QUALCOMM Increases Financial Guidance

QUALCOMM increased its financial guidance for its fourth fiscal quarter and the fiscal year ending September 26, 2004, saying it now expects quarterly revenues excluding the QUALCOMM Strategic Initiatives (QSI) segment to increase 60-62% year-over-year and increase approximately 4-5% sequentially. The company is now expecting diluted earnings per share excluding the QSI segment of approximately $0.28-$0.30 in the fourth fiscal quarter, compared to a prior estimate of $0.27-$0.29 and to $0.14 in the year ago quarter. QUALCOMM also anticipates that total QUALCOMM revenues in the fourth fiscal quarter will increase by 60-62% year over year and increase approximately 4-5% sequentially. Total QUALCOMM diluted earnings per share are expected to be approximately $0.28-$0.30 in the fourth fiscal quarter, compared to a prior estimate of $0.26-$0.28, including an estimated $0.01 loss per share attributable to the QSI segment.



"The 3G CDMA market continues to grow at a rapid pace," said Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, Chairman and CEO of QUALCOMM. "Data services and advanced features, including multi-player games, positioning, photo messaging, music and video downloads, are proving very popular where offered, increasing average revenue per subscriber and driving phone upgrades."http://www.qualcomm.com

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UK Regulator Announces Wireless Spectrum Proposals

Ofcom, the official telecom regulator for the U.K., announced proposals for more flexible wireless spectrum licensing. Whereas regulators have traditionally adopted a ‘command and control' approach in dictating wireless license terms, Ofcom said it proposes to introduce greater flexibility by reducing restrictions on type of use. Under the proposals, which are subject to public consultation, three key license types -- Business Radio, Fixed Wireless Access and Fixed Wireless Services -- will be addressed as a priority. Holders of these license types could benefit from these changes before the end of 2004.



Ofcom's latest proposals are part of its wider policy to reduce the role of the regulator and give more responsibility to the market for deciding how spectrum should be used. However, various measures would enable the regulator to maintain control over interference to avoid disruption to services.



The closing date for responses to the consultation is 12th November 2004. http://www.ofcom.org.uk

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Digital Television Exceeds 55% in the U.K.

As of 30 June 2004, digital television penetration had increased to 55% of UK households, up from 53% from the previous quarter, according to Ofcom, the official market regulator. A further 4% of households subscribed to analogue cable during the quarter, bringing the total number of households receiving some form of multi-channel television to over 59%.



Key trends include:

• By 30 June 2004, digital television penetration increased to 13,704,459. This represents an increase in overall penetration of 2.4%, with an additional 630,000 households adopting digital television during the quarter.



• Freeview (Digital Terrestrial Television) uptake increased by 12.1%, with the total number of households receiving Freeview at the end of June estimated to be nearly four million (3,889,000) households.



• Sky's UK subscriber base continued to grow, adding 76,000 subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total number of subscribers to over seven million (7,032,000).



• The total number of subscribers to cable television (both digital and analogue) has increased by 24,000 and is now around 3.36 million, of which digital cable accounts for almost 2.47 million.

The total number of free-to-view digital homes is now almost 4.2 million, an increase of 13.4% from the previous quarter. This figure comprises the number of viewers using Freeview, those using satellite 'Solus' cards and ex-Sky subscribers, who continue to use their satellite box for viewing free-to-view channels. http://www.ofcom.org.uk

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EchoStar Chooses Not to Expand Qwest Partnership

EchoStar Communications (DISH) announced that it has elected not to pursue expansion of its marketing relationship with Qwest. Instead, EchoStar will seek to expand relationships with current and future telecommunication partners that focus on meeting customer demand for single-bill, bundled services. The company said that it would continue to honor its current, year-old relationship with Qwest, in which Qwest has agreed to sell DISH Network satellite TV service to Qwest's customers through the end of the multi-year contract.



"We have recently formed several other partnerships with telecommunication companies that have demonstrated significant financial commitment and a desire for long-term partnership that provides beneficial bundled service for our joint customers," said Nolan Daines, senior vice president, Alliance Management Group, the broadband division of EchoStar. http://www.dishnetwork.com

• In July 2003, Qwest Communications announced strategic marketing agreements with Echostar and DIRECTV.



• EchoStar's announced telco partners include SBC Communications, CenturyTel, and Sprint's Local Telephone Division.



• EchoStar's DISH satellite service serves more than 10.1 million satellite TV customers across the U.S.

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Alcatel Selected for Triple Play in Russia

Sistema JFSC, the largest private non-natural resource-based corporation in Russia, awarded a contract valued at EUR 5 million to Alcatel to build a platform for the delivery of advanced multimedia services to Sistema's residential customers. Under the contract, Alcatel will deliver to Sistema Mass Media, Sistema's media arm, its fully integrated Open Media Suite, which is a middleware solution for delivery of rich media in a triple play service mix. Additionally, Alcatel will provide integration, customization and installation services. Sistema is targeting a mass-market commercial launch for early 2005 in Moscow over a broadband IP infrastructure.



Alcatel's Open Media Suite hardware/software solution encompasses user interface
customization, integration with third party equipment such as set top boxes and digital video head ends, as well as the facilitation of negotiations with content owners and suppliers. Products include the 5950 Open Media Platform and Applications and the 5959 Open Media Content Management and Delivery system, including the 5959 Open Video Server. http://www.alcatel.comhttp://www.sistema.ru

• Sistema JSFC actively manages a portfolio of direct investments in areas including telecommunications (Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS), Comstar United Telesystems and others), technology (NIIME and MIKRON, STROM telecom, Sitronics), insurance (ROSNO), real estate (Sistema-Hals), retail (Detsky Mir Group) travel services (Intourist), finance and securities (MBRD), and others.

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Cedar Point Hires a Cable TV Pioneer

Cedar Point Communications has hired Gordy Halverson as an Executive Advisor. Halverson, a veteran of 35 years in the cable industry, holds a distinguished management portfolio that includes positions as CEO of Telewire Supply and executive vice president, sales for Arris.
Halverson also currently holds a seat on the Board of CablePac, which funds lobbying efforts for the cable industry.



Cedar Point's SAFARI C³ platform is an integrated carrier class VoIP switch that incorporates all of the components that make up the PacketCable voice switching infrastructure. http://www.cedarpointcom.com

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MERA Unveils High Capacity Session Controller Solution

MERA Systems announced the availability of its new fully distributed session controller architecture designed for large telcos such as Tier 1, major national and international carriers.



The MERA MVTS session controller consists of several interconnected signaling and media servers. The signaling servers share a single routing table and can therefore efficiently manage VoIP traffic throughout the entire network, irrespective of their physical location.



MERA said the clustered architecture of its session controller allows a capacity increase up to 40, 000 concurrent calls. The solution scales by adding extra servers. Along with regular backup redundancy, MERA's distributed session controller is "redundant in itself". Every signaling server is backed up by all the other signaling severs, and the same goes for media servers. In addition, MERA's signaling servers perform real-time bandwidth mapping and allocation, and send media flows across channels with better bandwidth, thus providing for greater service availability and customer-centric QoS policies.



Infotel Communication S.p.A., an Italy-based VoIP carrier, has deployed the MERA MVTS session controller with distributed architecture in its nationwide VoIP network for delivery of real-time voice services in Italy and abroad. MERA's cluster at Infotel Communication is composed of the MVTS signaling server and two media servers deployed in Milan, and handles VoIP traffic from 12 POPs in Italy and Europe, over 20 Tier 1 and Tier 2 international carriers, and a network of resellers and phone shops. All signaling flows are concentrated by the MVTS signaling server, which distributes calls between the media servers. With this architecture, media information does not have to follow the signaling flows, thus offloading the signaling server for higher traffic throughput.

http://www.mera-voip.com

• MERA Systems is based in Moscow, Russia and has offices in Canada.

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Alcatel to Sell its Electrical Power System Activities to Ripplewood

Alcatel will divest all of its electrical power system activities to Ripplewood, a global private equity firm. Financial details of the transaction are not disclosed.



Alcatel's power systems activities are comprised of the AEG SVS Power Supply Systems, Alcatel Converters, Harmer & Simmons and Saft Power Systems business lines. They offer a ranges of services, systems and products (power systems, uninterruptible power supplies, power controllers, converters?) to diverse end-markets, such as transportation, energy and water, industries and telecommunications. Alcatel's power system activities employ approximately 1300 people in 16 countries and had approximately EUR 220 million in sales in 2003. http://www.alcatel.com

• Ripplewood is a global private equity firm that manages approximately $4 billion of private equity commitments, focusing primarily on investments in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Since it was founded in 1995, Ripplewood has invested over $2 billion in 20 platform companies in multiple industries, including automotive, consumer electronics, direct marketing, financial services, consumer products, entertainment, specialty chemicals, and telecom services.

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Alcatel Acquires eDial for Advanced Conferencing

Alcatel acquired eDial, a start-up providing conferencing and collaboration solutions for enterprises and service providers, for approximately $27 million (approx. EUR 22 million) in Alcatel stock (ADS) and cash.



eDial's product portfolio includes a SIP-based platform and applications for conferencing for voice, data and video. It also provides a solution for real time collaboration that integrates instant messaging, application sharing and presence capabilities.



eDial currently serves more than 100 customers through direct and indirect channels.



Alcatel said eDial's software will provide key capabilities for its OmniTouch Unified Communication software-based conferencing application, called My Teamwork. eDial's technology also will provide a common platform for conferencing solutions from across Alcatel and will serve as a technology foundation for solutions resulting from Alcatel's recently launched Unified Interaction Management (UIM) software initiative, which will focus on real-time communications and collaboration. http://www.alcatel.com

• eDial is based in Waltham, Mass. And employs approximately 30 people.



• In July 2004, eDial released an updated version of its Advanced Communications Server, which is a secure SIP-based feature server that provides control, management and reporting of enhanced telephone communications. With the latest version 5.0 of the eDial Advanced Communications Server, service providers will be able to increase the platform's stacking capability to handle over 900 simultaneous calls within a single network, and over 10,000 users. The platform can be used for control, management and reporting of enhanced telephone communications including mixtures of two-party calls, conferences and broadcasts, PSTN and IP telephones and networks, and audio and web conferencing with instant messaging and presence. The latest version is targeted at service providers, major enterprises, and systems integrators.

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Alcatel to Acquire Spatial Wireless for Mobile Softswitch

Alcatel agreed to acquire Spatial Wireless, a start-up offering software-based and multi-standard distributed mobile switching solutions, for approximately US$250 million (approx. EUR 205 million) in Alcatel American Depositary Shares (ADS).



Spatial's flagship product, Spatial Atrium, is a multi-standard mobile softswitch that controls distributed media gateways and manages call/session control for voice and data services. It works seamlessly in GSM/EDGE, 3G/UMTS and CDMA networks. It also enables an evolution to 3GPP Release 5 and Release 6 networks via software-only upgrades. The company said that its network architecture allows a mobile operator to invest in only a few Mobile Call Servers spread though a limited number of centralized control sites located in its largest traffic zones, while having a larger number of lower-cost Media Gateways located close to the access network to switch the traffic locally. Spatial's distributed solution is in commercial use and in market trials, with major GSM and CDMA operators in the world, in particular in North America, China, and India - with over one million ports deployed in 2004.



Alcatel said the acquisition enables it to "leapfrog traditional mobile switching technologies with a commercially-available Next-Generation Networks (NGN) solution, designed and ready for IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS)."http://www.alcatel.comhttp://www.spatialwireless.com

• Spatial Wireless is based in Richardson, Texas and has offices in India. The company has 225 employees.



• In March 2004, Alcatel announced an OEM agreement to deliver Spatial Wireless' Distributed Mobile Switching Center (DMSC) solutions as part of the Alcatel Evolium mobile infrastructure portfolio for North America.



• The Spatial Atrium DMSC solution operates in a distributed call server connected to a media gateway, managed by an element management system. It offers high capacity, multi-protocol core switch and services innovation that supports DMSC solutions. Furthermore, it allows network overlay deployments for Gateway Mobile Switching Center and network services solutions for GSM and UMTS networks.

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