Path 1 Supplies Vyvx With Video-over-IP Gateways

Path 1 Network Technologies supplied the Video-over-IP gateways that were used by Vyvxx for the live HDTV broadcast backhaul of Super Bowl XXXVIII. The HDTV feed was backhauled over an MPLS-enabled fiber-optic network, end-to-end at 270 Mbps.


Path 1's Cx1000 Video Gateway uses embedded processors and patent-pending algorithms to shield the video signals from severe network impairments and preserve the broadcast-quality video at standard definition, High Definition and uncompressed video at speeds up to 270 Mbps. The gateway handles issues like significant delay, jitter, packet loss, out-of-order packets and error recovery. http://www.path1.com/

• Vyvx provided an HDTV over MPLS backhaul solution for the first time at Super Bowl XXXVIII. Specifically, Vyvx carried two diverse and redundant HDTV compressed feeds from Reliant Stadium in Houston over its fiber-optic network at 40.5 Mbps and 270 Mbps. In addition to the HDTV backhaul, Vyvx delivered standard- definition backhauls of the Super Bowl to broadcasters over its 45 Mbps network. Going forward, Vyvx will offer HDTV-over-MPLS as a new "HD VenueNet" transport service for live high-definition television. HD VenueNet utilizes the same booking procedures as the company's traditional VenueNet service, and the HD VenueNet box that network production trucks access is consolidated with the current VenueNet box, located within the sports venue. HD VenueNet's initial deployment includes 17 professional sports venues in seven states.

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AFC Finalizes 5 Year FTTP Supply Deal with Verizon

AFC signed a definitive agreement with Verizon to provide its FiberDirect solution for the carrier's FTTP initiative. Under the terms of the agreement -- which extends through 2008 -- AFC's FiberDirect solution will provide Verizon with the central office and premises electronics, or "active" elements. Financial terms were not disclosed.

• In September 2003, AFC introduced its Full Service Access Network (FSAN) compliant B-PON solution based on its widely-deployed AccessMAX multiservice access platform. AFC's solution is based on a passive optical networking (PON) plug-in card that transforms the AccessMAX platforms into an optical line terminal (OLT). The implementation, which is based on the ITU-T G.983 standard, supports a 32:1 PON split with a 20 km reach. The network supplies 622 Mbps downstream and 155 Mbps upstream. The OLT could be deployed either in the central office or in a remote terminal. AFC said a unique architectural element of its FTTP solution is that the AccessMAX integrates voice gateway functionality, enabling packetized voice traffic to be handed off from the same platform to a variety of voice interfaces, including GR-303/V5.2, TR-08/V5.1, and TR-57. This provides interoperability with a number of Class 5 switches, including the Lucent 5ESS and GTD-5, Nortel's DMS family, and Siemens' EWSD. AFC will also support packetized voice handoffs to softswitches. Management of the PON is supported by Panorama, AFC's existing network management system. At the subscriber end, AFC is introducing a FiberDirect optical node terminal (ONT) featuring a life-line voice port, a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port, and a connection for overlay video services that would run on the 1550nm wavelength. AFC's ONT will have a local power supply as well as an external, 8-hour battery back-up that could be located inside the customer's home or garage. AFC is working with Harmonic Lightwave to develop the broadcast wavelength video overlay solution. AFC will also support an IPTV video solution using up to 30 Mbps of bandwidth to each subscriber.

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Sprint Confirms Customer Service Outsourcing Deal with IBM

Sprint announced a five-year, multi-billion dollar customer-service outsourcing deal with IBM Business Consulting Services. IBM will help Sprint improve its customer-service experience through better customer segmentation, more efficient call routing, reduced average call handle time and a higher rate of first call resolution. IBM will also help Sprint implement user-friendly interactive voice response systems and web-based services.


IBM will also take over management of Sprint's existing vendor-operated call centers and will assume management of the Sprint-owned Nashville, Tenn., call center. Sprint will continue to operate its remaining customer service centers. In addition, the Dallas center serving long-distance customers will be consolidated into the existing Fort Worth, Texas, service center.


Sprint will also adopt IBM's Service Provider Delivery Environment (SPDE), making it the first U.S.-based telecommunications provider to adopt SPDE on a large scale. IBM's SPDE helps enterprise customers port their desktop environments to a mobile communications environment.


The new initiatives include a long-term business alliance that designates Sprint as a key IBM vendor for integrated wireless and wireline services and enables IBM to incorporate Sprint's national PCS wireless services and its global voice and data products and services into customized on-demand solutions for IBM customers.


Separately, Convergys announced that it had been selected by IBM to assume responsibility for about 1,100 current Sprint employees at Sprint's Nashville contact center. http://www.sprint.comhttp://www.ibm.com

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TIA Calls for Regulatory Restraint on VoIP

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) issued a call for a national policy on VoIP and pleaded for regulatory restraint. TIA basic position is that regulation should not be applied to VoIP without thorough justification that it is necessary as a matter of public policy.


"We believe that a single federal policy for VoIP regulation is a must and, in fact, the nature of the technology demands such an approach. A patchwork of regulatory obligations across the states would threaten the continued rise of these new, dynamic and competition-enhancing applications. Further, even regulation at the FCC level should be very minimal and resist the urge to simply apply the inapplicable rules that have governed the legacy telephone networks," said TIA President Matthew J. Flanigan. http://www.tiaonline.org

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Tauzin to Step Down from Key Congressional Committee Covering Telecom

Citing health issues, W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-LA) will step down from his position as Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees telecommunications related issues. In recent years, Tauzin has been an outspoken critic of the FCC and its decision to allow state commission to set rates for unbundled network element (UNE). In 2002, he sponsored the Tauzin-Dingell Broadband Legislation (H.R. 1542), which was widely seen as favoring the Regional Bell Operating Companies. The U.S. House of Representatives voted 273 to 157 to approve the legislation, but the U.S. Senate never acted on the bill and it was never signed into law. http://www.house.gov

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France Telecom Posts Higher Profits, Reaches 3 Million DSL

France Telecom's 2003 overall revenues increased 3.4% on a comparable basis (-1.1% on a historical basis) to EUR 46.121 billion , driven by growth of wireless and DSL. Following a year of financial restructuring, the company posted operating income reached EUR 9.5 billion at the end of 2003, a 45.5% increase on a comparable basis (40.3% on a historical basis). Some highlights of its financial report:

• Orange was serving nearly 50 million wireless customers at the end of 2003. Non-voice services experienced strong growth, representing 12.7% of network revenues at the end of 2003, up from 10.7% at the end of 2002. ARPU rose 10.5% in France and 4.3% in the UK for the year.
  
  
• ADSL related revenues in France increased by 88% to EUR 744 millions.
  
  
• France Telecom had more than 3 million ADSL lines in service at the end of 2003 (excluding unbundled local loops). The company hopes to have 4.5 million ADSL customers by the end of 2004. It also aims to achieve 95% DSL coverage of its local access lines in France by the end of 2005. The company launched a TV-over-DSL service in December.
  
  
• The rate of decline in France Telecom's fixed line local market share slowed significantly in 2003. France Telecom had 75.8% of the market for local calls at 31-Dec-2003, a decrease of 5.1 percentage points, compared to a loss of 15.9 points in 2002. In the long distance market, France Telecom had a market share of 61.8%, representing a decline of 2.5 points in market share for 2003.
  
  
• France Telecom's net debt decreased to an estimated EUR 45 billion at year end 2003, compared to EUR 68 billion at year-end 2002
  
  
• For 2004, France Telecom is targeting revenue growth of 3% to 5% on a comparable basis; operating income before depreciation and amortization of more than EUR 18 billion; and CAPEX / revenues ratio of approximately 11%.

http://www.francetelecom.com

• In December 2003, France Telecom, in partnership with TPS, announced the commercial launch of TV-over-DSL services. "MaLigne tv" initially is available in Lyon. It will be extended to Paris in spring 2004 followed by a rollout in other French cities. TPS is a content distributor that is jointly owned by French TV stations TF1 and M6.
  http://www.convergedigest.com/DSL/lastmilearticle.asp?ID=9740

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Sprint Outlines 2004 Expectations

"Sprint has turned the corner," said Gary Forsee, Sprint chairman and CEO, although it still faces "significant challenges related to competition, pricing regulation and technology." At its annual investment community meeting in New York, Sprint outlined its financial expectations for 2004, including:

• Sprint PCS Group anticipates total service revenue growth to be in the high-single digits in 2004. The growth in revenues is expected to be driven by a larger customer base, stable ARPU aided by a growing contribution from data services and a strong gain in wholesale services. Adjusted EBITDA is targeted to be between $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion in 2004. CAPEX is expected to rise to $2.4 billion in 2004, with spending relatively evenly distributed between improving network capacity and coverage and providing new capabilities. Assuming continued growth and service demands, the PCS Group expects capital expenditures to be around these same levels in 2005.



• Sprint's Local Telecommunications Division expects is full year 2004 revenues to decline at a low single-digit rate. In the coming year, revenue growth associated with bundled services and broadband sales is expected to be offset by a modest decline in access lines.



• Sprint's Global Markets Division expects its full-year 2004 revenues to decline at a mid single-digit rate. The FON Group expects continued growth in data revenues to be offset by declines in voice-related revenues due to intense competitive pressures.



• The FON Group's CAPEX is expected to be $1.6 billion in 2004, consistent with 2003 levels. In 2004, the Global Markets Division has targeted capital of a little under $500 million, while the Local Division capital expenditures are expected to be a little over $1 billion.

http://www.sprint.com

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Preparing for Consumer VoIP, Canada's Shaw Registers as CLEC

Shaw Communications has registered with Canada's regulatory authority as a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC), entitling it to interconnect with incumbent telephone companies and long distance providers on an equal basis. In addition, as a registered CLEC, Shaw will be able to provide E911 service, local number portability, access to new telephone numbers and a variety of other traditional telephone functions such as caller ID, call waiting and call forwarding. http://www.shaw.caIn September 2003, Shaw Cablesystems, Canada's second largest cable and Internet service provider, filed a petition asking the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to order a stop to anti-competitive pricing of DSL from Telus.

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OKI Introduces IP-PBX telephony server based on Microsoft .NET

Oki Electric Industry Co. introduced a high-end IP-PBX telephony server based on Microsoft .NET architecture for the Japanese market. The server integrates IP-PBX functions with mission-critical business applications and supports SIP and H.323. Oki Electric is also offering IP phones and softphones with its platform. http://www.oki.com

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Bell Canada Sees Continued Growth in Wireless and DSL

Bell Canada Enterprises cited wireless services and DSL as its hottest growth areas in 2003. For Q4, Bell Canada added 189,000 net cellular and PCS customers in Q4, giving it a total of 4,412,000 wireless subscribers, up 13% for the year. Bell Canada also added 91,000 net DSL customers in Q4, giving it a total of 1,482,000 subscribers, an increase of 34% compared to last year.


Financially, Bell Canada reported Q4 revenues of $4.91 billion compared to $5.05 billion in Q4 last year. Revenues from continuing businesses decreased by $44 million or 0.9%. The company said its overall decrease in revenues for the quarter was mainly due to lower revenues from its Enterprise and Wholesale businesses. To increase profitability, the company made deliberate decisions to exit certain business lines. Business revenues were also affected by a continued weakness in demand, stronger competition and regulatory pressures.


The Bell ExpressVu satellite TV service added 35,000 net subscribers in Q4 and 83,000 for full year 2003; total subscribers in 2003 increased by 6.4% to reach 1,387,000 at 31-Dec-2003. http://www.bce.ca

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iBasis' Voice Traffic Volume Rises 10% in Sequentially in Q4

Minutes of use on The iBasis Network in Q4 2003 rose to 955 million minutes, a 10% sequential increase over the 866 million minutes in the third quarter of 2003. Average revenue per minute was 5.6 cents per minute in the fourth quarter of 2003, a significant increase from 5.1 cents per minute in Q3 2003. Some additional operational highlights:

• Tier One carrier customers generated 59% of revenue in Q4 2003, compared to 63% of revenue in Q3 2003.



• Overseas-originated calls accounted for 41% of revenue in Q4 2003, compared to 44% of revenue in Q3 2003



• For the full year 2003, iBasis carried 3.5 billion minutes of Internet telephony traffic, compared to 2.6 billion minutes in 2002.



• iBasis finished the year with 237 customers.



• Financially, iBasis reported Q4 revenue of $53.2 million, an increase of 24% over the same period last year. Net loss for the fourth quarter 2003 was $2.6 million or $(0.06) per share



• iBasis believes it will achieve positive cash flow and net income in mid-2004, and that it will achieve positive cash flow for the year 2004. The Company will continue to focus on re-capitalization and believes its financial performance in 2004 will enable it to refinance remaining bond debt due in Q1 2005.

http://www.ibasis.net

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City of Manassas Plans Broadband over Power Line / EPON

The City of Manassas in Virginia selected Alcoa's AFL Telecommunications' EPON solution to provide backhaul for a planned Power Line Carrier/Broadband over Power Line (PLC/BPL) network. Originally developed by Fujikura Ltd. of Japan, the AFL's E-PON portfolio consists of Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Unit (ONU) equipment. The network delivers 625 Mbps of symmetrical bandwidth and offers a reach of up to 20 km. The third generation platform, which is currently deployed in Japan's FTTx networks, is now part of OFN (OF Networks Inc.) -- Fujikura's joint venture with OKI.


The City of Manassas is using a Broadband over Power Lin system supplied by Main.net Powerline Communications, Inc. http://www.alcoa.com/afl_tele/en/home.asp

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AT&T Launches $200 Million Advertising Campaign

AT&T launched a new $200 million-plus company wide brand and advertising program aimed at residential, business and government customers.


The business advertising campaign profiles AT&T as "The World's Networking Company," asking its business and government customers: "Can Your Network Do This?" The business advertising campaign uses a "binary" theme to demonstrate how networking propels people, products and entire economies forward.


The consumer advertising campaign positions AT&T as a major provider of bundled services, moving far beyond traditional voice long-distance service to include local, Internet, broadband, wireless and international calling. The consumer campaign uses "&" -- the ampersand sign -- as a theme, underscoring AT&T's commitment to exceed customer expectations by always delivering more: allowing customers to enjoy the benefits of price & quality, innovation & reliability and service & value.


AT&T chairman David W. Dorman described the advertising campaign as "our boldest and most visible statement yet of the company's transformation from a telephone company to the industry's leading provider of communications services and networking solutions... the bottom line is, Ma Bell doesn't live here anymore."http://www.att.com

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UTStarcom Signs Another $40 Million Contract with China Netcom

UTStarcom announced a new contract with China Netcom valued at approximately $40 million for additional deployments of its IP-based PAS (Personal Access System) in China's Shandong province. China Netcom will expand and optimize its PAS platform in eight cities in the province. In addition, the contract includes a core network upgrade from PAS to iPAS, based on the company's softswitch platform, which will be used for providing unified services within the province. http://www.utstar.com

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Italy's FastWeb Taps BitBand for VOD

Italy's FastWeb, a leading provider of commercial converged triple-play services over FTTH and ADSL, placed an order for BitBand's Vision VOD servers to be installed in Padova, the seventh city to be served by FastWeb. Financial terms were not disclosed.


FastWeb serves more than 300,000 subscribers in six Italian cities -- Milan, Rome, Turin, Genoa, Bologna, Naples and Reggio Emilia -- using BitBand technology for its VOD services. http://www.bitband.comhttp://www.fastweb.it

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MCI Expands Global MPLS Network with Cisco

MCI announced an expansion of its MPLS backbone using Cisco System's equipment.


In the first stage of its network expansion, which is currently underway, MCI is working with Cisco on a multi-phased, edge-router deployment in 48 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pac. Specifically, MCI is deploying the Cisco 10000 Series Router as its IP/MPLS Edge Label Switch Router for its Private IP service platform. Completion is expected by year-end 2004. In the U.S. alone, MCI plans to extend its Private IP network two-fold. MCI's MPLS-based service now has the Cisco Powered Network designation.


MCI is leveraging the MPLS backbone for new Private IP services like IP multicasting and VoIP. http://www.mci.com

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Abilene Network Completes Upgrade to 10 Gbps

The Abilene advanced research and education network has completed its upgrade from 2.5 Gbps to 10 Gbps. New routers were installed across the 13,000 route-mile national backbone, and all but one OC-48c circuit was replaced with an OC-192c circuit. In the process, several router locations were changed, but all remain collocated in Qwest points of presence (PoPs). Indiana University, Juniper Networks and Qwest Communications, provided the equipment and services to successfully implement the network upgrade. http://abilene.internet2.edu/

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NEC Releases World's Thinnest Mobile Camera Phone

NEC introduced a card-shaped, camera-equipped mobile phone which it claims is the world's smallest and thinnest mobile phone. The new GSM/GPRS phone will be sold in China beginning this month. It is equipped with a 1.8 inch (120 X 160 dot) TFT color display and a digital camera (300,000 pixels) with consecutive shooting capability . The phone measures 85mm (width) X 54mm (height) X 8.6mm (depth), and a has a weight of 70g. http://www.nec.com

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