Eutelsat Submits Bid for EU Galileo Project

Eutelsat has submitted a bid to the Galileo Joint Undertaking, together with LogicaCMG, Hispasat and AENA (Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea) to run the Galileo advanced satellite navigation system on behalf of the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Eutelsat, which is the leader in the bid, said it is qualified to operate the Galileo concession because of its experience in procuring 30 satellites and associated launchers with a combined value of EUR 3.5 billion from European industry.
http://www.eutelsat.com

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Network Reliability and Interoperability Council VI Concludes its Work

The FCC's Network Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC) VI adopted a final set of industry "best practices" during the sixth and final meeting of its two year charter. The latest NRIC was chartered following the events of September 11, 2001 to focus on telecommunications security in the event of another terrorist attack or national disaster. NRIC VI's accomplishments include:

• Adopting more than 300 best practices to protect the nation's communications against attack. In addition, the Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Focus Group presented 70 best practices the industry should consider to help sustain critical business activities in a crisis. Also, the Cyber Security Focus Group identified over 200 best practices the communications industry should consider to restore service in a timely and secure manner.



• Adopting a Mutual Aid Agreement which provides the means by which industry carriers and service providers can elect to enter agreements to collaborate to restore service in the wake of an emergency.



• Adopting industry emergency contact procedures and protocol to provide detailed contact information, procedures and protocol to members in times of emergency and to identify communications industry representatives who are essential to effective communications and Internet service restoration efforts.

The FCC plans to recharter NRIC with new priority initiatives sometime in early 2004.
http://www.fcc.gov

• In July 2003, the FCC established an Office of Homeland Security within its Enforcement Bureau to focus on the nation's emergency preparedness issues. The Office of Homeland Security will also be responsible for rules relating to the Emergency Alert System and will oversee operation of the FCC's 24-hour Communications and Crisis Management Center and its Emergency Operations Center, functions that were previously handled in the Enforcement Bureau's Technical and Public Safety Division. The new Office will also promote the "best practices" recommendations adopted by the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC).

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Avaya Develops Contact Center for Singapore Bank

Avaya was selected to develop a Multimedia Integrated Contact Centre for the local operations of United Overseas Bank, Singapore's second largest bank. UOB will use Avaya Interaction Centre ("Avaya IC"), a multimedia-enabled platform that provides consistent personalization, routing, and management of customer interactions across all communication channels, including inbound and outbound voice and email. The platform enables UOB to swiftly direct customers to staff who will, in turn, have full 'pop-up' information of customers' past transactions. The project was valued at US$1 million.
http://www.avaya.com

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Bell Labs Opens Software Development Center in Madrid

Lucent Technologies opened a Bell Labs software development center in Madrid to focus on the development of network operations systems and the deployment of network intelligence solutions. The site is expected to employ almost 150 engineers. Lucent said the software division will define technical requirements for new features as well as provide specialized support in the commercial distribution and deployment of products in its Navis iOperations portfolio.
http://www.lucent.com

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NETGEAR Signs Co-branding Deal with China's Legend Group

NETGEAR announced a cooperative agreement with the Digital Home Business Unit of Legend Group Limited, the largest IT enterprise in China, under which Legend will co-brand NETGEAR's full line of wired and wireless networking equipment. Specifically, Legend Group will sell NETGEAR wireless products such as access points, routers, gateways, PC and PCI cards and USB adapters based on the 802.11a, 802.11b and the new 802.11g technology standards, as well as products with dual mode a/b and a/g technology. It will also sell wired products such as cable/DSL routers and fast Ethernet switches. Legend Group will use three distribution channels. These include up to 200 retail franchises across China, the bundling of Netgear products with its own desktop and notebook PCs, and distribution through the ISP partners of Legend.
http://www.netgear.com
http://www.lenovo.com

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TI and STMicroelectronics Sample cdma2000 1X

STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments (TI) began sampling their first cdma2000 1X chipset. Utilizing components from the wireless portfolios of both companies, the new cdma2000 1X solution provides a hardware and software platform aimed at reducing power consumption, component count, board space and bill of materials (BOM) costs for handset manufacturers. The joint chipset offers advanced features such as support for concurrent assisted global positioning system (A-GPS), along with high level integrated digital and analog ICs and direct conversion radio. TI is supplying the digital baseband and radio frequency (RF) receiver and transmitter chips. ST is supplying the integrated analog baseband and power management device. The design supports digital still cameras (DSCs), color displays, polyphonic ring-tones and other popular add-on features for voice-centric and feature-rich wireless handsets.


"The new cdma2000 1X solution provides an open and flexible platform that will encourage growth in the CDMA chipset market," said Rick Kornfeld, vice president, general manager of TI´s wireless chipset business."


"By uniting our strengths, ST and TI will provide handset manufacturers with a portfolio of CDMA solutions that will target multiple markets and fuel industry growth," said Loic Lietar, vice president of ST's Cellular Terminal Division."


The companies said they are committed to expanding the CDMA platform to cover all market segments, geographic segments, and future evolutions of modem technologies such as 1xEV-DV.
http://www.ti.com
http://www.st.com

• TI and ST first announced their intention to enter the cdma2000 market in May 2003.

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