Industry Players Speak Out Against FBI's CALEA Proposal

Two prominent industry groups, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and The VON Coalition, have each filed public comments with the FCC that are critical of the FBI's recent proposal to update the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) wiretapping law to cover VoIP and future packet-based communications. Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency filed a joint petition for rulemaking with the FCC arguing that legal wiretapping needs to...

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FERMA and Convedia Partner on IP Mobile Apps

FERMA and Convedia announced a partnership to jointly develop prepaid and messaging applications for IP/3G service providers. The partnership will develop a seamless integration between Convedia's IP media servers and FERMA's multi-play prepaid service solutions for next generation mobility networks, while creating a services platform to support an even broader range of IP/3G-based services such as unified communications, mobile Internet and push-to-talk. http://www.convedia.com/http://www.ferma...

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Cedar Point Secures $20 Million for its PacketCable

Cedar Point Communications, a start-up based in Derry, N.H., secured $20 million in additional funding for its integrated packet-based voice and multimedia switching platform for cable operators. Cedar Point's SAFARI C(Cubed) is a carrier class switch that incorporates all of the components in a PacketCable voice switching infrastructure. The new funding was led by JP Morgan Partners and included earlier investors Ascent Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Comcast Interactive Capital and STAR Ventures. http://www.cedarpointcom.comIn...

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Softbank Invests $6 Million in PalTalk for IP Conferencing

PalTalk, a start-up based in New York, raised $6 million in venture funding from Softbank Capital Partners for its Internet based voice and video conferencing services. PalTalk enables many-to-many multimedia (text, voice and video) conferencing over the Internet for groups up to 1,000 people. The company claims over 3 million active users and said it has been cash-flow positive for over 2 years. PalTalk also interoperates with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo messenger and ICQ. http://www.paltalk....

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NetScreen Releases its Next Gen Security Gateway

NetScreen Technologies released an integrated security gateway designed to provide perimeter security functionality and protect against network- and application-level threats in enterprise and carrier networks. the NetScreen-ISG 2000, which uses the company's new fourth-generation ASIC, integrates firewall and VPN capabilities and will be able to support integrated intrusion detection and prevention (IDP) functionality. The ASIC delivers up to 3 million packets per second (pps) for firewall processing and 1.5 million pps encryption processing...

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AMCC to Acquire IBM's PowerPC for $227 Million

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) agreed to acquire intellectual property and a portfolio of assets associated with IBM's 400 series of embedded PowerPC processors for $227 million in cash. The processors, which are used in Internet, communication, data storage, consumer and imaging applications, generated about $55 million in revenues in 2003. The deal includes a team of design engineers and support personnel. It also provides AMCC with a license for IBM's Power architecture. AMCC said the acquisition would help it expand its storage...

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CinemaNow and SBC Yahoo! Team on Internet VOD

CinemaNow will offer a customized version of its video-on-demand Web site to SBC Yahoo! DSL members. Under terms of the agreement, CinemaNow and SBC will promote their respective services to each other's customers, and for a limited time, SBC Yahoo! DSL members will be able to purchase their first pay-per-view on CinemaNow at the discounted rate of $0.98. CinemaNow features pay-per-view, download-to-own and subscription based access to full-length films, shorts, music concerts and television programs. http://www.cinemanow....

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AFS to Offer Level 3's IP Transit Service

American Fiber Systems (AFS) will offer Level 3's (3)CrossRoads IP transit service as one its Ethernet Internet Access service offerings to customers in Cleveland, Kansas City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville and Salt Lake City. AFS' Ethernet Internet Access service (EIA) provides Ethernet based connections to the Internet backbone with bandwidth rates that scale from 10 Mbps to GigE. AFS currently has over 400 capacity enabled on-net buildings. http://www.americanfibersystems....

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Wave7 Selected for FTTP in Oklahoma

Wave7 Optics was selected to supply the optical transport and subscriber premises equipment for an FTTP project in the City of Sallisaw, Oklahoma. The FTTP network, representing a capital investment of $7 million, will deliver a triple play of broadband services (television programming, high speed Internet service, and telephone service) throughout the community. http://www.wave7optics....

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Lucent Announces Contracts in Latin America

Lucent Technologies a series of contracts totaling several million dollars with Latin American service providers:Ecuador's Andinatel will deploy Lucent's AnyPath Messaging System, part of Lucent's Accelerate VoIP Solutions, across 600,000 mailboxes to offer enhanced messaging services, including unified communications, speech services and multimedia messaging. Honduras' Hondutel selected Lucent's software and services to expand its wireline network and make telephone service more widely available throughout the country. Puerto Rico's MoviStar selected...

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Comcast Targets Broadband Services for Hospitality Industry

Comcast Cable is launching a broadband marketing initiative aimed at the hospitality industry. Comcast HospitalityONE provides a turnkey high-speed Internet solution to guest rooms, meeting rooms and hotel public spaces. Comcast HospitalityONE is offering flat-fee pricing for hotels, with no upfront equipment purchase costs for hotels. All required costs of access, service, maintenance, monitoring and equipment are built into the flat predictable rate. Hotel managers have the option to choose amenity-based or a la carte pricing structures for...

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Verizon Offers Free Wireless Router to New DSL Subscribers

Verizon Online began offering new DSL customers a full rebate on the $99.95 price of a new wireless router. Verizon Online DSL comes with an MSN Premium Internet package, which now includes the ability to view more than 250 baseball games a month online, MSN Encarta Premium, MSN Money, a firewall, virus protection and a pop-up ad guard. http://www.verizon.c...

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McDonalds Signs Wayport as Exclusive Wi-Fi Provider

McDonald's selected Wayport as its Wi-Fi provider in the U.S. McDonald's and Wayport are already converting hundreds of existing pilot locations in Seattle, Chicago and New York over to Wayport service with more announcements regarding additional markets to follow in the coming months. Walk-up customers can pay $2.95 for a two-hour wireless Internet connection, with other pricing options available from Wayport including a $29.95/month unlimited use plan across the entire Wayport network. Service options available via roaming partners will be announced...

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