BT Group Selects MetaSolv for VoIP

BT Group has selected and implemented MetaSolv's service fulfillment solution for its hosted VoIP service offering. MetaSolv's domain manager for VoIP service delivery comprises network and service inventory, provisioning order management, inventory reconciliation and discovery, and service activation. Financial terms were not disclosed.



In its first phase of deployment at BT, the MetaSolv domain manager solution automates the provisioning and activation of VoIP services to business customers in the UK and across Europe. MetaSolv offers pre-integrated support for Cisco VoIP gateways and call-servers. The companies said that prior to implementing the VoIP provisioning solution, it took six months of intensive manual effort to migrate and deploy hosted VoIP services across 750 locations and 10,000 end users for a single corporate customer. By deploying MetaSolv's domain manager for VoIP, BT is able to roll out services to more than 50 locations per night, a key service delivery requirement of its major customers. http://www.metasolv.com/

Read More

China Unicom Awards $120M in CDMA Contracts to Lucent

Lucent Technologies was awarded more than $120 million worth of contracts to support China Unicom's CDMA network expansion in Shandong, Hubei, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi. Specifically, Lucent will supply CDMA2000 1X equipment, including base stations and switches, that will increase voice capacity and enable China Unicom to deliver a variety of value-added mobile high-speed data services. China Unicom's CDMA network currently provides service to more than 23 million subscribers. http://www.lucent.com

Read More

Japan's Itochu to Resell Aruba WLAN Switches

Itochu Techno-Science Corporation (CTC), a leading system integration provider in Japan, will market, sell, and support Aruba Wireless Networks' line of wireless LAN switching systems throughout the Japan. Waseda University has already chosen CTC to deploy the Aruba's wireless LAN switching system. http://www.arubanetworks.com/

Read More

AT&T to Re-enter Wireless Market via Sprint Resale Deal

AT&T will re-enter the wireless market through a resale agreement with Sprint. The deal will allow AT&T to sell AT&T-branded wireless service to its over 30 million business and consumer customers. As a result of the five-year agreement, AT&T expects to significantly expand the wireless services it is currently testing in select U.S. markets with hopes of a launch later this year. AT&T plans to bundle wireless with its other services. Additional terms of the agreement include:

• Non-exclusive five-year deal



• Freedom for both parties to compete in market without restrictions



• The ability of AT&T to utilize existing customer channels and technology to provide directory assistance, customer support, and billing for customers.



• The ability of AT&T to sell AT&T-branded handsets through its own vendor relationships



• The ability to leverage Sprint's existing wireless data network and innovate on top of it with AT&T-developed content and ISP platforms, value-added voice services and Virtual Private Networking services.



• No financial terms of the deal were disclosed

http://www.att.comhttp://www.sprint.com

• Sprint operates a nationwide CDMA network



• In February 2004, the board of directors of AT&T Wireless selected Cingular Wireless as the winning bidder to acquire the company for $41 billion in cash. Shareholders of AT&T Wireless will receive $15 cash per common share. Cingular will also assume $6 billion in debt. giving the transaction a full value of $47 billion. The combination of Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless will create the largest GSM/GPRS network in the U.S. with spectrum in 49 states. Cingular currently has 24 million customers and AT&T Wireless has 22 million subscribers.

Read More

iVivity Raises $26 Million for its Storage Server Chips

iVivity, a start-up based in Atlanta, closed a $26 million Series C funding round for its "storage server on chip" processor. iVivity said its design allows storage applications to reside on the silicon. It can terminate and initiate all SCSI based protocols (including iSCSI and FC) at up to 10Gbps line rate and can directly control IO across disk interconnects like FC, SATA and SAS.



The new financing round was led by new investors Grotech Capital Group and JK&B Capital. Mellon Ventures was also a new investor to the round which included investors from previous financing rounds: H.I.G. Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Kinetic Ventures, Cordova Ventures, Yamacraw and Bergman & Associates. http://www.iVivity.com

Read More

Infonet Builds Global MPLS IP Net for Lloyd's Register

Lloyd's Register, an independent risk management organization, awarded a multi-year contract for Infonet to replace its current global Frame Relay network with a managed MPLS-enabled IP VPN secure wide area network. The network will providing connectivity to more than 50 of the company's sites throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. http://www.infonet.com

Read More

KT Selects Narus for Core of Infrastructure Protection System

KT (Korea Telecom) has deployed the Narus Carrier-Class IP Platform to provide real-time traffic monitoring and detection of cyber attacks across its core IP network. KT's Traffic Auditing & Provisioning Solution (TAPS) is using the Narus IP Platform to aggregates and correlates all data flowing over the KT network. The Narus IP Platform is integrated with the Datacraft iBOSS (Integrated Business and Operation Systems) management console for intrusion detection and protection. http://www.narus.com

Read More

Nortel Networks Supplies Cable VoIP in Chile

Nortel Networks will supply its cable VoIP solution to VTR, one of the main broadband Internet providers in Chile and an affiliate of Liberty Media. As part of this project, VTR will deploy Nortel Networks Succession Communication Server (CS) 2000-Compact superclass softswitch, the Passport Packet Voice Gateway (PVG), the Preside network management systems and professional services. VTR is currently undertaking trials of IP Telephony services in Gran Santiago and plans to commercially launch the network in the Metropolitan Area by the end of 2004. VTR expects to gradually expand the network to the rest of the country in early 2005. http://www.nortelnetworks.com

Read More

RAD Granted U.S. Patent for TDM over IP

RAD Data Communications was granted a U.S. patent for its TDM over Internet Protocol (TDMoIP) technology. The technology provides for a TDMoIP gateway that encapsulates segments of the constant rate TDM in AAL1 cells, which are carried in UDP/IP packets. A second TDMoIP gateway at the destination regenerates the clock, strips the UDP/IP headers and delivers a synchronous bit stream. This solution also provides an adaptive clock for clock transfer across the entire network.



Since it first introduced the technology to the market in 1999 with the launch of its IPmux line of TDM over IP gateways, RAD has shipped more than 20,000 TDMoIP E1/T1 ports. Earlier this year, RAD unveiled its IR-TDMoIP gateway module, a PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC) based on the company's TDMoIP chip. Both the module and the chip are now available for OEM sales. http://www.rad.com

Read More

China's Datang Selects Ubiquity for VoIP Applications

Datang GoHigh Data Networks Technology has purchased Ubiquity's SIP Application Server to create a suite of SIP-based VoIP communications applications aimed at service providers and enterprises. Datang GoHigh is initially creating a SIP-based prepaid calling application for carriers both in China and internationally, followed by conferencing, unified messaging and a host of other new IP-based services. http://www.ubiquity.comhttp://www.gohigh.com.cn

Read More

Cisco and IBM Enter Alliance for Voice and Video IP Services

IBM and Cisco Systems entered into a broad alliance to help organizations of all sizes integrate and implement converged voice, video and data systems. The partnership combines Cisco's converged networking products with IBM's strength in services and integration. The IBM and Cisco initiative will initially deliver the following integrated solutions to customers:

• Cisco Unity integrated with Lotus Domino unified communications


• IBM Information Management database software in Cisco CallManager


• Tivoli systems management certification with Cisco CallManager


• Support for Cisco CallManager on IBM eServer xSeries x345, x306 and x345
  server platforms


• Support for Cisco CallManager on two new Cisco Media Convergence
  servers, the MCS 7815I and the MCS 7825I, based on IBM technology


• Industry-specific applications and services for the retail and financial
  services sectors

Cisco's IP Communications product portfolio includes: Cisco CallManager call processing software, Cisco CallManager Express, Cisco Unity Express, Cisco MeetingPlace, Cisco Personal Assistant and Cisco IP Contact Center.



IBM is also implementing Cisco's IP solutions inside its own enterprise. So far it has implemented 20,000 Cisco IP telephones. IBM will be centralizing its telephony infrastructure onto standard IBM servers in its major IT data centers. http://www.cisco.comhttp://www.ibm.com

Read More

Alcatel Boosts 7670 Routing Switch Platform

Alcatel is boosting the features and capabilities of its multiservice 7670 Routing Switch Platform (RSP). Alcatel said the latest release of the platform is optimized to deliver multiple new and existing services on a converged IP/MPLS infrastructure.



New software includes high availability IP VPN rfc2547 service enhancements leveraging the company's ACEIS Non-Stop Routing technology, Ethernet virtual leased line service over MPLS, and Ethernet to Frame Relay/ATM service interworking over MPLS. Improved MPLS service resiliency is provided along with MPLS label switch path "modify without break," which is the ability to increase the bandwidth of a label switch path without disrupting service.

New hardware includes a channelized multi-rate 48-line card (MR48). This card supports 2.4 Gbps of wire-rate IP, MPLS and ATM forwarding, including concurrent routing and signaling protocols for IP/MPLS and ATM private network to network interface on the same port. Fully software configurable, the MR48 card enables any service on any port using any protocol.



Separately, Alcatel announced that Proximus, the leading mobile communications network operator in Belgium, has deployed the first phase of a data backbone network for 3G mobile communications using the Alcatel multiservice network solution. The Proximus high-speed data transfer mobile network is based on the Alcatel 7670 Routing Switch Platform (RSP) and the Alcatel 5620 Network Manager, a managed, single-platform solution that supports aggregation and transport network consolidation of all generations of mobile traffic. http://www.alcatel.comRecently, Korea Telecom and India's VSNL announced they would deploy the Alcatel 7670 RSP for nationwide MPLS-based IP-VPN delivery; British Telecom will use it to deliver Ethernet services; and Slovak Telecom selected it to provide the IP/MPLS backbone network needed to move to a next-generation packet infrastructure for voice and multimedia services.

Read More

Belgacom to Rollout Alcatel VDSL

Belgacom, the Belgian incumbent operator, has selected Alcatel for the rollout of VDSL service infrastructure. Belgacom will use VDSL to offer bandwidth intensive services such as interactive broadcast TV as well as video on demand. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.alcatel.com

Read More

Telekom Malaysia Expands DSL with Alcatel

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TMB) awarded a EUR 9 million contract to Alcatel for its DSL equipment. The Alcatel 7300 Advanced Services Access Manager (ASAM) will be used to build a broadband network covering the western part of the Selangor, Petaling Jaya and Penang regions.
RESSCOM Technologies serves as systems integrator for the project. http://www.alcatel.com

Read More

BT's Project Bluephone to Converge Fixed & Wireless Voice

BT is to launch Project Bluephone - the first step to handset convergence - before the end of the year. Project Bluephone will remove the need to own more than one phone, as customers will be able to use a single device that can switch seamlessly between networks, giving more convenience, a better service with more guaranteed coverage and lower overall costs. Whenever customers are within reach of a BT wireless access point in their home or office, they will be able to connect at the best available speed and quality, through the BT network. If they move out of coverage range, they will seamlessly link to a partner's cellular GSM or 3G network for voice and data, giving them the best available connection wherever they are. Project Bluephone has undergone successful trials with 50 users over the past two months. A 'soft launch' involving more than 1,000 users is planned for this summer, with a full launch later this year.



Alcatel has been selected as prime contractor for Bluephone. It is working with Ericsson, Motorola, Norwood Systems, IVT, Inventel and MBT on the project. http://www.btplc.comhttp://www.alcatel.com

Read More

BT Teams with Vodafone for Fixed/Mobile Links

BT and Vodafone UK announced a partnership to offer fully-converged fixed-mobile services. The link-up with Vodafone UK reinforces and builds upon BT's presence in the business and consumer mobile markets by extending the benefits currently available to BT's mobility customers. The deal enables Vodafone UK to maximize its network and service assets while generating additional revenue from a new source.



BT said its customers would benefit from true fixed-mobile convergence by not having to carry multiple devices, look up mobile address lists on different phones, or use more than one voicebank or phone number. The same personalized services will be available to them, whether they are connected to a fixed network or on the move. The company said its goal is to generate around £1 billion of annual mobility and convergence revenues in five years. http://www.btplc.comhttp://www.vodafone.com

Read More

City of Loma Linda Selects Vendors for FTTH

The City of Loma Linda, California selected Allied Telesyn, Anixter, Corning, ShoreTel, MUNET and WatchGuard for a city-wide FTTH project. The municipal network has an active Ethernet architecture for delivering its broadband services. Loma Linda will follow an open systems model for providing services.



The Loma Linda Connected Community Program will provide FTTH infrastructure for any new home construction. All new housing will be equipped for fiber access. The project will also build a common city-wide optical infrastructure based on Allied Telesyn and Corning solutions. The city will be deploying IP-based water meters with wireless communications collection points. The collection point will then be networked with Ethernet to a nearby Allied Telesyn "Fiber to the Home" (FTTH) Residential Gateway. Loma Linda also plans surveillance monitoring of neighborhood play areas, integrated traffic lights and cross walk controls. http://www.alliedtelesyn.com

Read More

DSL Forum Enhances Interoperability Testing

The DSL Forum approved a new report defining the technical criteria for ADSL interoperability and providing the foundation for the DSL Forum's global Interoperability Program in North America, Europe and Asia.



Technical Report, (TR)-067, specifies ADSL bit-rate and distance requirements beyond those previously specified for ADSL recommendations, and reflects the recent improvements in ADSL modem performance at a time when an increasing number of DSL customers are getting service at 3 Mbps and faster. Specifically, TR-067 defines testing using pass/fail criteria, specifies testing laboratory requirements, and establishes the format for conducting all ADSL testing with more extensive testing of upper-layer protocol functions and built in modem diagnostics. It builds on and strengthens the previous TR-048 specification for ADSL testing, establishing higher benchmarks for performance and interoperability. Compared with TR-048, TR-067 requires approximately 10% greater bit-rate on most loops, and approximately 30% greater bit-rate for loops with bridged taps. The much-improved performance with bridged taps helps in providing the same level of service to all DSL customers in a service area. It is notable that the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) made the original TR-048 a part of the requirement in the updated ITU-T ADSL2 (G.992.3, also known as G.dmt.bis) standard.



DSL Forum's President Tom Starr said: "TR-067 represents two years of cooperative effort and demonstrates international industry-wide convergence on interoperability standards. In order to strengthen DSL's global broadband lead, TR-067 raises the performance threshold for ADSL technology higher than ever, therefore enabling products to interoperate across service provider networks. http://www.dslforum.orgIn November 2003, The DSL Forum issued a new technical report (TR-060) that specifies the equipment interoperability testing plan for SHDSL, which supports speeds up to 2.3 Mbps and reach of up to 18,000 ft. SHDSL, which is being positioned as an access technology for small and medium-sized businesses and for remote offices of larger organizations, was ratified by the ITU in February 2001.



TR-060 builds on TR-048, the DSL Forum's testing plan for ADSL equipment interoperability that has become the international industry measure used by independent testing laboratories (ITLs) authorized by the DSL Forum.



Three further DSL Forum TRs published this month update existing core work on interfaces and system configurations for ADSL customer premises (TR-061), auto-configuration (TR-062) and VDSL network element management (TR-063).

Read More

telx Acquires Carrier Hotel in Atlanta

telx, New York's first and largest core interconnection facility, has acquired Atlanta's 56 Marietta Street, one of the prime carrier hotels in the southeastern U.S. telx has just closed the deal to own and operate the entire building and Meet Me Room at 56 Marietta Street. Financial terms were not disclosed. The list of tenants at the new facility includes BellSouth, Switch & Data, PAIX and the Internet 2 switch for local universities. The Atlanta Carrier Hotel also hosts many companies that have a presence within telx's facilities at 60 Hudson Street, including Looking Glass Networks, Global Crossing, Sprint, Progress Telecom and Level 3.



telx described the acquisition as the first step in a nationwide expansion plan aimed at unifying "the communications industry's interconnection process within key Meet Me Rooms and Carrier Hotels." telx. a privately-held company, said it has been net-income positive since September 2003. It has also increased its staff by 50%, especially in the sales and technical support departments, to ensure its continued quality service and reliability. http://www.telx.com

Read More