FLAG Telecom Supplies GigE Circuit for Yahoo! Korea

Yahoo! Korea selected FLAG Telecom to provide trans-continental connectivity and intra-Asia advanced services across the FLAG Telecom global network. As part of the project, FLAG configured its Global Ethernet Service to optimize high speed access to international content via servers on both continents. User authentication was configured as a point to point service, traversing FLAG's wholly owned backbone network via a dedicated, secure Gigabit circuit. FLAG Telecom said this configuration enables authentication to be conducted in seconds. Customers are not aware that authentication is taking place on another continent and do not suffer any unnecessary delay in accessing their accounts and other Yahoo! services.



FLAG's IP network benefits from a single AS number and sits on FLAG's self-managed global backbone,http://www.flagtelecom.com

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Venezuela's CANTV Signs 5-Year Deal with Alcatel

CANTV, the principal operator in Venezuela and a subsidiary of Verizon, signed a five-year deal with Alcatel covering DSL and digital loop carrier (DLC) access technologies, as well as SDH and DWDM transmission systems. The collaboration between CANTV and Alcatel, which began with the supply of 100,000 DSL lines. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.alcatel.com

• CANTV has somet 2.9 million access lines in service, more than 2.8 million cellular subscribers and more than 282,000 Internet access subscribers, as of 30-June-2004.

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IFX Selects Alcatel for High Density DSL in Chile

IFX Networks, an international service provider with operations in 9 Latin American countries, selected Alcatel for a DSL project involving 12 central offices in Santiago and in the 9 main regions of Chile. Alcatel will supply the XD (eXtreme Density) version of the Alcatel 7300 ASAM with ATM and Ethernet based uplinks. Financial terms were not disclosed.



IFX commercializes its turnkey network access solutions and value added services to local, regional and international corporate customershttp://www.alcatel.comhttp://www.ifxnetworks.com

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BMW Selects Cisco for IP Corporate Net in Spain

BMW Group España selected a complete Cisco IP Communications solution for its new headquarters in Madrid serving 500 employees and external partners. Cisco's IP Contact Centre solution will be used by 80 agents, who will be able to access customer profiles, information on BMW salesrooms and other vital information over their phones. As part of the project, Cisco is deploying Catalyst 6500 & 2950 series switches, with IP telephony solutions supported by the Cisco 3700 series router, Call Manager 3.3, and close to 500 IP Phones. Unified messaging is provided by Cisco Unity for all the users. The Contact Centre solutions include IPCC Enterprise Edition and IPIVR. BMW also opted for a Cisco PIX 515-FO security solution. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.cisco.com

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Lucent Forms Government Advisory Board

Lucent Technologies has formed a Government Advisory Board to guide its sales in the federal market. The board consists of former senior U.S. Government officials and policy makers, including:

• Ruth A. David, president and chief executive officer of ANSER, an independent, not-for-profit, public-service research institution that provides research and analytic support on national and transnational issues. Dr. David also served as Deputy Director for Science and Technology at the Central Intelligence Agency.



• Tillie K. Fowler, a partner in the Washington, DC office of Holland & Knight where she serves as chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, which advises the Secretary of Defense on issues central to strategic planning initiatives. Ms. Fowler also served a distinguished eight-year tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives where she served as the Vice Chairman of the Republican Conference.



• Lt. General John S. Fairfield, director of the Strategic Business Relationship Team at IBM. Gen Fairfield previously was a vice president, Strategic Market Integration, Sales and Marketing, Federal Sector at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and, vice president, Strategic Development and Integration at DynCorp before its acquisition by CSC. Gen Fairfield retired from the Air Force in January 1997 as deputy chief of staff, Communications and Information.



• James S. Gilmore, III, former Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia currently is a practicing attorney at the Washington, DC-based firm, Kelley Drye and Warren where he is the Chairman of the Homeland Security Practice Group.



• John J. Hamre, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) since January 2000. Prior to CSIS, he served as U.S. deputy secretary of defense and under secretary of defense (comptroller), where he was the principal assistant to the secretary of defense for the preparation, presentation, and execution of the defense budget.



• William Schneider, Jr., president of International Planning Services, Inc., an international trade and finance advisory firm, and an Adjunct Fellow of the Hudson Institute. Dr. Schneider currently is the Chairman of the Defense Science Board in the U.S. Department of Defense.



• John Stenbit, recently retired as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I), Mr. Stenbit also served as Assistant Secretary of Defense of the C3I successor organization, Networks and Information Integration / Department of Defense Chief Information Officer.



• Charles E. Wilhelm, vice president and director of the Office of Homeland Security at Battelle Science & Technology, International. A retired four-star Marine Corps general, Gen. Wilhelm most recently served as Commander of the United States Southern Command where he was responsible for all U.S. military activities with the 32 nations of the Caribbean and Central and South America.

http://www.lucent.com

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Cegelec/Lucent Supply Optical Network for Oil Well Project

Cegelec, a Lucent business partner, has been selected by the Technip group to supply an active transmission network for controlling and managing oil wells in Abu Dhabi. Technip is a French company providing engineering, technology and project management in the field of oil and gas, petrochemicals and other industries. The project involves the addition of some 49 new nodes over an existing optical infrastructure. Lucent will provide its Metropolis AMS and incorporated TransLAN Ethernet cards. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.lucent.com

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AOI Announces Tunable Laser Patents

Applied Optoelectronics (AOI), a manufacturer of laser diodes, photodetectors, and optical modules, announced the issuance of four new U.S. patents relating to a variety of unique designs for tunable lasers. With the addition of these patents, AOI's 29 issued patents now include ten related to tunable laser technology, some of which involve external-cavity laser technology. http://www.ao-inc.com

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Nokia and NEC Complete IMS Testing

Nokia and NEC completed the first phase interoperability testing between the two companies' IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS). The testing program verified the functionality of major IMS features over an IP network connecting Europe and Japan. During the tests, Nokia and NEC established sessions for VoIP as well as transferred instant messages between test terminals.



Standardized in 3GPP Release 5, IMS is designed to allow service access and interoperability between operators and vendors. The companies said the success of these trials has shown that the industry's long IMS standardization efforts are starting to bear fruit as IMS standards are now mature enough for compatible implementation by different vendors. This points the way to the commercial introduction of advanced real-time and near real-time multimedia services. http://www.nokia.comhttp://www.nec.com

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AT&T Enhances CallVantage VoIP Service

AT&T announced another round of new feature enhancements for its CallVantage VoIP over broadband service. New features include a "Simple Reach Number" capability that enables subscribers to have up to nine additional telephone numbers for their service in any available area code. For example, customers can choose numbers with area codes where they have out-of-town friends and family so that these geographically distant people may call without incurring long distance charges. Likewise, home office workers can set up numbers with area codes near their office or in markets close to key customers establishing a local presence and saving their customers long-distance fees. There is a monthly charge of $4.95 for each Simple Reach Number.



The company also introduced today additional service enhancements that include:

• "International Call Blocking /Shut Off," will provide the ability to block or unblock outbound international calls to those locations where a per-minute fee would be assessed;



• "International Calls in Call Log," tracks all international placed and received calls to create a complete record of all usage;



• "Caller ID/International Update," now delivers Caller ID information, where available, on all international calls;



• "Caller ID Name from Phone Book," that allows even further personalization of the service by displaying the personalized or referred name from the phone book as the Caller ID name for in-coming calls.

http://www.att.com

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Iceland Telecom Selects NetCentrex for VoIP

Iceland Telecom has selected NetCentrex' Business Services Suite for deployment of IP-based telephony services for the corporate market and is planning trials of NetCentrex' MyCall solution for residential broadband IP telephony services.



Trials of the new offer are scheduled to begin in November 2004, with the launch of commercial services planned in the beginning of 2005. Iceland Telecom has also acquired NetCentrex' MyCall(R) solution for trials of residential broadband IP telephony services which would form part of a 2nd stage Triple Play offer. Iceland Telecom will operate both the enterprise and residential services on the same NetCentrex' platform. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.netcentrex.nethttp://www.siminn.is/english

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Verizon Signs TV Exec to Guide Video Projects

Verizon Communications hired Terry Denson, former vice president of programming for Insight Communications, the ninth-largest cable operator in the country, to manage entertainment content and marketing strategies. As vice president of video programming and content marketing and strategy for Verizon, Denson will guide video product packaging, pricing and marketing strategies; video content acquisition and distribution agreements; and customer education, acquisition and retention planning.



"As we push to take advantage of the delivery capabilities of our broadband services, Terry will broaden our insights and refine our strategies to leverage, via programming and packaging, the services we provide, be they traditional or non-traditional, including TV over Internet protocol," said Marilyn O'Connell, senior vice president of broadband solutions for Verizon.



Verizon has begun an aggressive program to deliver broadband services over optical fiber directly to homes and businesses, and expects to pass 1 million homes by year-end and an additional 2 million homes next year. http://www.verizon.com/news.

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iBasis Enters Retail Channel for Prepaid Long Distance

iBasis, a wholesale carrier of international long distance voice traffic, is entering the retail business with a prepaid calling service offered directly to consumers through an eCommerce website. The iBasis "Pingo: service utilizes the same global VoIP infrastructure iBasis uses to provide international long distance service to its wholesale carrier customers.



"Almost 40% of international phone calls from the U.S. are placed using prepaid calling services today," said Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis. http://www.ibasis.comhttp://www.pingo.com

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CinemaNow Adds Sony Pictures to its Movie Library

CinemaNow announced an agreement with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) enabling its to add Sony content to its online movie library. Under the deal, CinemaNow will offer Sony's new release films the same day they become available in their traditional pay-per-view window along with previously released movies from Sony's vast film library. Pricing is set at $3.99 for first-run films and $2.99 for library titles.



In addition to Sony, CinemaNow's film suppliers include Disney, Fox, Lions Gate, MGM, Miramax and Warner Bros., and hundreds of independent studios. More than 2,000 motion pictures are currently available on CinemaNow.com. http://www.cinemanow.com

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