Sprint Signs $400 Million IT Services Deal with IBM

Sprint and IBM announced a five-year Information Technology (IT) agreement valued at more than $400 million. Under terms of the agreement, which expands the scope of existing IT work between the companies announced in September 2003, IBM Global Services will provide application development and maintenance support for selected Sprint IT software systems and will work with Sprint to:

• Establish accelerated software application delivery services to allow Sprint to more quickly deliver new and differentiated products to its customers while decreasing costs.



• Achieve Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 3 certification, which is an industry-recognized standard set by Carnegie Mellon University for software application development and management. CMMI Level 3 certification demonstrates that Sprint incorporates the best IT business practices, ensuring predictability, lower costs and improved quality in performance.
  As part of the agreement, approximately 1,000 Sprint IT employees will transfer to IBM to support Sprint applications.

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

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South Korean MSO Selects ARRIS Cadant CMTS

Woori Cable, which serves approximately 110,000 customers in Uijeongbu, South Korea, has deployed the DOCSIS 2.0-qualified ARRIS Cadant C4 Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS). The deployment occurred in conjunction with local partner CommVerge Solutions. http://www.arrisi.com/

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FCC Expands Spectrum Licensing Rules

The FCC expanded the availability of spectrum leasing to more wireless services and devices, further streamlined the processing of spectrum lease applications and notifications, as well as traditional license transfers and assignments, and clarified certain aspects of the original spectrum leasing rules. The changes are aimed at expanding secondary market mechanisms to permit spectrum to flow more freely among users and uses in response to economic demand. Lease filings and transfer/assignment applications that meet new criteria will be eligible for overnight electronic processing, while transactions that do not meet these criteria will be subject to further review under specified timetables, or may be offlined for more detailed review if they raise potentially serious public interest issues.



The FCC also clarified that under existing spectrum leasing rules, parties may enter a variety of dynamic leasing arrangements, made increasingly possible by technological advances. For example, the Commission noted that licensees and lessees may by agreement share use of the same leased spectrum over the same period of time.



To facilitate further the use of advanced technologies, the Commission established a new regulatory option of "private commons" as part of its leasing rules. This option will be available to licensees who wish to provide spectrum access to individual users or groups of users that may not fit squarely within the current options for spectrum leasing or within traditional end-user arrangements. This might be attractive to users of advanced devices that are capable of dynamic spectrum access but do not necessarily require use of a licensee's network architecture. http://www.fcc.gov

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FCC Changes Rules to Promote Wireless Broadband, Next-Gen Bluetooth

The FCC adopted several changes to its rules for unlicensed devices to facilitate deployment of rural broadband services by wireless internet service providers (WISPs). The FCC is seeking to foster introduction of smart antenna technology that can operate at higher power levels without causing increased interference. The FCC is also seeking to facilitate deployment of next-generation Bluetooth devices, which operate at data rates up to three times faster than current devices. The new devices will be backward compatible with existing devices and will not present an interference risk to these devices. The rule changes will also enable manufacturers and system operators to mix various antennas and radio transmitters without the need to obtain a separate equipment authorization for every combination. This will allow systems to be customized to meet the specific needs of each particular installation, without added costs or delays for additional equipment authorization. http://www.fcc.gov

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NextWave Auction Attracts Winning Bids Totaling $973.5 Million

The auction of NextWave Telecom's spectrum license rights generated approximately $973.5 million in total proceeds. Verizon Wireless placed the winning bid of $930 million for a 10 MHz license principally covering the greater New York City metropolitan area, while MetroPCS placed winning bids totaling $43.5 million for 10 MHz licenses in two markets in Florida (Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater and Sarasota-Bradenton). Of the $973.5 million total, approximately $398 million will be paid to the Federal Communications Commission pursuant to the Global Resolution Agreement that the agency and NextWave entered into in April 2004. http://www.nextwavetel.com/

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First Avenue Networks to Acquire Teligent Assets

First Avenue Networks agreed to acquire Teligent's 24 GHz spectrum licenses, fixed wireless broadband operations and radio assets in a stock transaction valued at approximately $99 million. Following the acquisition, First Avenue will hold over 700 MHz of spectrum at 24 GHz and 39 GHz in the top 75 U.S. markets. http://www.firstavenet.com/

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FCC Addresses Nextel and 800 MHz Interference Issue

All five FCC commissioners voted to adopt a new band plan for the 800 MHz band to address the growing problem of interference to public safety radio systems used by emergency responders. The plan will require Nextel to give up rights to certain of its licenses in the 800 MHz band and all of its licenses in the 700 MHz band. In exchange, the Commission will modify Nextel's licenses to provide the right to operate on two five-MHz blocks in a different part of the spectrum -- specifically 1910-1915 MHz and 1990-1995 MHz -- conditioned on Nextel fulfilling certain obligations specified in the Commission's decision.



The FCC determined that the overall value of the 1.9 GHz spectrum rights is $4.8 billion, less the cost of relocating incumbent users. In addition, the Commission concluded that it would credit to Nextel the value of the spectrum rights that Nextel will relinquish and the actual costs Nextel incurs for to relocate all incumbents in the 800 MHz band. To the extent that these combined credits total less than the determined value of the 1.9 GHz spectrum rights, Nextel will make an anti-windfall payment to the United States Department of the Treasury at the conclusion of the relocation process equal to the difference.



The Commission's plan will result in an additional 4.5 MHz of 800 MHz-band spectrum, the equivalent of 90 additional two-way channels, becoming available to public safety, critical infrastructure, and private wireless users, including 10 channels for public safety/critical infrastructure interoperability. As with prior spectrum relocation programs initiated by the Commission, Nextel - as the new entrant into public safety bands - will be required to provide the existing public safety licensees with comparable facilities. To ensure that the band reconfiguration process will be completed, the Commission will require Nextel to establish certain escrow accounts and a letter of credit in the amount of $2.5 billion specifically to ensure adequate funding of relocation costs for other 800 MHz incumbents.

http://www.fcc.gov

• Verizon Wireless immediately issued a statement blasting the FCC decision and describing it as a multi-billion dollar windfall for Nextel that bypasses both Congress and the FCC's own spectrum auction process. The company is calling on the General Accounting Office (GAO) to investigate the legality of the deal.

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NTT Com to Launch Global Voice/Video Unified Solution

NTT Communications (NTT Com) launched an IP-based service package combining voice and video communications (G-V2oIP) under its Arcstar Global IP-VPN brand. The new service rides over the company's MPLS network. Under new service package, NTT Com provides free VoIP-based voice communications on private corporate networks (on-net calling) spanning the globe, outgoing call placement to the public network (off-net calling), a teleconferencing service (including a collaboration function1 that allows conference participants to share screen images), and a videoconferencing service. The services are made possible by the call agent function2 incorporated within G-V2oIP running on an Arcstar Global IP-VPN. This function enables configuring an international corporate voice network even when branch offices have different VoIP environments.



Vendors currently supported are NEC, Avaya and Cisco (with this number to be steadily increased in the future). SIP and H.323 protocols are supported. The full on-net service is scheduled to be available in 88 countries (with off-net calling possible to destinations in 220 countries and regions throughout the world). http://www.ntt.com

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Alcatel Participates in Germany's VIOLA Project

Alcatel will supply its optical and routing equipment to Germany's Project VIOLA (Vertically Integrated Optical test bed for Large Applications), which will provide a multi vendor and multi layer, integrated data and optical network linking major research centers. The VIOLA network will connect a new Supercomputer with more than 8 TeraFlops of computing power (eight trillion operations per second) located in Julich, near Bonn, to several other computing clusters supporting different applications and requirements. Alcatel is part of a multi-party consortium that includes Deutsche Telekom (DTAG). http://www.alcatel.comhttp://www.viola-testbed.de

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Saudi Telecom Selects Siemens MSPP

Saudi Telecom Company (STC), the largest telecommunications provider in Saudi Arabia, has signed a further contract with Siemens IC Networks for delivery and installation of optical transmission equipment. The deal, which is worth a double-digit million EUR figure, primarily encompasses the newly developed multi-service provisioning platform SURPASS hiT 70xx. A first tranche of the contract has already been ordered for building an SDH-based transmission ring in the eastern province of the country. The new route is planned to go into operation in July 2004. http://www.siemens.com/icn-press

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TANDBERG Unveils New MXP Technology

TANDBERG introduced a new technology, based on industry standards, that improves audio and video quality while adding collaboration tools and advanced multiple-site capabilities. Specifically, the new technology delivers:

• digital audio with CD-quality stereo sound based on he MPEG4 AAC-LD standard ratified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).



• SIP-readiness to take advantage of future IP telephony applications and infrastructure, extending the enhanced feature set of IP PBX solutions to video.



• H.264 support for high-quality video on lower bandwidth when sharing rich media while maintaining face-to-face communication, when keeping a call secure and when collaborating among multiple sites.



• an expanded embedded multipoint capability that enables up to eleven audio and video participants in a single call. All participants can link to the call at the highest quality supported by their video systems.



• advanced display technologies to fully leverage digital displays and projectors. The preferred layout of participants and rich media on a single monitor can be selected with the touch of a button. Additionally, a digital video interface provides for accurate imaging.

The MXP technology can now be found on TANDBERG's portfolio for medium to large groups, including set-tops, rollabouts, portables and codecs. Additionally, MXP is supported by the new large multipoint control unit, TANDBERG MPS. http://www.tandberg.net/

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Cisco to Acquire Parc Tech for Route Optimization Software

Cisco Systems agreed to acquire Parc Technologies, a start-up developing traffic engineering (TE) solutions and software for routing optimization, for approximately $9 million in cash.



Parc is a spin off from a renowned center for research into search algorithms based at Imperial College, University of London. Parc's Route Server algorithms address network routing problems involving complex Quality of Service constraints. Parc's technology will be used by Cisco in the planning and optimization of Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) TE. Specifically, Cisco will gain Parc's Route Server Software for Primary and Backup MPLS TE tunnel placement, and also a hybrid optimization algorithm development platform. Parc's Route Server software will be incorporated into Cisco's MPLS Management product portfolio and will be made available as part of Cisco's IP Solution Center (ISC). The integrated solution will compute and provision optimized traffic paths for both primary and fast restoration backup traffic.



Upon close of the acquisition, the Parc team led by CEO Gideon Agar will report to Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president, Network Management Technology Group. http://www.cisco.comRecent Cisco acquisitions have included:

• June 2004-- Actona Technologies, a start-up developing software that facilitates data management across geographically distributed offices, for approximately $82 million in cash.



• June 2004 -- Procket Networks, a start-up specializing in core routing technology, for approximately $89 million in cash.



• March 2004 -- Riverhead Networks, a start-up based in Cupertino, California for its security technology that protects against Distributed Denial of Service ("DDoS") attacks and other security threats in enterprise and service provider networks, for approximately $39 million in cash.



• March 2004 -- Twingo Systems, a start-up developing desktop security solutions for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), for approximately $5 million in cash.

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