France Telecom Reaches 4.7 Million ADSL Lines

France Telecom reported consolidated revenues for the first half of the year of EUR 23.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.2% on a comparable basis, driven by strong performance by Orange, which recorded an 11.2% increase in revenues on a comparable basis and by Wanadoo, which saw revenues rise 11.9% on a comparable basis. Growth in wireless and Internet businesses offset the decline of 1% on a comparable basis in revenues from the Fixed Line, Distribution, Networks, Large Customers and Carriers segment. Some highlights:ADSL: The total number...

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RCN Boosts its Top Cable Modem Speed to 7 Mbps

RCN Corporation will begin providing its premium cable modem customers a top download speed of 7 Mbps. The premium service previously offered 5 Mbps download speeds. Customers of RCN's 3 Mbps cable modem service will be automatically boosted to 5 Mbps rates. This is the second time in the last 12 months that RCN has increased the speed of its cable modem service at no additional cost to its customers. RCN provides service in the Boston, New York, Eastern Pennsylvania, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles metropolitan markets. http://www....

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Brazil's VIVO Selects Motorola SoftSwitches for its CDMA Network

VIVO, the largest mobile telephone carrier in South America with more than 22 million subscribers, will deploy Motorola SoftSwitches for CDMA (MSS-C) in its established networks as well as in new greenfield locations. The MSS-C is a packet-based switching platform. The CDMA interface between the Motorola radio access network and the softswitch is fully compliant with the InterOperability Specification (IOS) open standard. In addition, the open architecture of the MSS-C, built on the same platform as the portfolio of Motorola's core solutions including...

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Motorola Measures Peak OFDM Downlink Speeds of 300 Mbps

Motorola Labs has demonstrated that existing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology can support high-speed mobile networks with a peak downlink speed of up to 300 Mbps. The company said future all-IP mobile networks using OFDM technology have the capability to provide a broadband user experience that was previously thought to be unattainable. Motorola Labs recently completed a series of mobile wide area broadband wireless field experiments using OFDM on a 20 MHz bandwidth channel with multiple antenna handheld devices. Applying...

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8x8 Enhances its Broadband Phone and Videophone Service

8x8 added a number of enhancements to its residential broadband telephone and videophone service. The new features include: Call Return (*69), Call Waiting Disable (*70), Do Not Disturb (*78/*79), Anonymous Call Blocking (*77/*87), and Local Number Portability (LNP). http://www.8x8....

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UTStarcom Reports Q2 Revenue of $689.6 Million, Competitive Pressure in China

UTStarcom reported Q2 revenue of $689.6 million, an increase of 70% over net sales of $405.8 million reported in the second quarter of 2003. GAAP net income for Q2 was $43.2 million, or $0.32 per share. This compares to net income of $39.4 million, or $0.33 per share, for Q2 2003. Q2 gross margins came in at 25.4%, as compared to projected gross margins of 27-28%. UTStarcom blamed competitive pricing pressure in China as well as supply-chain constraints that delayed recognition of some higher-margin international revenues for margins that were...

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Alcatel Invests in Tropic Networks for ROADMs

Alcatel has made and equity investment in Tropic Networks, a start-up offering metro-area optical networking gear. In addition to the financial investment, Alcatel has also entered into a global agreement to market and distribute Tropic Networks products and technology. Financial terms were not disclosed. Tropic Networks, which is based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, developed a Reconfigurable OADM (ROADM) that enables service providers to remotely reconfigure add and drop capacity at each node. Tropic's system features an advanced optical layer...

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Calix Ships ADSL2+ Line Cards

Calix announced volume shipments of ADSL2+ interfaces for its Calix C7 platform. The company said its Calix C7 ultra-broadband loop carrier (UBLC) has the capacity to drive all ADSL2+ ports at peak line rates on a sustained basis. The Calix C7 offers 200 Gbps of capacity in a compact form factor, supporting 2,400 ADSL2+ ports in a single seven foot rack and as many as 1,920 ADSL2+ ports from its line of patented outdoor cabinets. Individual ADSL2+ ports can be clocked at downstream speeds as high as 24Mbps and will typically support services consuming...

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Taiwan's Seednet Selects Nortel's SIP-based Portfolio

Seednet, one of the leading ISPs in Taiwan, has selected Nortel Networks' Multimedia Communications Portfolio to deliver VoIP and multimedia communication services to its customers. With Nortel Networks MCS 5200 Multimedia Communication Server, Seednet is planning to provide a wide range of multimedia services to customers, including: Video Calling; Find Me/Follow Me features; Personal and Group Directories; Whiteboard and Web Push Services -- collaborative web tools to enhance the communication and collaboration between individuals, regardless...

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NoaNet Deploys CIENA's CoreStream in Pacific Northwest

The Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet) is deploying CIENA's CoreStream Agility Optical Transport System to upgrade its network serving utility and rural community customers in the Pacific Northwest. NoaNet is a non-profit wholesale carrier providing TDM, Ethernet and IP terminations, primarily to a rural customer base. The carrier is deploying CoreStream Agility on a new route extension requiring OC-192 capacity. Financial terms were not disclosedhttp://www.ciena....

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CinemaNow Secures $11 Million in New Funding

CinemaNow has secured $11 million in Series D financing led by Menlo Ventures. Additional investments were made by Cisco Systems, and existing investor Lions Gate Entertainment. The company said the proceeds will be used to further technology development, content acquisition and marketing. The company also expects to broaden its presence in Europe and Asia to meet the rising market demand for its products and services. CinemaNow's Web site currently boasts over 5,000 titles with content from nearly 200 licensors including Disney, Fox, Lions Gate,...

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McLeodUSA Launches VoIP Service Trials

McLeodUSA launched its first market trials of a new VoIP Dynamic Integrated Access service for medium-to-large business customers. The integrated services run over a single T-1 facility to the customer location. McLeodUSA plans to expand its VoIP service offerings into major markets across its 25-state footprint while adding additional VoIP features, functionality and products beginning in early 2005. http://www.mcleodusa....

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Verizon Posts 6% Growth in Revenues, Strength in Wireless

Led by wireless growth of 25%, Verizon Communications reported Q2 operating revenues of $17.8 billion, compared with $16.8 billion in Q2 2003 -- exceeding market forecasts. Growth businesses, such as wireless, data and broadband, accounted for 52% of Verizon's Q2 revenues, compared with 46% of the company's second-quarter revenues last year. Some highlights for Q2:Wireless: industry-record 1.5 million total net customer additions, 40.4 million total customers; 25.0% growth in total revenues; The company posted record-low churn of 1.45% per month....

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Avaya Unveils Voice-over-Wireless Gateway and APs

Avaya introduced a new set of converged mobility products for bridging Wi-Fi and cellular networks for enterprise users. The products form part of a converged mobility architecture that Avaya is developing with Motorola and Proxim. Avaya said its aim is to improve the delivery of IP applications and voice communications for a mobile workforce. The new products -- the Avaya W310 WLAN Gateway and Avaya W110 WLAN Access Points -- incorporate co-developed technologies from Avaya and Proxim. The gateway and access points, along with Avaya's Communication...

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AT&T Wireless to Provide Wireless Priority Service

AT&T Wireless was selected to provide Wireless Priority Service (WPS), which helps national security officials, emergency responders, and those in critical infrastructure industries communicate during times of emergency. WPS works by giving a limited number of government-authorized wireless phone users priority access if the wireless network capacity is strained during an emergency. The National Communications System (NCS) oversees the WPS program. AT&T Wireless will implement WPS on a phased-in basis, beginning with Boston and the Democratic...

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Cox Selects Fujitsu FLASHWAVE 4020 Access Platform

Cox Communications has selected the Fujitsu Network Communications' FLASHWAVE 4020 Ethernet Service Platform (ESP) for delivering business services. Cox will use the FLASHWAVE 4020 to extend SONET to the edge of their metro networks and simultaneously deliver low cost DS1 and Ethernet services to customer premises within all their U.S. markets. The FLASHWAVE 4020 ESP is a compact optical access module that supports up to seven DS1 and four 10/100Base-T Ethernet services simultaneously over protected or unprotected OC-3 or OC-12 network interfaces....

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