www.volocommunications.com

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NTT and Motorola Partner on Multicast MPLS

NTT and Motorola announced Multicast MPLS routing software for streaming media applications through a service provider network. NTT plans to demonstrate its Multicast MPLS capability at the upcoming "MPLS2003" event later this month in Washington D.C.
http://www.ntt.co.jp/news/news03e/0310/031020.html

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Lucent introduces 5E-XC High Capacity Switch

Lucent Technologies introduced a new 5E-XC high capacity switch featuring more than triple the call handling capacity of its flagship 5ESS platform. The new 5E-XC switch, which is positioned for carriers outside North America, includes a set of next-generation enhancements to Lucent's Personal Handyphone System (PHS) solution. The enhancements support a web browser handset, 128 kbps packet cell stations, national/international roaming and short message service (SMS). Key features of the new 5E-XC switch include:

• double-to-quadruple improvement over the 5ESS switch in real-time call processing



• more than triple the busy hour call handling capacity of the 5ESS switch (from 1.2 to 4 million call attempts per hour).



• increased speed of standard SS7 signaling from 64 kbps to 2 Mbps, addressing the bottleneck that can occur as the number of signaling links grows as switch capacity increases

Lucent is also supplying a 5E-XC VoIP packet trunking solution.


Separately, China Telecom signed contracts worth more than US$20 million to deploy Lucent's Personal Handyphone System in the cities of Fuzhou, Xiamen and Quanzhou in Fujian province. The contracts mark the seventh expansion of PHS systems in these cities to accommodate rapid subscriber growth since the initial deployment in early 2001. After the latest expansion, the total capacity for the three cities will be 2.3 million subscribers.
http://www.lucent.com/press/1003/031020.nsa.html

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Movielink Partners with TerraLycos for Internet Video-On-Demand

Movielink announced a partnership with the Terra Lycos global Internet group to provide a co-branded video on-demand (VOD) service. The new co-branded site lets Lycos users in the U.S. download their choice of movies from big Hollywood studios such as MGM, Sony, Universal, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount and Disney, as well as independents, shorts and foreign films.http://lycos.movielink.com

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Bell Canada to Deploy Lucent's DSL, Evolves Voice Messaging over IP

Bell Canada will expand the deployment of its Sympatico DSL service using Lucent Technologies' new Stinger Compact Remote, iStinger FS+ and NavisAccess DSL Element Management System. Bell Canada is the first service provider worldwide to deploy the new Stinger Compact Remote platform. In addition, Bell Canada will evolve its voice messaging services using Lucent's new IP-based, AnyPath Messaging System. This will enable subscribers to access and manage their voicemail, e-mail, faxes, text messages, and voice-controlled Web-browsing -- using a telephone, wireless device or personal computer. Lucent Technologies Worldwide Services will be providing Bell Canada with network integration and ongoing technical support services. Bell Canada plans to start implementing the new technologies onto its network in 2004. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.lucent.com
http://www.bell.ca

• In broadband, Bell Canada has about 43% share against the competing cable companies in its territory. Bell Canada's CEO, Michael Sabia, argues that Bell Canada has been the most aggressive North American carrier in DSL. About 75% of the company's footprint is DSL eligible. The company has 1.3 million DSL customers. Its penetration rate is 13%, compared to 6.7% for SBC and 4.4% for Verizon. DSL is Bell Canada's local loop for the future. The next challenge is delivering more advanced services, such as security, music and other content. Bell Canada is partnering with Microsoft on new portal capabilities.



• More on Bell Canada's broadband strategy can be found here: http://www.convergedigest.com/Bandwidth/newnetworksarticle.asp?ID=8919



• In September 2003, Bell Canada announced plans to invest CDN$200 million (approximately US$146 million) over three years in Nortel Networks' IP and multimedia messaging platforms to provide new services to its large enterprise customers. Bell Canada is pursuing a "One Network" approach to the development and delivery of services."

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2Wire to Acquire Sugar Media

2Wire, a developer of DSL gateways, agreed to acquire Sugar Media, a digital media software platform, as part of its strategy for delivering a "triple-play" of voice, data and entertainment services. Financial terms were not disclosed. Sugar Media's founder and CEO, Brian Sugar, will serve as 2Wire's vice president, media products. Prior to founding Sugar Media, Brian Sugar was chief Web officer at Internet service specialist BlueLight.com, and before that served as VP of e-commerce at retailer J. Crew.
http://www.2wire.com

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AOL Promotes New Television Feature for Broadband

America Online will begin offering its broadband subscribers a new daily showcase of assorted television content. The new "TV's Top 5," which is sponsored by Philips Electronics, also provides AOL members with daily personalized viewing recommendations for television content.
http://www.aol.com

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Moonv6 Project Pushes for IPv6 in North America

Moonv6, a collaborative project to build and demonstrate the U.S.'s largest-ever IPv6 network, completed initial interoperability testing last week at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). Organizers of the Moonv6 project believe that while adoption of IPv6 in Asia and Europe has been a forgone conclusion for several years now, a great deal of doubt has persisted in the North American market. The Moonv6 project aims to change this by launching the most aggressive IPv6 event in the North American market to date.


The primary IPv6 test event held last week involved approximately 80 servers, switches and routers configured in dual stack mode, with IPv4 and IPv6 running in tandem. The tests verified basic connectivity and interoperability of various routing, switching and tunneling applications in an IPv6 environment and demonstrated the performance of new IPv6 protocols including RIPng, OSFPv3, iBGP4+ and eBGP4+.


The Moonv6 network will continue to serve as a proving ground for use by industry, universities, research labs, Internet providers, the DoD and other government agencies, assisting in wide-scale deployment of IPv6 throughout North America.


Companies participating in Moonv6 include the following.


Service providers / laboratories: Chunghwa Telecom; France Telecom; NTT R&D; Root Server Test Bed; Sprint; UNH-IOL; U.S. Department of Defense. AT&T will be participating in phase II of the event.


Test equipment vendors: Agilent Technologies; Ixia; Navtel Communications; Spirent Communications.


Networking equipment vendors: 6Wind; Checkpoint Communications; Cisco Systems; Elmic Systems; EMC; Extreme Networks; Foundry Networks; Fujitsu; Hewlett Packard; Hitachi; Hexago; IBM; IP Infusion; Juniper Networks; NEC; Nokia; Procket Networks; Microsoft; S-Net Systems; Sun Microsystems; Windriver.
http://www.iol.unh.eduhttp://www.spirentcom.com/ipv6

• In June 2003, the U.S. Department of Defense adopted a new policy for the enterprise-wide deployment of IPv6. John Stenbit, the DoD's Chief Information Officer, stated that the achievement of net-centric operations and warfare, envisioned as a Global Information Grid of interconnected sensors and systems, depends on the effective implementation of IPv6. The DoD is planning for a complete transition from IPv4 to IPv6 by FY 2008.

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Level 3 Launches New Remote Access Service

Level 3 Communications introduced a new remote access service for businesses in the U.S.. The new eRAS service, which uses V.92 technology and leverages Level 3's softswitch platform, provides enterprise customers with options such as a private-label dialer client and the ability to integrate with most major VPN platforms, including Level 3's managed VPN service. Level 3 is offering some 2,400 U.S. local access points enabled by the eRAS dialer, as well as broadband connection support through LAN, DSL, Cable, or Wi-Fi.
http://www.Level3.com

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Agere Announces ATM-Enabled Network Processor for Voice Switching

Agere Systems announced an ATM-enabled network processor for voice switching applications in existing and next-generation wireline and wireless infrastructure equipment, including DSLAMs and 3G base stations deployed in the access network. The new APP100 chip processes voice signals at speeds up to 622 Mbps -- four times faster than the nearest competing standalone chips. In addition, the chip can simultaneously process 32,000 voice channels--eight times more than competing standalone chips. Specifically, the chip performs ATM Adaptation Layer 2 functions, which pack multiple voice conversations into an ATM cell. The new device connects directly, and is sold as a solution, with Agere's APP500 5 Gbps family of single chip network processor chips. Sampling begins next month.
http://www.agere.com

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Ikanos VDSL-DMT Shipments Exceed One Million Ports

Shipments of Ikanos Communications' programmable VDSL-DMT chipsets have exceeded one million ports since volume production began less than one year ago. Ikanos' customer wins announced to date include Sumitomo Electric Industries (Japan), NEC (Japan), Hyundai Networks (Korea), ZyXEL (Taiwan), Millinet (Korea), Marconi (Europe), Woojyun Systec (Korea), and Dasan Networks (Korea).
http://www.ikanos.com

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Aruba Unveils Wi-Fi Mux, Wireless IDS and Secure Traffic Engineering

Aruba Wireless Networks, a start-up based in San Jose, California, introduced a Wi-Fi multiplexer (mux) designed to simplify the integration of legacy access points (APs) into wired campus networks.
The new Aruba 800 Wi-Fi mux acts as a proxy for legacy APs by securely tunneling traffic over IP networks to a centralized Wi-Fi switch. The Wi-Fi switch aggregates traffic from multiple Wi-Fi muxes and enforces security and mobility policies at a central network location. It can attach to both the Aruba 5000 and the Aruba 800 Wi-Fi switches.


The new, programmable Aruba 800 hardware platform also acts as an 802.3af compliant Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch with a built-in terminal server based on Aruba's patented Serial and Power over Ethernet (SPOE) technology.


Separately, Aruba released a new version of its AirOS Wi-Fi switching software that features advanced wireless intrusion detection (IDS) and traffic engineering capabilities. New denial of service (DoS) features protect against common WLAN man-in the middle attacks, such as ASLEAP, deauthentication floods, and void11. These attacks attempt to disrupt wireless LAN traffic or decrypt NT passwords by impersonating stations or access points. With AirOS 2.0, Aruba access points analyze and classify traffic patterns as well as examine common 802.11-specific attributes like RF signal strength (RSSI) and sequence numbers to identify and block illegal activity. AirOS 2.0 WLAN IDS capabilities also include detecting common network penetration tools such as NetStumbler, DStumber and Wellenreiter using signature analysis on each Aruba access point. In addition, new traffic engineering capabilities include crypto-VLANs created through multiple ESSIDs on a single AP; role based VLAN membership; per user bandwidth contracts; and wireless quality and class of service for delay-sensitive traffic flowshttp//www.arubanetworks.com/

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VeriFone and D-Link Develop Wi-Fi Enabled POS Terminals

VeriFone and D-Link Latin America have developed a Wi-Fi-based payment solution for Point of Sale (POS) terminals. The solution enables all dial-up traffic from multiple POS terminals or multiple merchants to be consolidated on a single line or high-speed link. The companies said credit card transaction speed is 350% faster, averaging around four seconds for a transaction, than for dial-up processing. The solution has been installed in the Mall of San Marino in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
http://www.verifone.com
http://www.dlinklatinamerica.com

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EarthLink Expands Small Office DSL service to 81 Markets

EarthLink began offering DSL service to small businesses in 65 new markets across the U.S. EarthLink Small Office DSL, which is priced at $79.95 per month, features a static IP address and a download speed of 1.5 Mbps. The Earthlink service is now available in 81 markets across the U.S.
http://www.earthlink.net

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Intelsat Wins Auction for Loral's North American Satellites

Intelsat was the highest bidder in an auction for Loral's North American telecommunications satellites. The winning bid was $1.1 billion. The other bidder at the auction was EchoStar Communications Corporation. The deal covers the sale of the in-orbit Telstars 4, 5, 6, 7 and 13, as well as Telstar 8, which is scheduled to be launched in the first half of next year. Intelsat's bid is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and a hearing is scheduled for 22-Oct-03.
http://www.loral.com

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COLT Telecom Builds European VPN Customer Base

COLT Telecom has signed up around 700 IP VPN customers across Europe since it began offering the service two years ago. The company highlighted the financial sector as being a prime customer of IP VPNs. COLT has a multi-million EUR contract with SWIFT, an industry body that supplies secure messaging services to 7,000 financial companies worldwide. COLT has migrated over 300 of SWIFT's members to the new MPLS-based SWIFTNet network.
http://www.colt.net

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Peribit Raises New Funding, Sees Momentum for WAN Optimizer

Peribit Networks, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, secured $10 million in fourth round financing for its WAN application performance solutions. Peribit has now raised a total of $42 million to date and its valuation stands at $100 million. The new funding was led by China-based WK Technology Fund and included previous investors Mayfield, Accel Partners and Foundation Capital.


Peribit's Molecular Sequence Reduction (MSR) technology applies DNA pattern matching algorithms to data networks to remove massive amounts of repetitive data from WAN links. The technology enables Peribit to deliver up to ten times the link and application performance over existing WAN connections. Peribit has also developed a new Packet Flow Acceleration (PFA) technology that addresses poor application performance caused WAN latency. WAN latency tends to delay the acknowledgements between send and receive endpoints and this impedes an application's ability to send additional data while it's in a "wait state". Peribit's PFA technology accelerates short flows by optimizing the TCP session initialization. For large bulk data transfers, PFA minimizes the TCP idle time during which the server is unable to transfer more data due to WAN latency. This results in an optimized data flow from sender to receiver and a significant reduction in the total time to completion for the data transfer.


Peribit offers a line of "Sequence Reducers" that operate at both ends of IP links running at rates from 2 Mbps up to 45 Mbps.


Separately, Peribit announced that Cintas Corporation, which provides uniforms to businesses across the U.S., has installed Peribit Sequence Reducers at more than 250 locations. The company rolled out 20-30 Peribit units each week within their international Frame Relay network. The $1 million deployment enables Cintas to rollout new applications while improving response time and without needing to upgrade its Frame Relay network. The company said that on average, the Sequence Reducers cut network traffic by 65%, increasing Cintas' existing capacity almost three times. During peak periods, the traffic reduction rate is more than 80%.
http://www.peribit.com

• Peribit Networks was founded in May 2000 by Dr. Amit P. Singh, a researcher at Stanford University, and Balraj Singh, who previously was part of the original design team for Intel's Pentium.

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SupportSoft Unveils Real-Time Service Management Platform

SupportSoft introduced its new Real-Time Service Management (RTSM) software platform that will serve as the foundation for all its products. The new release, which is a redesign of the company's existing Problem Resolution platform, is aimed at automating technical support, customer service and IT infrastructure management for enterprises and service providers. In association with the launch of the Real-Time Service Management software platform, SupportSoft also announced 4 core products:

• Knowledge Center Suite -- which facilitates knowledge-enabled self-service and assisted service. Broadband network operators could use it to automate service and support knowledge creation, publishing, management and access. Customers can use it to access self-help tools on the web.



• LiveAssist -- a highly scaleable real time, online chat solution for call centers and IT help desk organizations. Customers can simply click a button on a company's Web site to engage a service or support representative without resorting to the need to download software plug-ins or wait in a phone queue. Call center service representatives can handle multiple customer sessions at one time to maximize their productivity. This capability was developed in collaboration with a major cable MSO.



• RemoteAssist -- allows service and support representatives to provide faster, more effective resolution to user problems by taking control of the user's system remotely via the Web. The product provides for full privacy, requiring a user's permission for a service representative to remotely manage their computing system. It also works through firewalls.



• Auto Discovery and Metering -- permits enterprise IT organizations to discover, inventory and meter a company's hardware and software assets in real-time.

http://www.supportsoft.com

• SupportSoft counts seven out of the top nine North American broadband service providers among its customers.



• In September 2003, BellSouth selected 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.

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MetaSwitch and Wave7 Partner on Voice over Packet for FTTP

MetaSwitch and Wave7 Optics announced a joint solution that will allow service providers to offer Class 5 end-to-end Voice over Packet services, either as part of a "triple play" (voice, video and data) solution
or as a separate service. The companies have completed interoperability testing between the MetaSwitch VP3500 and the Wave7 Optics Last Mile Link PON platform. The Wave7 access architecture already features uncompressed (G.711) full 64 kbps voice over packet service at a 'lifeline' QoS level equivalent. The MetaSwitch VP3500 is a next generation Class 5 switch supporting VoIP, VoATM and GR-303 as well as advanced Web-based subscriber services. The MetaSwitch VP3500 scales from 400 subscribers to over 250,000 subscribers in a single rack. Built-in CALEA support enables service providers to satisfy lawful intercept requirements. MetaSwitch currently supports over 95 Class 5 features and services.
http://www.metaswitch.com
http://www.wave7optics.com

• Earlier this month, Separately, Hitachi Telecom (USA) and Wave7 Optics announced a working relationship to combine core competencies in fiber access technology. The companies have already collaborated on a "triple play" B-PON solution in response to the interest in FTTx generated by the RBOCs.

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