Verizon and Alcatel Deploy IP Telephony in Las Vegas Schools

Verizon and Alcatel are working on a project to deploy a 27,000-line IP telephony system for the Clark County School District (CCSD), which encompasses Las Vegas and is the sixth largest school district in the U.S. in size with 268,000 students and nearly 30,000 teachers. The IP telephony network will connect more than 300 schools and administrative facilities. Every classroom will be included. The contract, valued at more than $15 million over three years, covers all Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise hardware and software, as well as Verizon-provided...

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U.S. Navy Tests Vocera's Wi-Fi Badges

U.S.S. Coronado, the U.S. Navy's sea-based battle lab, is testing Vocera Communications' Wi-Fi badges to facilitate instant communication among select crew members. Vocera's system combines 802.11b wireless LAN, VoIP, and speech recognition to enable mobile workers to speak with each other within networked environments, and instantly connect and communicate with one another using simple voice commands. The badge can be clipped to a shirt pocket or collar, or worn on a lanyard, enabling instant, hands-free communication. http://www.vocera....

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DSL.net Expands its Converged Services

DSL.net has expanded its NETgain One integrated voice and data service from two to 17 bundled packages over T-1 and business-class DSL with speeds up to 1.5 Mbps. All bundled services now include unlimited local and domestic long-distance calling, while each bundle varies by number of phone lines and broadband speeds. The expanded service offerings were launched this week in the Washington, D.C., metro region, including parts of Maryland and Virginia. Previously, the NETgain One voice and data service was offered only over a T-1 line in a bundle...

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Tsinghua and Shenzhen Universities Deploy Force10

Tsinghua University and Shenzhen University, two of China's leading universities, have deployed Force10 Networks' E-Series platforms to build 10 Gigabit Ethernet campus networks. Beijing-based Tsinghua University, China's leading engineering university, is building a new 10 Gigabit Ethernet campus network to provide more than 60,000 students and researchers with Internet and intranet access, the bandwidth to collaborate on data-intensive computing projects and a variety of other advanced networking services. Tsinghua's new 10 GigE network will...

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Nortel Networks Unveils Metro CWDM for MSOs

Nortel Networks introduced a new CWDM version of its OPTera Metro 5000 solution designed for cable operators. The CWDM Enclosure increases network flexibility in delivering Gigabit Ethernet, storage connectivity, and other optical broadband services to customer premises. It could be deployed outdoors to aggregate multiple private CWDM optical channels from various customer premises over a single fiber pair. It could also be placed in basements of multi-tenant buildings to provide end customers with fully private, multi-protocol, optical wavelength...

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Cablevision's Lightpath Deploys Nortel's Metro Optical Transport

Lightpath, the business telecommunications services division of Cablevision Systems, has deployed a DWDM metro optical transport solution from Nortel Networks. Lightpath, which is the third largest LEC in New York state, is using Nortel Networks OPTera Metro 5200 Multiservice Platform to evolve its existing SONET-based infrastructure to deliver metro Ethernet, SAN, and other managed services. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.nortelnetworks....

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Ixia Upgrades xChariot Test Software

Ixia announced the latest release of xChariot test software, the first Ixia-developed product based on the acquisition of NetIQ's Chariot source code. IxChariot 5.0 offers expanded IPv6 functionality, and is capable of emulating transaction rates at extremely high speeds. It can also be used to simultaneously generate and measure the impact of Ixia's Layer 2/7 traffic generation concurrently with IxChariot's VoIP, Cisco IPTV, Oracle, SAP or a wide range of customer-specific enterprise application traffic. Developers are also using it to certify...

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SingTel Completes Thailand-Indonesia-Singapore Cable

Singapore Telecommunications announced the completion of the TIS (Thailand-Indonesia-Singapore) cable network, a joint project with CAT Telecom Public Company Limited (CAT) of Thailand and PT. Telekommunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Telkom). The 1,100 km cable is linked into SingTel's extensive submarine cable networks in Asia Pacific. It will begin to carry commercial traffic with immediate effect. The US$36 million consortium cable system has a capacity of 30 Gbps. NEC Corporation was contracted to build the TIS cable in November 2002. http://www.si...

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Clarus Raises $9 Million for its IP Telephony Mgt.

Clarus Systems, a start-up based in San Francisco, received $8.85 million in Series A funding led by Trinity Ventures and Mobius Venture Capital. Clarus Systems proactively measures, manages and optimizes the quality and performance of IP telephony for Global 2000 enterprises. Clarus said its mission is to answer the questions that business end-users care about most: Do I have dial tone? Can I complete and transfer calls? Is my voicemail working? What is the quality of service? The system translates end-user measurements into actionable information...

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HNS Offers Broadband Satellite Terminal for Europe

Hughes Network Systems introduced a DIRECWAY broadband satellite terminal for the European market. The DW6000 is self-hosting, thereby eliminating the requirement to install any special software on customers' computers and extending DIRECWAY service to both Macs and Windows PCs. The equipment will be sold to enterprise customers through HNS Europe's regional sales offices and from authorized value-added resellers and service providers. http://www.hnseu....

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ARRIS to Resell Ellacoya's IP Service Mgt Platform

ARRIS agreed to distribute Ellacoya's 4000 and 16000 series IP service management systems to broadband operators worldwide under a non-exclusive arrangement. Ellacoya provides hardware and management software tools to measure, analyze and manage traffic by application and activity. The Ellacoya system consists of its high performance 4000 and 16000 series IP switches as well as its Service Logic Software (SLS), a central point of configuration, policy distribution, and integration with other network and back office systems. http://www.ellacoya.com...

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Equant Signs $3 Million IP VPN Deal With Norske Skog

Equant has signed a $3 million deal to provide Norske Skog, the second largest manufacturer of publication paper, with fully managed IP VPN and Private Dial remote access services. Norske Skog operates 23 wholly- and partly-owned paper mills in 15 countries on five continents. Equant's network solution is expected to generate a 25% reduction in the company's telecommunications budget. http://www.equant....

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Wisconsin's Merrimac Deploys sentitO's Softswitch

Wisconsin-based Merrimac Communications, a rural ISP and CATV provider, is deploying sentitO Network's New End Office (NEO), an IP-based replacement Class 5 switch. The deployment will expand Merrimac's current capabilities to include functioning as a CLEC. The new bundled services include voice, DSL and long distance services. sentitO's NEO Services Switch (NSS) directly terminates V.92 dial-up modem traffic, thereby eliminating the need for external RAS equipment. The softswitch is designed for VoIP and SIP services, and provides GR-303, Inter-Machine...

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AT&T Names William Hannigan as President

William J. Hannigan was named as President of AT&T, effective immediately, replacing Betsy Bernard, who is leaving AT&T to pursue other opportunities. Hannigan was most recently Chairman and CEO of Sabre Holdings. Previously, Hannigan held senior executive positions at SBC Communications, including president of SBC Global Markets and president of Southwestern Bell's $4.5 billion Business Communications Services unit. Prior to joining Pacific Bell in 1996, Hannigan spent nearly 12 years at Sprint and its predecessor companies. http://w...

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AT&T and Cisco Expand Alliance to EMEA

AT&T and Cisco Systems have expanded their marketing alliance to include Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Under the joint marketing programs, the companies' direct sales forces promote end-to-end managed services, such as the AT&T IP VPN suite of services, AT&T Global Managed Internet Services, Managed Security Services and Hosting services, using Cisco equipment. The two companies will also extend the Technology and Product Planning Councils established as part of the U.S. agreement into EMEA in February 2004. The councils...

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Motorola Broadband Joins the Juniper Networks Infrastructure Alliance

Motorola Broadband Communications Sector has joined the Juniper Networks Infrastructure Alliance. The companies are working together to enhance the interoperability between their products for cable operators. http://www.juniper.nethttp://www.motorola.com/broadb...

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Vonage Signs Private Label Agreement with CableAmerica

Vonage announced a co-branded agreement under which CableAmerica will offer its broadband telephony service to its cable modem customers in Arizona, Missouri, California, and Michigan. The companies will offer local and long distance calling throughout the U.S. and Canada for $34.99 a month. CableAmerica serves 65,000 cable customers. http://www.vonage....

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Aiirnet Wireless to Offer Broadband Wireless Service in California City

Aiirnet Wireless will provide wireless broadband Internet service in Cerritos, California using 802.11/Wi-Fi technology. Under an agreement with the City of Cerritos, Aiirnet will use city owned facilities to provide its Aiirlink wireless community broadband services to citizens of Cerritos, as well as to the City of Cerritos itself. Pricing for the service will be comparable to wireline broadband access alternatives with a variety of service plans. As of January, the entire 8.6 square mile area of Cerritos will be activated for high-speed outdoor...

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Atheros Files for IPO

Atheros Communications, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of up to $100 million of common stock. Atheros develops 802.11 WLAN silicon. http://www.atheros.comAtheros Communications was founded in May 1998 by Teresa H. Meng, a professor at Stanford University. Its engineering team also includes Rick Bahr, formerly the vice president of engineering for scalable systems development at Silicon Graphics (SGI).Atheros has raised a total...

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HDTV Now Available in 96 of Top 100 U.S. Markets

At least one cable operator in 96 of the top 100 designated market areas (DMAs) is offering a package of HDTV programming to consumers, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). Cable HDTV programming currently passes 70 million U.S. homes, representing growth of 90% since the beginning of the year. According to the NCTA survey, there are now 304 digital broadcast stations being carried by cable operators in the U.S., up from 231 at the beginning of September and 190 at the beginning of June.. http://www.nc...

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The Western Show: Triple Play Heard Round the World

"Cable is positioned to be the communications leader," said Ron Hranac, Technical Leader of Broadband Network Engineering with Cisco Systems, speaking on a panel at The Western Show in Anaheim, California. Hranac noted that today's upgraded HFC networks have the potential to deliver over 5 Gbps of bandwidth to and from the home. They also benefit from a stable set of DOCSIS/EURDOCSIS standards, extensive fiber deployments out to the neighborhood, an established base of 15 million cable modem subscribers (U.S. only) and the potential to leverage...

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STSN and BT Openzone to Offer Broadband Service to European Hotels

STSN, a supplier of managed broadband services to the hotel and conference industry, and BT Openzone have entered into a joint initiative to offer hotels in Europe a single supplier for all aspects of their broadband services, including marketing, billing and customer support. The service will include fixed and wireless broadband access for rooms, public areas and conference facilities. http://www.stsn.com http://www.btopenzone....

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