SingTel Partners with Telefonica on VPNs

Singapore Telecommunications is turning to Telefonica International Wholesale Services to enhance its reach and presence in Latin America. Under a partnership agreement, SingTel initially will offer Frame Relay and ATM services over virtual networks terminating in countries where Telefonica Wholesale already has infrastructure. SingTel plans to enhance the service by incorporating MPLS-based IP VPNs. http://www.singtel.comhttp://www.telefonica.com

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Optus and Vodafone Australia to Share 3G Network

Optus and Vodafone Australia agreed to share 3G network sites and radio infrastructure across Australia. Under the agreement, Optus and Vodafone will work together to build and operate a joint national 3G radio network infrastructure. Although they will share the 3G infrastructure, the companies said they would provide completely separate customer services and continue to compete vigorously for customer business. http://www.singtel.com

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Vodacom South Africa Selects Siemens for 3G/W-CDMA

Vodacom has signed a framework agreement making Siemens the sole supplier in building its 3G/W-CDMA network in South Africa. Under the contract, Siemens mobile is to upgrade Vodacom's existing GSM and GPRS network nationwide with 3G radio equipment and switches. This is Siemens' first 3G/W-CDMA contract on the African continent. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.siemens.com

• Vodacom is a pan-African cellular carrier serving South Africa, Tanzania, Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mozambique commenced operation in December 2003 and a 5-year Nigerian management contract has been awarded. Vodacom is the market leader in South Africa, with more than 95% of South Africans now within the coverage area of its more than 5,000 base station cellular network. Vodacom's shareholders include Telkom SA Ltd (50%), VenFin Ltd (15%) and Vodafone Group plc (35%).

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Sprint and SBC Announce Wi-Fi Roaming Pact

Sprint and SBC Communications announced a reciprocal Wi-Fi roaming agreement, enabling their respective customers to roam on the Wi-Fi networks of each company using their existing user ID's and passwords. Service charges will be billed according to the customers' current billing agreements. The parties expect to complete integration efforts and enable roaming at the respective venues as soon as possible.



This the second major service provider roaming contract signed by Sprint, which earlier reached agreement with AT&T Wireless regarding reciprocal airport property Wi-Fi access. The company has over 2,600 Wi-Fi hot spots where Sprint PCS Wi-Fi Access service is currently available chiefly through roaming agreements in effect across the United States and Canada with a number of industry players, including AT&T Wireless, AirPath, WayPort, STSN and TruckStop.net. Sprint said it is also pursuing other Wi-Fi opportunities, and plans to make at least 10,000 hot spots available to its customers by yearend.



The SBC FreedomLink Wi-Fi network encompasses more than 2,300 hot spots nationwide including airports, hotels, coffee shops and The UPS Store and MailBoxes Etc. locations. SBC said it plans to make more than 20,000 Wi-Fi hot spots available to its FreedomLink customers by the end of 2006. It is also working with Cingular Wireless to use Wi-Fi and Cingular's wireless network to deliver enhanced coverage. http://www.sprint.comhttp://www.sbc.com

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European Broadcasting Union Streams Olympic Video via Akamai

Akamai Technologies announced that its global streaming network was utilized by leading broadcasters throughout Europe for the delivery of live and archived footage of the Athens 2004 Olympic Game. The video content was made available on the broadcasters' respective Web sites.



The agreement between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the EBU marked the first time in Olympics history that live Internet streaming of the Games to European end users was authorized by the IOC. To adhere to syndication guidelines set forth by the IOC for the online streaming of the Olympic Games, content was directed to authorized subscribers in each country or region. Akamai's geo-location technologies, and integration with leading content security provider Entriq, help enable EBU broadcasters to avoid violation of these acquired rights.



European broadcasters using the streaming included ARD, ZDF in Germany, Canal+ in France, SVT in Sweden, DR Denmark, and SRG in Switzerland, to name a few. http://www.akamai.comhttp://www.entriq.com

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Telewest Takes Aim at "Capped" DSL Services

Telewest, a provider of cable modem services in the U.K., is predicting that new budget broadband services from the likes of BT and Wanadoo will be a disappointment to consumers. Telewest argues that the lower cost, higher speed DSL services are made possible by imposing harsh usage caps on customers.



Eric Tveter, president and chief operating officer at Telewest Broadband, said "a low-cost 1Mbps service with a 1Gb or 2Gb monthly cap defeats the whole point of faster broadband.



Telewest said it recently increased the speed of its blueyonder broadband services by 50%, at no extra cost and with no usage restrictions. http://mediacentre.telewest.co.uk

• Telewest added 72,000 broadband customers in Q2, giving it a total of 538,000 subscribers.

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U.S. Court Dismisses VeriSign's Anti-Trust Claim Against ICANN

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has issued an order dismissing VeriSign's anti-trust claims against ICANN, the organization responsible for coordinating the Internet's root server system management, IP address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top- Level Domain name system management.



The court tossed out VeriSign's anti-trust claims and held that VeriSign has not alleged and cannot allege that the "co-conspirators" named by VeriSign controlled ICANN's board. The court also held that VeriSign has not alleged and cannot allege (based upon the ICANN Bylaws) that those Supporting Organizations within ICANN's structure that include VeriSign competitors dominate ICANN's board.



ICANN said the ruling provides "another important affirmation of ICANN's multi-stakeholder participatory model."http://www.icann.org/

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SupportSoft Rolls Out Broadband Service Automation Suite for Japan

SupportSoft is rolling out a localized version of its Service Automation Suite for Broadband for the Japanese market. The Service Automation Suite for Broadband is designed to help digital service providers deliver real-time self-service and assisted service to their broadband customers. SupportSoft provides for ongoing, automated resolution of customer service issues related to use of the customer's broadband connection. http://www.supportsoft.com/

• SupportSoft's broadband service automation software is being used by 6 of the top 8 North American digital service providers.

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Hong Kong's PCCW Gains Momentum with TV/DSL

PCCW, the incumbent operator in Hong Kong, said now Broadband TV, it's a la carte pay-TV service for broadband subscribers, has achieved "critical mass", with over 316,000 customers (or nearly half of its major competitor's customer base) signing up by the end of June 2004, less than one year after launch.



Now Broadband TV, which launched in September 2003, has since gained exclusive Hong Kong rights to broadcast ESPN and Star Sports. The company is also creating an exclusive 24-Hour Cantonese news channel.



Overall, PCCW reported a total of 753,000 broadband subscribers in Hong Kong as of the end of Q2, up by 20% over last year.



At the same time, the introduction of New Generation Fixed Line (NGFL) service has significantly improved customer retention rates in PCCW's core telephony business. The NGFL service, launched in July 2003, now has 849,000 lines signed up as of June 30, 2004. This has slowed average net monthly line loss by more than 60% since first half 2003 and helped boost customer retention in a fiercely competitive market, that has been liberalized since 1995.



PCCW also noted that over the past year it has been successful in litigating against Hong Kong regulators over what it considers to be unfair restrictions on the company's ability to compete in the fixed-line market.

As part of its quarterly financial report, PCCW said revenue for its Telecommunications Services division fell 11% in the first half to HK$7.496 billion (US$ 961 million) from HK$8.386 billion (US$1.075 billion) a year earlier, due to competition from other fixed-line operators and wireless telecommunications services. http://www.pccw.com

• PCCW's New Generation fixed-line services use "big-screen" phones to support information services such as SMS to other fixed-line phones and mobiles.

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