Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Palo Alto Selects Quantum Bridge / Motorola for FTTH Test

The City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU) is testing an FTTP solution from Motorola and Quantum Bridge for delivering voice, video and data to select residents in the city. The city hopes to eventually replace its legacy infrastructure with FTTP.
http://www.quantumbridge.com/pr121703.html

Bell Canada: "Not Telecom as Usual"

The current environment is "not telecom as usual", said Michael Sabia, president and CEO of Bell Canada Enterprises speaking at the company's annual conference for the financial community.


Sabia said Bell Canada intends to migrate 100% of its traffic onto a national IP backbone network within three years, with 90% of its customers having access to a full suite of value-added IP services. He vowed the company would devote all its resources "to capture the full potential of IP based communications."


As for accomplishments in 2003, Bell Canada reorganized into three distinct business units to better serve its customers.


In the consumer segment, Bell Canada is expecting by the end of 2005 to double the number of households that use three or four of its key services. The company will focus on simplicity and service through initiatives such as a unified marketing strategy for all consumer products and services, attractive bundles and one stop shopping. Bell Canada will continue to expand its DSL footprint. It also plans to launch a consumer VOIP market trial in early 2004, and is continuing with its IPTV trials.


For small and medium businesses, Bell Canada hopes over the next two years to double the number of customers with two or more services and to cut in half the time it takes to serve the customers. Initiatives are being planned for moving small and medium business into new technologies such as VoIP and WiFi.


For enterprise customers, Bell Canada is focused on transforming the business from providing connectivity to delivering value-added services to at least 80% of its customers by 2005. The company will develop an IP migration plan for each of its enterprise accounts in 2004.


For 2004, Bell Canada is expecting revenue growth comparable to 2003. The capital intensity (capital expenditures as a percentage of revenues) ratio is expected to be 17% to 18%. DSL net additions are expected to be comparable to those achieved in 2003.
http://www.bell.ca

Global Crossing partners with Covad for DSL

Covad Communications was named as a national DSL provider for Global Crossing's IP VPN Service, Frame Relay, Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) and VoIP services in the U.S. Global Crossing plans to offer VoIP services over these DSL connections in early 2004,http://www.globalcrossing.com
http://www.covad.com

Free World Dialup Deploys NexTone Session Controllers

Free World Dialup is using NexTone's Multiprotocol Signaling Switch (MSW) to allow a peer-to-peer Internet telephony network for broadband users. The NexTone MSW enables Free World Dialup to abstract call routing and other call control policies from the call signaling regardless of their choice of signaling protocol (H.323 or SIP) or endpoint type. This allows Free World Dialup to route and control calls among its 85,000 subscribers without modifying the network infrastructure.
http://www.nextone.com

Telefónica Deploys Juniper's E-series for TV-over-DSL

Telefónica de España is using Juniper Networks' E-series platforms to deliver entertainment services across its broadband IP over ADSL network. Telefónica is developing an "Imagenio" service that is aimed at integrating the television and Internet worlds. Content is provided by Telefonica subsidiaries and others. So far, some 700 households have been testing the services. Full commercial launch in Spain's two biggest cities, Barcelona and Madrid, will happen as soon as Telefonica receives approval from the Spanish regulator.


The equipment is part of an order awarded to Siemens ICN by Telefonica to extend its broadband network. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Telefónica is currently serving some 1.5 million DSL lines in Spain for retail and wholesale customers.
http://www.juniper.net
  • In September, nCUBE announced that Telefónica de España had selected its nABLE interactive management software and n4x video server for the delivery of VOD services over its ADSL network in Spain. Telefónica's VOD service, imagenio, will initially be available in the Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante regions of Spain and is expected to expand to cities across Spain over the next two years. nCUBE's n4x video server can store more than 200,000 hours of unique video content. nCUBE's platform is designed to support communities of 5,000 to 500,000 homes with a single piece of content.

D-Link Offers Wireless Broadband VideoPhone for TVs

D-Link introduced a wireless version of its i2eye VideoPhone for broadband video conferencing using television sets and the ITU-based H.323 protocol. The new D-Link i2eye streams video at up to 30 frames per second and features an adjustable tilt/focus camera lens. An address book stores up to 50 IP addresses or registered i2eye ID numbers for placing calls. It can be set to display video calls in either picture-in-picture or full screen mode and automatically adjusts contrast levels. The wireless connection is 802.11b compliant. Advanced wireless security features include SSID filtering and 64/128/256 bit WEP encryption. The MSRP is $249.
http://www.dlink.com

Yahoo! BB Extends Contract for UTStarcom's IP-DSLAMs

Yahoo! BB awarded an expansion contract valued in excess of $40 million to UTStarcom for its IP-DSLAM. Shipments on this contract are taking place in support of Yahoo! BB's plan to begin promoting its new 45 Mbps high-speed ADSL service this month, with services expected to launch by the end of January 2004.


As of the end of November, Yahoo! BB was serving some 3.5 million subscribers. The "BB Phone" VoIP service currently has approximately 3.3 million subscribers.


Yahoo! BB introduced 8 Mbps ADSL data service in September 2001, attracting more than 100,000 subscribers in the first month alone. In July 2002, the 8 Mbps service was supplanted by Japan's first 12 Mbps service, which also provided subscribers with a personal mailbox, a homepage, and a wide range of value-added services.
http://www.utstar.com

Nokia to Open Enterprise Solutions in NYC

Nokia will establish a new corporate office in the New York metropolitan area to serve as the base for Nokia's newly established Enterprise Solutions business group, the CFO's office, parts of different corporate functions and some regional operations. Mary T. McDowell, the recently appointed head of Enterprise Solutions, will lead the global Enterprise Solutions business group from the New York area office. In addition, the majority of the sales and marketing activities of the Multimedia business group's North American operations will be located there.


Nokia currently has some 6.600 employees in the U.S. with the majority working in Irving and Fort Worth, Texas and Mountain View, Californiahttp://www.nokia.com

Free World Dialup Announces Free VoIP-to-PSTN for the Holidays

Free World Dialup will allow its 85,000 members to call non-subscribers across the U.S. and Canada at no charge from now though 31-December-2003. The service already offered free VoIP calls to other Free World Dialup members.
http://www.freeworldialup.com/

LindowsOS 4.5 Includes Integrated Free SIP Softphone

The latest release of the Lindows.com operating system (LindowsOS 4.5) includes an integrated SIP softphone client from Xten for calling on the SIPphone network. LindowsOS 4.5's X Lite Plus softphone combined with the SIPphone network gives the user a unique number from which to send and receive calls; it also includes four-way conferencing abilities, as well as 800 number access from any location worldwide.
http://www.xten.com

CTC Communications Emerges from Chapter 11

CTC Communications, a CLEC based in Waltham, Massachusetts, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was subsequently acquired by Washington-based Columbia Ventures Corporation (CVC). CTC claims over 10,000 customers and serves over 370,000 access line equivalents in New England.
http://www.ctcnet.com

UTStarcom Announces $32 million iPAS Contract with China Telecom

UTStarcom signed an expansion contract valued at approximately $23 million with China Telecom for the further deployment of its IP-based PAS (Personal Access System) in Yunnan province. The contract marks the sixth expansion of the PAS network in the Yunnan Province. Currently, UTStarcom's network has 750,000 subscribers, representing 60% of the total PAS users in Yunnan. Upon project completion, the UTStarcom network will have capacity for two million subscribers.
http://www.utstarcom.com

Sunrise Telecom Introduces VDSL Test Solution

Sunrise Telecom introduced a multi-layer field testing solution for VDSL. Sunrise's SunSet MTT platform now supports copper installation and maintenance applications for VDSL, as well as VDSL customer modem emulation.
http://www.sunrisetelecom.com

3Com Reports Quarterly Revenue of $182M, up 12% Sequentially

3Com reported quarterly revenue of $182 million, up 12% over the preceding quarter and significantly ahead of the First Call estimate of $167 million. Gross margins were $57 million, or 31% of revenues. Operating expenses were $172 million, including $59 million of restructuring charges. The net loss was approximately $139 million, or $0.37 per share. Some other highlights:

  • during the quarter 3Com generated its first revenue from the recently announced router products and the modular Layer 3 Switch 7700 sourced from the Huawei-3Com Joint Venture (JV).


  • revenue in the Americas declined 11% sequentially


  • revenue in EMEA increased 38% sequentially


  • revenue in the Asia Pacific region increased 12% sequentially.
http://www.3com.com