MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance and The ATM Forum to Merge

The MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance and The ATM Forum will merge into a single organization aimed at advancing the deployment of multi-vendor, multi-service, packet-based networks, associated applications and interworking solutions. The merged organization will have a combined membership of more than 100 companies representing the world's major service providers, equipment vendors, software and silicon suppliers, and enterprise end-users. The interim board of the merged forum will include representatives from Alcatel, Agilent Technologies, Bell...

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MCI Returns to NASDAQ

MCI resumed trading on NASDAQ under the new symbol "MCIP". The company said its return to the NASDAQ comes as it continues to make significant progress on its business plan. Over the past three months, MCI has signed approximately $1 billion in new corporate contracts, including a five-year, $125 million agreement with HP to deliver advanced communications services and become one of HP's selected communications providers. http://www.mci....

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Sirius Satellite Radio Reaches 500,000 Subscribers

SIRIUS passed the 500,000 subscriber mark for its premium satellite radio service. The company expects to have over one million subscribers by the end of the year. It currently offers 65 commercial-free music channels and more than 50 channels of news, weather, traffic, entertainment and sports audio. http://www.sirius.c...

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Shaw Selects Siemens for Digital Telephony

Shaw Communications, Canada's second largest cable operator with 2.9 million subscribers, selected Siemens to support its new "triple play" strategy of converging voice, data and video services. Shaw will deploy the Siemens Surpass voice-over-cable solution, which consists of the Surpass hiQ softswitch as a call management server, the Surpass hiG trunking gateway, and the Surpass IP Unity media server. The softswitch, gateway, and media server are all compliant with the PacketCable interoperability standard. Financial terms were not disclosed....

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Broadband Horizons Deploys BPL in Texas

Broadband Horizons has launched pilot broadband over power lines (BPL) services in three Texas communities: Blanco, Burnet and Weimar, Texas. Broadband Horizons aims to rollout BPL in over 50 towns in Texas over the next several years. http://www.broadbandhorizons....

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Adaptec to Acquire Snap Appliance for NAS

Adaptec agreed to acquire Snap Appliance, a supplier of network-attached storage (NAS) solutions, for approximately $100 million. The payment includes approximately $91 million of cash and $9 million of assumed stock options. Adaptec said the acquisition is part of its strategy of delivering direct-attached storage (DAS), NAS, Fibre Channel and IP-based storage-area network (SAN) solutions from the workgroup to the data center. http://www.adaptec....

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SupportSoft Releases Broadband Automation Suite for SMBs

SupportSoft released a new suite of solutions aimed at automating broadband installation, ongoing support and delivery of value-added services for small and midsize businesses (SMBs).SupportSoft said its new "BusinessExpress" suite could help service providers address companies that may not be large enough to have their own IT organization, but still have complex computing environments that require reliable, ongoing technical support. The software helps improve the broadband installation process; provides knowledge-enabled self-service and intelligent...

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PointOne Offers Wholesale VoIP to Regional Cable Operators

PointOne outlined details of its StarPoint IP wholesale service which provides regional cable operators with local facilities-based VoIP capabilities. The service, available as StarPoint IP Home and StarPoint IP Office, will be delivered through cable operators. PointOne said it has invested over $100 million in developing a facilities-based network that covers 75% of the U.S. population with a privately managed IP network. PointOne's converged voice and data IP network will in most cases carry the entire phone call without touching the public...

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TELUS Offers Ethernet Private Line with Nortel

TELUS, the largest service provider in western Canada, is using Nortel Networks' next generation SONET platform to offer its customers Ethernet private line services. The TELUS deployment includes the latest release of Nortel's Optical Metro 3500 Multiservice Platform (release 12). New capabilities in this release include networking capacity to 10 Gbps and support for a variety of protocols, such as Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) and Virtual Concatenation (VCAT). http://www.nortelnetworks....

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Siemens to OEM Alvarion's BreezeMAX Platform

Siemens Information and Communication Networks has selected Alvarion as supplier for the BreezeMAX 3500 solution - the first product Alvarion introduced as part of its recently launched WiMAX Platform. The BreezeMAX platform is a carrier-class IEEE 802.16/HiperMAN-compliant system for the residential and business wireless DSL, MDU/MTU, hotspot backhauling and home networking markets. The BreezeMAX platform is designed to support WiMAX certified CPEs, which will incorporate the Intel WiMAX chip set as they become available in the market. Financial...

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Toshiba Offers Mobile Connectivity to Notebook Customers

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, will begin offering a mobile Internet access service that provides its notebook users with remote connectivity at more than 20,000 access points across the U.S. The Toshiba MyConnect service provides notebook users with Internet access at airports, hotels, coffee shops and other locations via Wi-Fi hotspots, wired broadband or dial-up access methods using a single monthly subscription plan. Toshiba is the first PC OEM to offer an integrated Internet access...

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Sweden's Banverket Telenat Expands Deployment of ECI's Optical Gear

Banverket Telenat, the telecommunications division of the Swedish National Rail Administration (Banverket), awarded new contracts to ECI Telecom for its optical transmission and access equipment. Over the past nine years, Banverket has installed more than $40 million in ECI's equipment. Under the new contracts, ECI will continue to supply Banverket with its XDM-Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP). In addition, ECI is supplying its BroadGate uLAN metro edge platform for delivery of Ethernet Layer 2, SDH/SONET, and PDH services. http:/...

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HP and MCI Enter Five Year Outsourcing Deal

HP announced a five-year, $112 million outsourcing agreement with MCI includes day-to-day technical support services for its employees at more than 600 locations across the U.S. Under the contract, HP Services will provide remote server management and asset management services, and will manage an estimated 20,000 help desk calls per month, support up to 36,000 notebook and desktop PCs, 1,700 workstations and 1,500 printers, provide software distribution for desktop and notebook computers, and administer UNIX and Microsoft Exchange systems. For...

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IDT Appoints VP of Worldwide Sales

IDT (Integrated Device Technology, Inc.) announced the appointment of Julian Hawkins as vice president of worldwide sales. Hawkins joins IDT from Infineon Technologies, Inc., where he spent the last three years as vice president of sales for North America. Hawkins' prior industry experience also includes eight years at Samsung Semiconductor Inc. http://www.idt....

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OIF Completes Second Tunable Laser MSA

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) approved a new multi-source agreement-implementation agreement (MSA-IA) for integratable tunable laser assemblies, known as ITLA-MSA. The new agreement specifies a compact, standardized form factor for incorporation into a 300pin 3.5"x4.5" transponder. The agreement complements a previous OIF tunable laser MSA-IA that addresses communication protocols and electrical interfaces for standalone continuous wavelength (CW) lasers. http://www.oiforum....

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