KT Kornet Selects Juniper Networks

KT Kornet has again selected Juniper Networks' T-series routing platform for its Internet backbone. This new deployment follows previous deployments of the T640 in initial phases of KT Kornet's backbone network deployment. KT Kornet anticipates that its commercial and consumer IP services, such as ADSL, VDSL and access services based on metro switches, will grow to 350 Gbps by the end of 2004. Juniper said its "Matrix" technology will enable multiple T640 platforms to interconnect and operate as a single router that delivers ten or more terabits...

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mPhase Selected for IPTV Network in Turkey

Beyaz Holding Company, owner of Turkey's leading television news and entertainment station, selected mPhase Technologies to provide technology enabling the introduction of an array of new digital television services throughout the country. The deployment will use the IP transport capabilities of Turk Telecom, the soon-to-be privatized Turkish telecommunications company, as the foundation of the broadband network. mPhase will provide the equipment and technical video expertise for the deployment, while Beyaz-owned Kanal 7 will organize and aggregate...

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ECI Telecom Confirms Commercial PON Order in Europe

ECI Telecom confirmed that its Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) equipment is being deployed by a major European Utility provider under a contract with Nortel Networks. The ECI solution will allow the customer to deliver advanced "triple play" services - video, voice and data - to its customers over an optical broadband connection. ECI said the order represents the first mass commercial deployment of FTTH PON in Europe. The announcement follows last month's announcement that ECI's equipment is carrying live traffic in England as part of BT's 21st Century...

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Cisco to Acquire Protego Networks for Security Monitoring

Cisco Systems agreed to acquire privately-held Protego Networks, a provider of security monitoring and threat management appliances for enterprise and small-to-medium business networks. Cisco will pay approximately $65 million in cash for Protego. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2005, which ends on 29-January-2005. Protego's scalable appliances combine traditional security event monitoring with network intelligence, context correlation, vector...

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Indonesia's PT Aplikanusa Lintasarta Selects Juniper for IP/MPLS

PT Aplikanusa Lintasarta, which is part of Indonesia's Indosat Group, has deployed a next-generation IP/MPLS network using Juniper Networks' M-series routing platforms. The new network, Juniper Networks' first major network deployment in Indonesia, supports multiservice IP VPN services to corporate users. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.juniper.nethttp://www.lintasarta.co...

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Empirix Enhances VoIP and TDM performance testing system

Empirix introduced an enhanced version of its "Hammer NXT" VoIP and TDM performance testing system featuring the ability to scale to more than 50,000 endpoints (signaling and media). The Hammer NXT offers up to 24K simultaneous signaling/media endpoints per system for high-density performance testing. The system can detect and analyze the content of each media stream generated (up to 24 K) at full Ethernet line rates, including detection of tones, DTMF, voice prompts, silences, and energy, allowing users to stress and verify media functionality...

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WiQuest Raises $13 Million for Ultrawideband

WiQuest Communications, a start-up based in Allen, Texas, raised $13 million in funding for its ultra wideband (UWB) technology. WiQuest said it is building complete solutions for ultrawideband applications, from mobile handsets and portable gaming to audio/video systems in the modern digital home. The technology is expected to enable a new class of consumer product features, including wireless multimedia, flexible PC connectivity, and simplified, lower cost home theatre installation. As an early contributing member of the MultiBand OFDM Alliance...

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Elcoteq and Thomson Enter Set-top Box Outsourcing Agreement

Thomson reached an outsourcing agreement with Elcoteq Network Corporation, a global provider of electronics manufacturing services . The deal includes the acquisition of Thomson's manufacturing operation in Juarez, Mexico, and manufacturing co-operation in the set-top box business. Under the deal, Elcoteq will pay US$33 million for certain fixed assets and inventories of Thomson's Juarez manufacturing operation. Thomson's personnel in Juarez, Mexico will continue in Elcoteq's organization. Currently the plant employs approximately 2,000 employees....

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ZigBee Wireless Specification Finalized

The ZigBee Alliance ratified the first ZigBee specification for low-cost, low-power wireless networks. Expected applications for ZigBee include wireless sensor networks for remote monitoring, home control, as well as industrial automation. The ZigBee Alliance, which includes more than 100 member companies, plans to validate the specification through expanded interoperability and scalability tests. http://www.zigbee....

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NTT DoCoMo Tests 1 Gbps VSF-Spread OFDM

NTT DoCoMo has successfully tested a broadband wireless access system with 1 Gbps downlink capability. The 4G radio access equipment employed variable-spreading-factor spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (VSF-Spread OFDM) radio access technology along with multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) multiplexing techniques and a new signal detection algorithm in order to achieve the 1Gbps data transmission within 100 MHz of spectrum. NTT DoCoMo said it is currently conducting indoor tests with various radio conditions as preparation for...

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PacketFront Supplies In-Building Broadband for Tokyo's Four Seasons Hotel

PacketFront, together with NEO Index Corporation and Soliton Systems KK, are suppliying a new broadband network for the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Chinzan-so. The fully automated network will be based on PacketFront's Intelligent Broadband Solution and will offer 300 hotel rooms and conference facilities a selection of Triple Play services. Soliton Systems has built and is operating the network, while NEO Index Corporation offers Triple Play services to the hotel. The hotel is now providing access to a content library with over 5,000 video titles...

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KPN Selects Siemens Surpass for Network Upgrade

KPN selected Siemens as the strategic IP partner for its fixed network and mobile activities in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Under the five year agreement, Siemens Communications will set up a completely new IP environment for the whole of KPN, laying the foundation for a new generation of communication services. Siemens will supply network elements and application platforms (IMS, IP Multimedia Subsystem) mostly based on its IP convergence architecture Surpass. Financial terms were not disclosed. KPN is already a major supplier of IP-based...

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Thomson Completes TR-069 Testing with SupportSoft

Thomson and SupportSoft successfully conducted interoperability testing of the DSL Forum CPE WAN Management protocol. Known as TR-069, this specification ensures that DSL modems can be easily configured, activated and managed from a console in the network, helping service providers to effectively address the costs of deployment and support of their CPE as well as tightly manage broadband service delivery. TR-069 provides the necessary framework for efficient and scalable deployment of new services on top of the DSL broadband infrastructure. Thomson...

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AMC-16 Satellite Launched from Atlas V

The AMC-16 telecommunications satellite, which was designed and built by Lockheed Martin for SES AMERICOM, was successfully launched aboard a Lockheed Martin-built Atlas V rocket provided by International Launch Services (ILS). AMC-16, a hybrid satellite featuring the second operating Ka-band payload in the SES AMERICOM fleet, with 12 spot-beams and 24-36Mhz transponders of Ku-band capacity for both fixed satellite service or direct broadcast service. The Ka-band beams will be deployed in a pattern to take advantage of frequency re-use while eliminating...

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MaxStream Adopts Freescale ZigBee Wireless

MaxStream, a supplier of embedded RF modules, has adopted Freescale Semiconductor's ZigBee wireless silicon. In Q1 2005, MaxStream will introduce the FCC and CE-type approved XBee family, which incorporates Freescale's ZigBee-ready and 802.15.4 chipsets onto MaxStream's RF modules. The XBee line of RF modules and stand-alone connectivity solutions will allow OEMs to add ZigBee wireless capabilities to their products. The ZigBee wireless standard enables the connection of electronic devices in a short-range wireless mesh network. http://www.fre...

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Sumitomo Electric Ships IP Set-top to NTT Communications

Sumitomo Electric Networks announced commercial shipment of its "StreamCruiser" IP set-top boxes to NTT Communications for its "OCN Theater" video distribution service. OCN Theater is a VOD service for NTT Comm's OCN optical fiber "B FLET'S" service. It features Hollywood movie productions, Japanese movies and the currently popular Korean dramas. In addition to VOD, the service provides video kara-oke, games, news news, weather reports, maps and other content. Sumitomo Electric's StreamCruiser IP-STB connects to the TV set in the home as a...

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Nortel Softswitch Achieves Euro-PacketCable Qualification

Nortel's Communication Server (CS) 2000 has been awarded EUR-PacketCable Call Management Server (CMS) qualification status by the EUR-Cable Certification Board (ECB), a consortium consisting of 12 major European cable. EUR-PacketCable is the set of procedures for IP-based telephony over cable and builds on the North American PacketCable standard developed by CableLabs. The standard enables a range of multimedia services, including IP telephony, multimedia conferencing, interactive gaming, and general multimedia applications. Nortel said it is...

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TANDBERG TV to Acquire N2 Broadband

TANDBERG Television agreed to acquire N2 Broadband, Inc., a provider of scalable, open-platform solutions for on-demand entertainment, in a cash and stock transaction valued at $110 million to $130 million. The companies said their merger would create a global force in the provision of enabling technologies for the delivery of digital multimedia content. TANDBERG Television is a market leader in digital video compression, offering a portfolio of standard definition and high definition compression solutions for MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and SMPTE VC-1....

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Verizon Wireless Extends EVDO in California

Verizon Wireless announced the extension of its BroadbandAccess EVDO wireless service to nearly all of Los Angeles County and, for the first time, portions of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. California. Verizon Wireless said its BroadbandAccess wireless service is now providing typical download speeds of 300 - 500 kbps throughout nearly 4,400 square miles of Southern California. In addition to its ongoing annual capital investment program to build network capacity and coverage, Verizon Wireless expects to invest $1 billion through 2005 to...

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TenXc Wireless Raises $13.9 Million for Intelligent RF

TenXc Wireless, a start-up based in Ottawa, Canada, raised US$13.9 million in Series A funding for its development of intelligent radio frequency solutions. TenXc is working on solutions for improved spectral efficiency and signal quality that address capacity, quality, and coverage constraints for in wireless networks. The company said its technologies are based on research and application of radio propagation, digital beamforming, signal processing, and other radio frequency advancements for commercial satellite, mobile, and other wireless...

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Cisco Invests $12 Million in Japanese R&D Center

Cisco Systems will open an R&D center in Tokyo, Japan, focused on advanced IPv6, multicast, and wireless, in addition to improving existing security and QoS technologies. The Tokyo R&D center will initially employ 10 engineers. http://www.cisco.comEarlier this month, Fujitsu Limited and Cisco Systems announced a strategic alliance focusing on routers and switches for the Japanese markets. Specifically, the companies agreed to jointly develop high-end routers and will collaborate on development of Cisco's IOS-XR operating system for multi-terabit...

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Equant Introduces Global LAN Utility Service

Equant introduced a global LAN utility service that is seamlessly integrated with its Cisco-based IP VPN service. The new Equant LAN VPN service is a fully managed LAN service for a monthly fee per site or per port. Equant is offering wired and wireless LANs built with Cisco equipment. The service also provides Web-based views of the WAN and LAN performance. An Equant customer could, for instance, compare in real time the performance between a LAN in New York and a LAN in Amsterdam. http://www.equant....

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Staccato Demos All-CMOS UWB Chip

Staccato Communications, a start-up based in San Diego, demonstrated the first version of its single-chip design for all major components of the RF and baseband specified by the newly completed MBOA PHY specification. The company said its all-CMOS implementation clears the path for low-cost, highly integrated silicon solutions for wireless USB and other UWB applications by taking advantage of mainstream generic CMOS foundry processes. Staccato Communications' single-chip PHY products are expected to sample in early 2005. Complete single-chip...

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LG Electronics Selects Texas Instruments' VoIP

LG Electronics has chosen Texas Instruments' VoIP products for its access gateway platforms and next- generation trunking gateways. TI silicon and software currently power LGE's Compact Access Module (CAM), Total Access Module (TAM) and trunking gateways and are intended to replace existing toll telecom exchange systems. http://www.ti....

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Riverstone Hires Nortel Exec for North American Sales

Riverstone Networks named Dan Middleton as its Vice President of Sales for North America. Middleton joins Riverstone after ten years with Nortel Networks where held a number of senior sales and marketing positions. Most recently, he served as a sales Vice President in Nortel's Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) region, where he was responsible for expanding Nortel's IP Convergence Business. http://www.riverstonenet.c...

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AT&T Enhances its CallVantage Consumer VoIP Service

AT&T has enhanced its CallVantage consumer VoIP service with a new sub-account capability that provides up to nine distinctive telephone numbers along with the ability to manage each as a separate calling experience while sharing the same line. Other new features include:Second lines to the same adapter Support of facsimile machines and some modems. It may also work with some Personal Video Recorders and satellite TV systems that use a dial-up modem for network support. Call filtering capabilities provide the ability to direct calls based...

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iTunes Music Store Downloads Top 200 Million Songs

Apple's iTunes Music Store passed the milestone of 200 million songs downloaded to date, making it the world's number one online music store by far. The iTunes Music Store currently features a catalog of more than one million songs and over 9,000 audiobooks. http://www.apple....

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Motorola Debuts IP-based Push-To-Talk Engine for iDEN

Motorola announced an agreement with Nextel Communications to implement Next Generation Dispatch (NGD), a new IP-based Push-To-Talk (PTT) call processing engine. The NGD solution used with Motorola's iDEN technology is designed to replace the call processing system currently used in Nextel's nationwide network. The NGD development contract includes development of the new IP-based PTT server solution, associated hardware needed to deploy the solution in Nextel's largest markets, plus the development of an All Frame Relay backhaul solution from...

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Siemens Sells Partial Equity Holdings of Juniper Networks

Siemens has sold approximately 13 million shares of its holdings in Juniper Networks' common stock. Siemens remaining ownership in Juniper Networks common stock is below 5% of the total outstanding shares. Siemens received these shares in connection with the acquisition by Juniper Networks of Unisphere Networks from Siemens in 2002. Siemens said it will continue to develop its commercial and technology relationship with Juniper Networks. http://www.siemens.comIn 2002, Juniper Networks acquired Unisphere Networks, a division of Siemens, for $375...

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Allstream and AT&T Extend Agreement through 2011

Allstream (formerly AT&T Canada) has further extended its Master Services Agreement with AT&T Corp. until June 30, 2011. The deal provides continuity for certain Allstream voice services and features built on AT&T capabilities and technology. The deal also will enable the two companies to offer customers cross-border routing, a capability used by many Contact Centres with locations in Canada and the U.S. http://www.allstream.comhttp://www.att....

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Motorola Announces Three-Year Extension of iDEN Contracts with Nextel

Motorola reached an agreement with Nextel Communications to extend its iDEN infrastructure and iDEN subscriber supply agreements for a period of three years from January 1, 2005 through December 31, 2007. The contract covers base station equipment, core network equipment, plus software and hardware maintenance and support services necessary to expand, upgrade and support Nextel's nationwide iDEN based network. The extension of the iDEN subscriber supply agreement includes pricing and other terms relating to current and proposed new handset models...

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Verizon Signs Discovery Channel for its FTTP TV Service

Verizon has signed the Discovery Network as a content partner for its upcoming "FiOS " FTTP TV service. Under the agreement, Verizon's programming lineup will include Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Kids Channel, Discovery Times Channel, The Science Channel, Discovery Home Channel, Military Channel, Discovery en Espanol, FitTV, BBC AMERICA, and Discovery HD Theater, the company's 24-hour high-definition network. The agreement also includes Discovery On Demand, Discovery's video-on-demand...

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CWA Calls for Scrutiny of Sprint, Nextel Wireless Merger

The Communications Workers of America, a union that represents about 3,400 Sprint employees who work for Sprint's local telephone companies, calling on federal and state regulators to carefully address the critical issues raised in the proposed deal by Sprint Corp. to acquire Nextel Communications. The CWA is concerned that the spinoff of Sprint's local telephone companies, which now serve 7 million mostly rural customers in a number of states, might saddle rural ratepayers with a disproportionate share of the company's wireless debt. CWA is also...

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Covad and Verizon Sign Commercial DSL Line-Sharing Agreement

Covad Communications and Verizon signed a commercial agreement enabling Covad to continue to provide line-sharing services to DSL subscribers throughout Verizon territory for a four-year period. Line-sharing allows communications providers like Covad to deploy DSL on the same line customers use for their voice phone services. Covad said that while the specific terms of the agreement are confidential, the economic terms of the agreement are comparable to those of its other commercial line-sharing agreements. http://www.covad....

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Telecom Italia and Cisco Systems Collaborate on VoIP

Telecom Italia and Cisco Systems agreed to collaborate on VoIP solutions targeted at midsize and large businesses. The companies said that in addition to offering VoIP services, the integration of Cisco IP solutions on the Telecom Italia platform, would help customers adopt advanced services and solutions, including multimedia messaging, videoconferencing, file and document sharing and call center applications. The agreement follows from Cisco's strategic technology partnership with Italtel. http://www.cisco....

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HP and Cisco Align Support Services

HP and Cisco Systems agreed to deliver co-branded support services - via a single point of contact - to help customers maintain their enterprise networks on a global scale. The agreement is part of Cisco's Global Services Alliance program, which was established by Cisco in June 2004. HP has been selected by Cisco for this new alliance program focused on services. In addition, HP is the first partner to have earned Cisco's Global Certified Partner statushttp://www.cisco.comhttp://www.hp....

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FCC Adopts New Network Unbundling Rules

The FCC adopted rules concerning incumbent local exchange carriers' (incumbent LECs') obligations to make elements of their network available to other carriers seeking to enter the local telecommunications market. The new rules were issued in response to the March 2004 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit which overturned portions of the Unbundled Network Element (UNE) rules in the FCC's Triennial Review Order. The FCC said the new framework builds on its actions to limit unbundling and provide incentives for both incumbent...

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FCC Promotes Broadband on Planes, Ships

The FCC will auction new licenses in the 4 MHz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band currently dedicated to commercial air-ground service. There are three possible band plan configurations. The ultimate band configuration will be determined based on the results of the auction. However, in order to further competition and ensure maximum use of the frequency band for air-ground services, the Commission imposed an eligibility limitation to prevent a single entity from holding new licenses for all 4 MHz of air-ground spectrum. New air-ground service may...

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FCC Permits New Unlicensed UWB Devices

The FCC adopted new rules to permit unlicensed wideband devices in the 6 GHz, 17 GHz and 24 GHz bands. Specifically, the FCC amended its rules for general Part 15 unlicensed operations that use wide bandwidths but are not classified as UWB devices under its rules. It increased the peak power limits and reduced the unwanted emission levels for 3 frequency bands that were already available for unlicensed operation: 5925-7250 MHz, 16.2-17.2 GHz, and 23.12-29 GHz, and indicated that higher peak power limits in these bands would facilitate wideband...

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Zarlink Launches Low-Density Circuit Emulation-over-Packet Processors

Zarlink Semiconductor launched three low-density CES (Circuit Emulation Services)-over-Packet processors for supporting TDM voice, video and data services over expanding metro Ethernet and wireless networks. Zarlink's three-chip ZL50117 family utilizes CES-over-Packet technology to seamlessly "tunnel" one, two or four streams of TDM traffic, with associated timing and signaling, across Ethernet, and MPLS networks. Zarlink's CES-over-Packet technology can be designed into line cards in the base station and base station controller to seamlessly...

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Cogent Launches Managed Security Service

Cogent Communications began offering two levels of Managed Security services to further enhance its dedicated Internet access connections. Available immediately, Cogent's Advanced and Premium level services are offered through an agreement with Tekmark Global Solutions ("TGS"), a third party provider of security services. Cogent will maintain the direct customer relationship and handle all issues and requests related to the managed security service. For $199 a month, Advanced level customers receive a firewall powered by Internet security leader...

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QUALCOMM Opens BREW Developer Lab in India

QUALCOMM opened a BREW Developer Lab in Mumbai, India. The new lab, one of nine BREW developer labs worldwide, will provide Indian application developers access to the latest BREW-enabled handsets, software and testing tools. In addition, the lab provides developers access to hands-on technical support from QUALCOMM. Developers will also be able to attend a three-day BREW workshop following the opening of the lab. http://www.qualcomm.c...

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Bell Canada Cites Progress in Move to Next Gen Services

At its annual Business Review Conference, Bell Canada said it is making significant progress in migrating to next generation services. Currently 60% of Bell Canada's revenues come from its legacy services, such as local and long distance, while 40% come from new, high- growth services - such as wireless, video, high-speed Internet, IP and Value-Added Services. By the end of 2006, Bell expects the ratio to have shifted with about 45% of revenue coming from legacy services and about 55% coming from new services. Today, Bell adds approximately $1.50...

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AT&T Extends Its Global VPN and VoIP Capabilities

AT&T announced a series of enhancements to its VPN and VoIP services, including a real-time "hoot and holler" conference calling feature. This feature creates a conference bridge with IP multicasting technology to connect as many end points as needed. AT&T is also added a new "automatic ring down" feature enables two phones to be instantly connected just by lifting the handset. Both features are particularly aimed at the financial services industry, where there is a high demand for instant connectivity among multiple users. AT&T...

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Avaya Acquires RouteScience

Avaya acquired substantially all of the assets of RouteScience Technologies, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, that developed a "route controller" platform for optimizing a company's multiple ISP links. Financial terms were not disclosed. RouteScience offers adaptive networking software (ANS) for enterprises and service providers. ANS monitors, assesses and automatically adjusts the network environment to optimize data traffic flow and enhance the performance of advanced applications, such as IP telephony. Most of RouteScience's employees...

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Sprint Nextel to Pursue on CDMA-EVDO Vision, Spinoff Wireline Divisions

Sprint and Nextel Communications confirmed their plans to merge into a larger wireless and integrated communications service provider. The two companies currently serve more than 35 million wireless subscribers and 5 million additional subscribers through affiliates and partners. The new company would look to leverage a strong spectrum position to deliver nationwide mobile data and push-to-talk services. The company is also aiming to deliver new broadband wireless services for consumers. Some infrastructure implications for the merger include:...

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Veraz Launches New Subsidiary in India

Veraz Networks has opened a subsidiary in New Delhi, India to handle sales, marketing, and support of local partners. Yogesh S. Bijlani has been appointed country manager. Mr. Bijlani was the Vice President Sales & Marketing (Indian Subcontinent) at UTStarcom Inc. Before that, he was the Director of Business Development for Wireless Infrastructure (Indian Subcontinent) with Lucent Technologies. Veraz also operates a facility in Pune, India that focuses on R&D and customer support. Veraz is one of the few next-generation network vendors...

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McLeodUSA Announces Resignation of President

Stephen C. Gray is stepping down from his posts as president of McLeodUSA and a member of the company's Board of Directors, effective December 31, 2004. Gray has worked 21 years in the telecom industry and over 12 years with McLeodUSA . Chris A. Davis remains as McLeodUSA's Chairman and CEO. http://www.mcleodusa.comAs of September 30, 2004, McLeodUSA had 38 ATM switches, 39 voice switches, 696 collocations, 435 DSLAMs and 2,474 employees for its network serving 25 Midwest, Southwest, Northwest and Rocky Mountain stat...

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Hollywood Studios File Suit Against P2P Server Operators

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents the major Hollywood studios, filed law suits in U.S. and U.K. courts against individuals operating servers that index millions of illegal copies of movies and TV programs used on computer networks such as BitTorrent. The MPAA said it is working with law enforcement and civil authorities around the world to shut down illegal servers on eDonkey and DirectConnect networks. The MPAA is targeting "peer-to-peer" file-trading networks, such as BitTorrent, Direct Connect and eDonkey, which...

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Nortel Provides Estimated Unaudited Results

Nortel Networks announced limited estimated unaudited financial results for the third quarter of 2004, and updated limited estimated unaudited results for the first and second quarters of 2004 and for the years 2001, 2002 and 2003. The company expects to file final reports on 10-January-2005. Estimated unaudited revenues in Q3 2004 were approximately US$2.3 billion and the Company estimates an unaudited net loss per share in the quarter of US$0.06. The net loss per share in the quarter included approximately US$0.03 per share for the majority...

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India's BSNL Selects Nortel to Expand GSM/GPRS

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the largest telecommunications company in India, awarded a contract valued at approximately US$500 million to Nortel Networks to expand its GSM/GPRS digital wireless network in the eastern and southern areas of the country. Under the contract, Nortel will deploy an end-to-end GSMand GPRS solution -- including GSM radio base stations, mobile switching centres (MSCs), intelligent networks (IN) and other related equipment. Commitments to date against the contract represent the majority of the investment and are...

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First Avenue Raises $93 Million in Equity

First Avenue Networks raised $93.3 million through 12,870,000 shares of common stock priced at $7.25 per share. Over 20 institutional investors participated in the sale. First Avenue intends to use the net proceeds for its mobile backhaul network initiatives and to develop fiber extension facilities for targeted metropolitan markets. The funds also will be used for debt repayment and general corporate purposes. First Avenue also announced that all conditions for closing the acquisition of Teligent's assets and operations were met. The FCC has approved...

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Road Runner Deploys Vibe's Video Mail Application

Time Warner Cable has deployed Vibe Solutions Group's video mail application for the more than three million cable modem customers using the Road Runner service. The Vibe Video Mail service enables users to record and send high-quality video mail, create and send customized greeting cards and text, and record video and digital phot...

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Juniper Networks Appoints Flextronics Exec as New CFO

Juniper Networks named Robert R. B. Dykes to the position of CFO and executive vice president, Business Operations. He previously served at Flextronics as CFO and president of the Systems Group. Prior to that, Dykes spent 9 years as executive vice president, Worldwide Operations and CFO of Symantec Corporation where, having guided the company through its IPO. Starting on January 1st 2005, Dykes will oversee all business systems functions at Juniper Networks, and will have responsibility for finance, legal, information technology, human resources,...

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Danish Utility Selects Nortel for Triple Play Network

EnergiMidt, a Danish utility company, selected Nortel to provide a turnkey solution for delivering Triple Play residential services over a new PON network. EnergiMidt Broadband plans to deliver the services to all of its 162,000 customers. Nortel is also providing EnergiMidt with a carrier-grade optical transport network. Financial terms were not disclosed. The network will use Nortel's Broadband Access Services Gateway (BASG) product line, Nortel's optical Ethernet portfolio and a host of leading video and in-home networking partners -- all...

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IP Unity and Atreus Partner on Automated VoIP Provisioning

IP Unity and Atreus Systems announced a marketing partnership aimed at automating the provisioning of advanced IP features for top-tier carriers worldwide. TELUS, the largest telecommunications company in Western Canada, has deployed IP Unity's unified messaging features and will soon implement the joint solution of IP Unity features with Atreus' service fulfillment solution in its production network. http://www.atreus-systems.comhttp://www.ipunity....

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MCI Leverages Oracle Grid Control for Managing Hosting Services

MCI is working with Oracle to enhance service delivery of its Enterprise Hosting application management services and optimize its managed hosting infrastructure. MCI Enterprise Hosting is now using the Grid Control functionality of Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g to help reduce the cost and complexity of managing its advanced IP applications and systems via a single integrated console. MCI monitors and measures the performance availability of hundreds of database servers. The Oracle Grid Control is used to track changes in hardware and software...

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Atheros Launches Single-Chip 802.11g Access Point Device

Atheros Communications introduced the first 802.11g wireless access point on a chip. The new AR5006AP-G integrates the wireless network processor, media access controller (MAC), baseband and radio functions into a single silicon chip. Atheros has also integrated many of the discrete components required by previous 802.11g access point designs. Atheros said the transition from a two-chip design to a single-chip implementation produces substantial cost benefits. In addition, Atheros has reduced the rest of BOM (bill-of-materials) by almost 20 %....

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Comcast Completes $350-Million Network Upgrade in Chicago

Comcast announced the completion of its $350 million broadband network upgrade in the Chicago region. The upgrade provides its cable customers with access to ON DEMAND and Digital Video Recorders and High Speed Internet with download speeds of up to 4Mbps.Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) will be available in the Greater Chicago Region in early 2005 for only $9.95 a month with no fee for the box. All Comcast Digital Cable customers in the region will automatically have access to VOD. Comcast Cable serves more than 1.7 million customers in the Greater...

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deltathree Enhances VoIP Reseller Program

deltathree, a provider of SIP-based VoIP, launched new features and services for its Reseller Program, including expanded inbound calling numbers, call forwarding, voicemail, web call and Web and SMS callback features. In addition, deltathree has expanded the broad range of devices that it has certified are interoperable with its services, and recently launched new pricing plans and an enhanced look and feel for its VoIP services.The expanded choice of Inbound local phone numbers gives customers a choice of receiving calls via these local phone...

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Terayon Offers Distributed Digital Video Processing for MSOs

Terayon Communication Systems has added significant new capabilities to its flagship Terayon 6400 Network CherryPicker digital video processing platform that enable cable television and other network operators to accelerate their transition to all-digital, next-generation networks and to deliver new digital video applications. New features and capabilities include:Distributed Chassis design that enables operators to acquire, manage and distribute digital video services from any point in the network to any other point in the network. Regardless...

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Spirent Offers MPLS and Security Testing Services

Spirent Communications introduced new MPLS Flow Monitoring and Firewall Assessment Services as well as a new level of advanced network technology certification training.Spirent's Flow Monitoring Service is designed for network operators deploying MPLS-based IP VPN networks. The on-site, five-day service combines Spirent's AX/4000 Broadband Test System and its test experts to assess the performance, interworking and stability of demanding multiple protocols associated with MPLS-VPNs. The AX/4000 monitors and analyses an operator's network in the...

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Passavé Adds Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation to EPON Chips

Passavé has introduced a programmable dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) engine along with a new algorithm aimed at optimizing traffic over FTTH networks. Passavé said its "Plato" algorithm improves upstream utilization, reduces upstream delay and delivers quality of service supporting triple-play applications as well as legacy TDM traffic emulation over advanced Gigabit EPON systems. The programmable DBA engine comes with all Passavé devices enabling carriers who already have Passavé -based EPONs to utilize the Plato algorithm immediately. Passavé...

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Pulse~LINK Shows 667 Mbps Wireless UWB

Pulse~LINK, a start-up based near San Diego, demonstrated 667 Mbps data rates transmitted and received over an Ultra Wideband (UWB) wireless connection using forward error correction. The company said its new high-speed chipset architecture is capable of surpassing one Gigabit rates. "Our actual over-the-air data rate is at present 1.3 Gbps per second, with the data throughput presently at 667Mbps," states John Santhoff, Founder and CTO. "Over the next thirty to sixty days, optimization will bring the throughput to Gigabit data rates." Pulse~LINK...

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TelCove Launches OC-192 and 10G Wavelength Services

TelCove announced the launch of its OC-192 and 10G wavelength services. The carrier already offered OC-48 and 2.5G Intercity Private Line (IcPL) and Local Private Line (LPL) services. In addition, TelCove is offering a variety of storage networking connections, including Fibre Channel, Enterprise Systems Connectivity (ESCON), Fiber Connectivity (FICON), and Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex (GDPS). TelCove operates throughout 50 markets in the eastern half of the United States. http://www.telcove.c...

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FiberNet to Acquire Con Edison Communications

FiberNet Telecom Group agreed to acquire Con Edison Communications (CEC), a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, for approximately $37 million in cash. Both FiberNet and Con Edison Communications provide managed network services in the New York metropolitan area. In acquiring CEC, FiberNet gains access to the Con Edison Company of New York (CECONY) electric conduit system, positioning FiberNet as the only company to extensively use both the electric utility and conventional telecommunications rights-of-way. FiberNet said it will therefore be able...

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MaXXan Secures $29 Million for Net Storage Solutions

MaXXan Systems, a start-up based in San Jose, California, received an additional $29 million in venture funding for network-based intelligent storage solutions. The products are used in applications such as disaster recovery, storage consolidation and NAS/SAN integration. The new funding was led by BA Venture Partners. Other investors included US Venture Partners (USVP), Venrock Associates, China Development Industrial Bank, Inc. and Inventec Corporation. MaXXan Systems has raised $113 million in funding since its incorporation in 2000. htt...

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BT and iPass Team Up to Expand Wi-Fi Roaming

BT Openzone and iPass signed a Wi-Fi roaming agreement. The deal will enable the 500,000 plus active monthly iPass users to access more than 1,500 BT Openzone hotspots across the UK. iPass already provides access to 14,200 broadband access points worldwide. http://www.ipass.com/http://www.bt....

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Samsung Networks and SingTel Sign IP-VPN Deal

Samsung Networks will resell SingTel's IP-VPN services in South Korea. Through interconnecting with SingTel's extensive and reliable regional network, Samsung Networks can offer their Korean customers seamless IP-VPN services and connectivity within and outside of Asia. SingTel's IP-VPN is based on MPLS. http://www.samsungnetworks.net/http://www.singtel....

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Sun Unveils its Latest Thin Client Technology

Sun Microsystems introduced its latest Sun Ray Server Software, an interoperable, platform that enables secure access to corporate applications and data from broadband-enabled home, satellite and remote offices. Sun Ray Software 3.0 uses bandwidth adaptation and compression techniques, including Discrete Wavelet Transform compression for images and Lemple Ziv 77 for text and data, to reduce bandwidth requirements for clients by more than half. Sun also introduced the Sun Ray 170, a desktop thin client incorporated into a 17-inch flat panel display....

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Motorola Reorganizes into Four Units

Motorola announced a corporate restructuring aimed at advancing its ambition to be "the world's preeminent seamless mobility company." Starting January 1st, Motorola will be organized into four business groups:Personal Devices . To leverage its leadership in multi-mode, multi-band communications technology, Motorola will combine its personal communications businesses for economies of scale and consistent experience design. In addition, this new organization will produce phone centric devices for the enterprise and for the home in conjunction...

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Conexant to Reduce Channel Inventory, Lowers Guidance

Conexant Systems announced actions to reduce its channel inventory by $50 million during its first fiscal quarter, which ends Dec. 31, 2004. As a result of this new inventory initiative, Conexant now anticipates that first fiscal quarter revenues will be approximately $140 million. In November, the company expected revenues between $175 million and $185 million. The company also said that its current-quarter results will include a one-time charge against earnings in the range of $40 million to $50 million, reflecting its previous communication...

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Cable & Wireless Barbados Selects Paradyne's ADSL2+

Cable & Wireless, the incumbent PTT serving Barbados, has chosen Paradyne's broadband access system to upgrade its residential and business-class high-speed networking services. The Cable & Wireless network utilizes Paradyne's Broadband Access Concentrators (BAC) within its central offices and remote terminals throughout Barbados. The upgrade will use ADS2+. In addition, Paradyne's professional services will provide on-site training for DSL and network management; equipment installation and cabling; DSL provisioning; testing and integration;...

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IP Unity Launches New Software Development Centre in Bangalore

IP Unity has opened a new software and solutions development centre in Bangalore, India. The focus of the new centre is the rapid development of new enhanced services features that include audio/web/video conferencing, voicemail and unified messaging, speech recognition and innovative collaborative communications features. These features will be delivered via IP Unity's flagship service platform, the HMS6000 Media Server.IP Unity is based in Milpitas, Californ...

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ADC Providing Professional Services for Sonus VoIP Deployments

ADC will provide professional services to Sonus Networks' VoIP customers under a global alliance announced by the firms. For several Sonus VoIP deployments, ADC has already provided engineering, furnishing and installation (EF&I) services, rack-and-stack services, commissioning, integration, and installation-related materials. http://www.adc.comhttp://www.sonusnet....

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Qwest Reaches One Million DSL Subscriber Milestone

Qwest Communications reached the one million DSL subscriber milestone. The company said it has now chalked up four consecutive quarters of double-digit subscriber growth, outpacing the current U.S. industry average. To expand its DSL footprint and reach more customers, Qwest will install 4,000 remote terminal locations by the end of 2004. As a result, the company can now offer high-speed Internet access to nearly 10 million homes (65% of Qwest households) within its 14-state local service area. http://www.qwest....

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3Com to Acquire TippingPoint for Intrusion Prevention System

3Com agreed to acquire held TippingPoint Technologies (Nasdaq: TPTI) for $47 cash per outstanding share of TippingPoint stock, representing a 13% premium over the closing price on 10-Dec-2004. The total purchase price will be approximately $430 million including acquisition costs and assumed options. TippingPoint supplies a network-based Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) that delivers in-depth application protection, infrastructure protection and performance protection for corporate enterprises, government agencies, service providers and academic...

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Hammerhead Aggregates at Layer 2.5 for Pseudowires, Dry Martini

Hammerhead Systems, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, extended its switching solution to include unique "Layer 2.5" capabilities aimed at accelerating the delivery of metro Ethernet services using new "PseudoWire" and "Dry Martini" technologies. The company said service providers are experiencing a need for high-density Layer 2.5 traffic aggregation because existing access services (wireline, broadband, broadband fixed wireless and...

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China Unicom Awards $344 Million in Contracts to Motorola

China Unicom awarded Motorola multiple contracts, which resulted in approximately US$344 million of orders, during the past six months for a major Phase 3.2 CDMA2000 1X wireless network expansion. Equipment for the new CDMA2000 1X network has been deployed and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2004. Motorola has been providing equipment and global network services that will significantly enlarge network coverage in 11 provinces. China Unicom estimates this expansion will enable it to grow the subscriber capacity of its 800 MHz...

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NexTone Launches Real-time Session Manager Leveraging MPLS

NexTone Communications introduced a new session management solution that combines both transport and application QoS to deliver deterministic performance for real-time services over converged IP networks. The new platform includes a NEBS3-compliant, chassis-based Real-time Session Manager (RSM), which acts as a centralized policy manager and enforcement point to manage network resources and optimize call distribution, and the Multiprotocol Session...

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