NewSouth and NuVox to Merge -- the Combined Carrier Serves 500,000 Lines

NewSouth Communications and NuVox Communications, both privately-held Integrated Communications Providers (ICPs), agreed to merge into a single company. The combined enterprise would initially have approximately 36,000 business customers, 500,000 access lines in service, and annualized revenues exceeding $300 million. NewSouth Communications serves business customers in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Its network consists of Cisco packet-based switches, Lucent AnyMedia...

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Synopsys to Acquire Accelerant Networks for High-speed Serial

Synopsys agreed to acquire Accelerant Networks, a privately held company providing a highly efficient technology for high-speed serial interfaces, for an undisclosed sum. Accelerant has developed 6.25 Gbps CMOS transceivers that enable up to a ten-fold increase in data rates on the installed copper backplanes and cable systems used in existing server, storage, enterprise and network transport applications. Synopsys said it intends to apply Accelerant's SERDES technology to offer multiple standards-based PHY cores such as PCI Express, Serial ATA...

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Lucent and Cisco Partner on VoIP for Mobile Operators

Lucent Technologies and Cisco Systems announced a joint VoIP solution targeted at mobile service providers. The solution, which combines the Lucent Softswitch (LSS) and Cisco MGX 8000 Series Media Gateways, is part of Lucent's recently announced Accelerate VoIP portfolio. The company have demonstrated VoIP and VoATM calling using the joint solution. The calls -- completed in Lucent's Lisle, Illinois lab and in Cisco's San Jose lab -- were made using the H.248 Media Gateway Control Protocol, which allows a Softswitch, serving as the media gateway...

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Bell Canada Selects Cisco 12000 Routers for IP/MPLS Backbone

Bell Canada has selected the Cisco 12000 Series routers to serve as the foundation platform for its single, converged IP/MPLS service delivery network. Bell Canada will converge Internet, ATM, Frame Relay, Ethernet and VPN services onto a common IP/MPLS core and edge network infrastructure. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.cisco....

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Voice Print Unveils Solution for Recording VoIP Interactions

Voice Print International introduced a VoIP recording system designed to capture data regardless of an agent's physical location or mode of connection. The company said existing IP recording systems claim to be able to capture, store, and replay 100% of an organization's IP telephony interactions. However, these systems employ packet sniffing and/or trunk-tapping, and although both methods are effective to a certain extent, neither can actually achieve full-time VoIP recording once an IP SoftPhone is utilized. Voice Print's 'Follow Me!' solution...

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Firetide Names New CEO

Firetide, a start-up developing mesh technology for wireless instant networks, named Bo Larsson as CEO. Larsson most recently served as CEO of Emuzed, a developer of multimedia products and technologies. Previously, he was CEO and co-founder of Touchwave, a startup delivering distributed voice and data services and solutions using VoIP.Firetide recently began shipping its HotPoint Wireless Mesh Router for enterprise applications. The products use advanced routing technologies and IEEE 802.11-compliant radios to "unwire" the Ethernet backhaul...

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Conexant and GlobespanVirata Shareowners Approve Merger

Shareholders of both Conexant Systems and GlobespanVirata approved the merger between the firms. The deal is expected to close at the end of this month. http://www.conexant....

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ZTE Selects Infineon for RPR Silicon

ZTE Corporation, the second largest supplier of data- and telecommunications systems in China, selected Infineon Technologies' Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) silicon solution. ZTE will use Infineon's Frea PoS Framer/RPR MAC integrated circuit for metro and wide-area networking equipment. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.infineon.com/n...

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Tekelec to Acquire Taqua for its Small Class 5 Switching Solution

Tekelec agreed to acquire Taqua, a provider of next-generation Class 5 packet switching systems, for approximately $85 million cash, plus the assumption of Taqua's outstanding options. Taqua's Class 5 switching solution is optimized for the small switch service provider market. A small switch is defined as serving under 5,000 lines.Founded in 1998, Taqua began shipments of the iX7000 (formerly branded the OCX next-generation Class 5 packet switch in 2000. The platform incorporates softswitch, signaling and media gateway functionality on a single-card...

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Qwest Launches Stand-Alone DSL Service

Qwest Communications will begin offering a standalone DSL service starting 28-Feb-2004 regardless of whether they have a voice phone line with Qwest or not. Qwest is the first major telecommunications company to make this service available to customers. Customers can purchase Qwest Choice DSL Deluxe with MSN Premium without Qwest phone service for $49.99 per month. Customers who want to select an Internet service provider (ISP) other than MSN can purchase Qwest Choice DSL Deluxe without phone service for $33 and then select their ISP of choice...

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Intel Predicts Coexistence of Wi-Fi, WiMAX and 3G

"The wireless industry is evolving from a web of independent networks into a single, integrated wireless network with multiple standards, and no single standard is sufficient anymore," said Intel President and COO Paul Otellini, in a keynote address at the 3GSM World Congress 2004 in Cannes, France. Otellini predicts that it will be a requirement for Wi-Fi, WiMAX and 3G to coexist in the future broadband wireless world.Intel believes standards-based silicon would enable carriers and handset makers to lower costs and speed time-to-market in this...

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Intel Announces DSL Resale Agreement with SBC

Intel agreed to promote and sell SBC Yahoo! DSL Business Edition and SBC Digital Services (DS1) through the Intel Product Dealer Channel, one of the largest value-added reseller programs in the U.S.. Intel product dealers are now authorized to sell SBC Yahoo! DSL Business Edition and SBC DS1 digital, point-to-point dedicated services in the SBC 13-state region. http://www.intel....

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AT&T Outlines Mission Plan, to Launch Consumer VoIP Next Month

AT&T will invest its cash flow in its global network to migrate customers toward expanded IP services faster than competitors, said company chairman and CEO David Dorman, speaking at an investor conference in New York. AT&T estimates it will generate more than $4.5 billion in cash flow, defined as EBITDA less capital expenditures, in 2004. This year, the company also intends to repurchase up to $3 billion in additional debt. Its net debt stood at about $9 billion at the end of 2003.William J. Hannigan, who recently joined the company as...

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Calypso Wireless Granted Patent for Mobile-to-Wi-Fi Roaming

Calypso Wireless has been granted a U.S. patent ( # 6,680,923) covering the seamless roaming of voice, video and data between Wide Area Network access points, such as cellular towers (GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA, WCMDA etc.) and short-range Internet access points (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.). The technology enables mobile users to seamlessly switch back and forward between cellular and wireless IP networks, without losing connectivity via the WLAN. It could also provide significant savings to carriers in additional frequency spectrum and infrastructure...

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