NEC and Borland Collaborate on SIP

NEC and Borland Software have formed a partnership aimed at Web-based applications with SIP-based multimedia capabilities. The companies are jointly developing software to enable voice and video communications such as IP telephony and IP video conferencing over online applications, including portal sites and Intranets. The relationship combines NEC's IT/Network integrated solutions using SIP technology with Borland's distributed object technology. NEC plans to launch adaptor software based on this collaboration by the end of this year to the Japanese market, targeting carriers, ISPs, application service providers, enterprises and government bodies. http://www.nec.comhttp://www.borland.com

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Flextronics to Acquire FutureSoft

Flextronics has agreed to acquire FutureSoft, a supplier of communication software for network equipment OEMs, for an undisclosed sum. FutureSoft's product portfolio includes a range of protocol stacks, including LAN, WAN, IP, Internetworking, ATM, Telecom Signaling and Network Management software suites. FutureSoft employs 524 software engineers and is expected to generate about $23 million in revenues for its fiscal year ending March 2005.



FutureSoft is headquartered in Chennai (Madras), India with subsidiaries in the U.S. and the U.K. http://www.futsoft.comhttp://www.flextronics.com

• In June 2004, Flextronics agreed to acquire Hughes Network Systems' entire ownership stake of fifty-five percent (55%) in Hughes Software Systems (HSS), a leading provider of software products and services to telecom infrastructure companies, for a total cash consideration of approximately US$226 million (Rs547 per share). HSS, which is based in India, provides convergent software solutions for fixed and mobile networks for both voice and data. Its products and services span a variety of domains, such as optical networks, wireless networks, satellite networks, switching systems, convergent networks and broadband networks. HSS' product portfolio includes protocol stacks and value-added frameworks and are comprised of licensable technologies focused on Voice over Packet (VoP), SS7, broadband and wireless (GPRS/UMTS) products that provide customers with open architecture solutions.

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Swedish R&D Institute Tests Mintera's 40 Gbps Wavelengths

Acreo, a leading Swedish research and development institute operating the National Broadband Test-bed, is using Mintera's platform to integrate 40 Gbps wavelengths on a 2.5 Gbps line system over 820 km of installed standard single-mode fiber.



The technology trial utilized a fiber link running from Kista in Stockholm to Hudiksvall, north of Stockholm, and back to Kista. Mintera's 40 Gbps terminal plugged into a commercial 2.5/10 Gbps system and simultaneously ran 40 Gbps traffic along with 2.5 Gbps traffic without any modifications to the existing in-line amplifiers, dispersion compensation or optical MUX/DMUX infrastructure. Mintera said a 40 Gbps wavelength was up and running in less than an hour, and error-free performance with 9 dB of margin was measured over the one-week trial period. http://www.mintera.com

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Incumbent Carrier in India Selects Veraz

An incumbent carrier in India has selected Veraz Networks' carrier-class voice compression systems for deployment across domestic and international links. The equipment will be provided with partners HTL Ltd., United Telecoms Limited (UTL) and Priyaraj Electronics Ltd. Veraz's solution includes its own DSP technology, which tailors bandwidth-optimizing features within stringent carrier requirements in any type of network environment.



Veraz recently announced the opening of a Center in Pune, which will further assist with its carrier customer and systems integrator relationships. Further, Veraz is one of the few NGN vendors with a carrier-class packet telephony solution awarded certification from the Indian government's Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC). http://www.veraznetworks.com

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India's VSNL Granted U.S. Telecom License

VSNL America, a local affiliate of India's Tata managed Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, was granted an International Common Carrier 214 License from the FCC to own and manage a U.S. network. The company plans to serve U.S. multinational corporations looking to penetrate key emerging markets such as India. http://www.vsnl.com/)

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University of Utah Selects Sprint for Converged Network

The University of Utah has selected the Sprint IPx communications system portfolio to connect its buildings to a converged communications system. The five-year deal, led by Americom Technology, Inc., will migrate the university's communications system to an IP platform. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.sprint.com/http://www.americomtech.com/

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Wi-Fi Alliance Completes First WPA2 Certification Round

The Wi-Fi Alliance has completed the first product certification round for Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) capability. WPA2 is based on the IEEE 802.11i specification, which was ratified in July, and uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), allowing for compliance with FIPS140-2 government security requirements.



Companies obtaining WPA2 certification for certain products include Atheros Communications, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Gateway, Intel and Realtek. http://www.wi-fi.org

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Hong Kong's PCCW Expands TV/DSL with Tut Systems

PCCW, Hong Kong's incumbent operator, has purchased additional encoding and content processing equipment to expand the channel line-up of its existing Tut Systems digital headend system.



Tut Systems' Astria Content Processor (CP) serves as the core of PCCW's digital headend. As part of the expansion, PCCW purchased Tut Systems' next-generation encoder, as well as additional stream processor cards. An IP set-top box is used to decode the MPEG-2 switched digital video.



The companies said PCCW's growing installed base of TV over DSL subscribers confirms the business case for Telco TV. PCCW's a la carte business model, which empowers consumers to select and pay for only the channels they want, is seen as a major factor in the high penetration rate for the service. PCCW is currently offering more than 50 channels of digital entertainment, including premium sports, news and entertainment channels. http://www.tutsystems.com/

• Last week, PCCW announced that its 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. This makes PCCW one of the world's largest and most successful digital TV deployments over fiber and DSL. PCCW has signed up approximately 30,000 subscribers per month since launching its digital TV service in September of 2003 and anticipates maintaining that pace through the end of 2004.



• 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.

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Level 3 Signs Wholesale VoIP Deal with Lightyear Network Solutions

Level 3 Communications will provide its wholesale VoIP services to Lightyear Network Solutions, a national sales and marketing organization providing telecommunication services and solutions to both commercial and residential customers.



Lightyear purchased Level 3's (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service to support its Lightyear XSTREAM products, a new suite of services that will be sold to residential and business customers through Lightyear's authorized agents and representatives. Lightyear also purchased (3)VoIP Local Inbound service. http://www.Level3.comhttp://www.lightyear.net

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Spain's Al-Pi Deploys NetCentrex for Hosted IP Telephony

Al-Pi Telecommunications, a subsidiary of Uni2 and France Telecom serving the Catalonian region of Spain, has deployed NetCentrex' IPCentrex softswitch to launch "IPhone", a hosted VoIP business communications service. IPhone" enables enterprises to access any voice and data services required for their activities over one single converged network. It also introduces new multimedia applications such as unified messaging, conferencing, and other PC integration applications. A self-care provisioning tool allows enterprises to manage the telephony services for each user and site themselves, including call forward, international access, access codes and directories.



Integration services have been carried out by Satec, NetCentrex' partner in Spain, who also provides support for the solution. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.netcentrex.net

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Communications Workers of America Plan Leadership Change

Morton Bahr, who has served as president of the 700,000-member Communications Workers of America since 1985, will retire at the end of his term one year from now.



CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen was named as Bahr's successor. http://www.cwa-union.org/

• The Communications Workers of America is the largest communications and media union in the U.S. representing over 700,000 workers in both private and public sectors.

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AT&T and Adelphia Enter Residential VoIP Pact

Adelphia Communications, the nation's fifth-largest cable operator, entered into a residential VoIP agreement with AT&T. Under the deal, Adelphia will now serve as AT&T's preferred broadband solution for customers wishing to sign up for AT&T CallVantage Service in areas served by Adelphia. The agreement gives AT&T the ability to facilitate consumer orders for broadband cable service while signing up consumers for AT&T CallVantage Service. Consumers will then receive self-install kits for both services. Customers will also have the option of some professional installation services for an additional fee.



Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. http://www.callvantage.com/

• Last month, AT&T entered into a VoIP marketing agreement with Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs) under which households interested in signing up for AT&T CallVantage Service who do not already have broadband access will be referred to CableLabs' cable system operator members.

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AT&T Expands its IP Based Services in Mexico via Alestra

AT&T and Alestra announced an agreement to extend AT&T's advanced services for multinational companies in Mexico. AT&T will expand the reach of its MPLS network to provide EVPN (Enhanced Virtual Private Lines) and GMIS (Global Managed Internet Service) services, as well as the AT&T international Packet Services family. The companies estimate the annual market potential of such services at US$1 billion.



Alestra's connection to the AT&T Global Network (AGN) expands direct network coverage from 3 to 28 cities in Mexico and increases border crossing coverage with an incremental node in Tijuana. http://www.att.com/

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Marconi Adds 15-way Conferencing to Virtual Presence System

Marconi has enhanced its ViPr Virtual Presence System with new tools for remote video communications, including up to 15-way videoconferencing and improved display of streaming video with larger video presentation windows on the same screen used by conference participants.



Marconi' s ViPr, which was introduced in the fall of 2002, is a SIP-based multiparty desktop video telephony platform offering DVD-quality. It utilizes compression and imaging technologies such as MPEG-2 video, progressive scan HD video and active image processing for high picture quality. The platform eliminates the Multi-point Control Unit (MCU), which the company said is a critical factor in video delay. http://www.marconi.com

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IPv6 Test Scenario Added to GMI 2004 Interoperability Event

The Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF) has added an IPv6 test scenario into its GMI 2004 interoperability event, which is scheduled for next month (October 4 -16) at four carrier test labs: Qwest in the United States, BT in the United Kingdom, NTT in Japan and KT in Korea. The event will test state-of-the-art network elements that are key to supporting a fully integrated VoIP solution such as application servers, media servers, service brokers, call agents, bandwidth managers and other control and management systems against the specific protocols defined in MSF Implementation Agreements (IAs).



The new IPv6 test scenario in the GMI 2004 interoperability event will leverage technology from the North American IPv6 Task Force (NAv6TF) Moonv6 Project. The IPv6 test scenario will include VoIP, video phone, SIP security and QoS over a pure IP network.



Participants in GMI 2004 include Alcatel, BT, Cisco Systems, Convedia, Empirix, Ericsson, ETRI,
FeelingK, Fujitsu, Hitachi, KT, Leapstone, LG Electronics, Marconi, MetaSwitch, Navtel, NCS, Nortel Networks, NTT, Operax, Qwest, Samsung, Siemens, Softfront, Sonus Networks, Spirent Communications, Teledata Networks and Vocal Data. http://www.msforum.org/

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