TIA Urges Caution in Opening More Unlicensed Spectrum

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is calling upon the FCC to seek "a balance between licensed and unlicensed spectrum for broadband wireless services." While acknowledging that unlicensed wireless products and services have a great potential, the TIA said unlicensed services could not replace the ubiquitous, reliable and feature-rich solutions of licensed networks. The FCC "should endeavor to assign wireless broadband services to bands that will facilitate the creation of economically successful business models while providing...

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Blackstone to Acquire New Skies Satellites

The Blackstone Group, a private investment and advisory firm, agreed to acquire New Skies Satellites N.V. for $956 million in cash, equivalent to approximately $7.96 per fully diluted share. New Skies, which is based in The Netherlands, has five satellites in orbit, ground facilities around the world and one additional spacecraft under construction. The company also has secured certain rights to make use of additional orbital positions for future growth. New Skies said the deal a 14% premium over the price of its stock on April 28th, the day...

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Alcatel Enhances FTTH Outside Plant Solutions

Alcatel announced several enhancements to its outside plant Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) solutions, including:the addition of a new generation of multi-purpose optical drop cables and of the Alcatel 6853 Dielectric Flat Drop and Alcatel 6854 Figure 8 Drop Cables a new outside plant splitter cross-connect management system a new craft-friendly outside plant pedestal that manages optical splicing or connectorization for subscriber taps or drops in FTTH and deep fiber networks.Separately, Alcatel announced the successful completion of a vibratory plow...

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Court Refuses to Stay its Order Overturning UNE-p Rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to stay its decision voiding many of the FCC's so-called "network unbundling" rules pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Tom Tauke, executive vice president-public affairs & communications at Verizon, said "The court's decision is good news for the industry. Decisions like this ensure that all parties have an incentive to negotiate agreements to replace the overturned rules and invest in facilities."http://www.verizon.comIn March 2004, a three-judge panel in the...

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ADC Continues Restructuring, Selling Off Customer Care and Billing Platforms

ADC agreed to sell its customer care and billing software division to Intec Telecom Systems, a supplier of Operations Support Systems (OSS) for fixed, mobile and next-generation networks, for $74.5 million in cash. Intec will assume control of ADC's customer care and billing software offerings including approximately 600 employees, current relationships with existing software customers and related facility space. ADC's customer care and billing software platforms include Singl.eView, a complete revenue, transaction, billing and service management...

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PMC-Sierra Boosts its Q2 2004 Business Outlook

PMC-Sierra boosted its financial outlook for the June 2004 quarter. The company's revenues in the second quarter of 2004 are expected to be at, or exceed, the high-end of its previous financial guidance. The revenue outlook provided at that time was $83 million to $85 million in revenues for the second quarter of 2004, or 5% to 8% sequential growth. Based on current business activity levels, PMC-Sierra now expects revenue to increase to approximately $85 million to $86.5 million, or 8% to 10% sequentially, in the quarter ending June 27, 2004....

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Paradyne Unveils Broadband Access Concentrator

Paradyne unveiled its next-generation Broadband Access Concentrator designed for voice, video and high-speed data. Key features of the new platform include:ADSL2+, providing performance speeds up to 29 Mbps. POTS and VoIP, allowing service providers to support lifeline telephone service from the same platform enabling VoIP or VoATM at the edge of the network. T1/E1, enabling service providers to provision circuit-based lines from the same platform.G.SHDSL - both single pair and bonded pairs - supporting business-class voice and data applications...

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Freescale Demonstrates UWB Peripherals

Taiwan's Micro-Star International (MSI) and Freescale Semiconductor demonstrated a wireless connection between the MSI Entertainment and Gaming Appliance (MEGA) PC and two liquid crystal display (LCD) screens using Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology. The demonstration is believed to be the first Direct Sequence Ultra-Wideband (DS-UWB) demonstration involving a MEGA PC home entertainment platform. The demonstration included a MEGA PC that wirelessly streamed two live simultaneous video and audio streams with a collective data rate of 40 Mbps across...

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Alcatel's AMS Managing 10 Million DSL User Lines

Alcatel's carrier customers in North America are using its Access Management System (AMS) to manage more than 10 million DSL lines, representing approximately 80%of the North American DSL market. The AMS provides management, monitoring and provisioning of DSL, fiber-to-the-user, data and voice services. The system can manage multiple, geographically dispersed platforms from one central location, with scalability of up to 2500 network elements and 100 concurrent users. It also enables remote configuration, performance, security and fault management...

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MTS Completes Allstream Acquisition, Bell Canada Sues

Manitoba Telecom Services completed its acquisition of Allstream (formerly AT&T Canada). Allstream operates a nationwide network spanning 18,000 km and is focused on the business market. Bell Canada has commenced a legal proceeding against Allstream Inc. claiming damages of $150 million from Allstream for conspiracy and inducing MTS to breach certain obligations to Bell Canada. MTS has advised Allstream that MTS will vigorously defend all of the Bell Canada legal proceedings. http://www.mts.caIn March 2004, Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) first...

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