China's Telecom Market Expands 13% in 1H 04

China's telecommunication and post service revenue reached US$35 billion (RMB 289 billion) as of the end of June 2004, an increase of 13% compared with 2003, according to China's Ministry of Information Industry.


Total fixed-line users now total 295 million, up by 68 million over a year earlier.


Total cell phone users reached 305 million, up by 35.3 million. http://www.mii.gov.cn

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Megapath Networks Upgrades with Redback SmartEdge

MegaPath Networks, a service provider based in Pleasanton, California, is augmenting its existing Redback SMS systems with next-generation Redback SmartEdge Service Gateway systems to accommodate its growth and its plans to offer advanced services. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Megapath serves some18,000 customers including small businesses and distributed enterprises with a range of managed access, VPN and security services. http://www.redback.com

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Amedia and Riverstone Team on Integrated Ethernet Solutions

Amedia Networks has entered into a non-exclusive co-marketing agreement with Riverstone Networks to pursue opportunities in the delivery of an integrated Ethernet solution to network providers. Amedia offers Ethernet solutions for the FTTP market. The companies are performing interoperability tests to assure that Riverstone's core Ethernet switches seamlessly and effectively interconnect with Amedia's QoStream AS5000 Aggregator Switch and QoStream PG1000 Premises Gateway. The company also plan joint marketing activities and joint sales efforts. http://www.amedianetworks.comhttp://www.riverstonet.com

• In June 2004, Amedia Networks, formerly TTR Technologies, unveiled an active Ethernet-based Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) access solution. The company's Ethernet Switched Optical Network (ESON) technology, which was licensed from and jointly developed with Lucent Bell Labs, provides QoS mechanisms for delivering triple play services at up to 100 Mbps bandwidth per subscriber.

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Asia Netcom Upgrades Tokyo Network with DWDM

Asia Netcom will migrate its current leased network platform to a new wholly-owned DWDM network. The upgrade is expected to be completed by January 2005. Asia Netcom currently operates five PoPs in Tokyo. The new network will link to Asia Netcom's national backbone connecting, Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. It will also connect with EAC -- the company's wholly-owned 19,500km regional submarine cable system connecting Japan with Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore and soon China through a planned extension to Qingdao.


Asia Netcom already offers customers ATM, FR, subrate IPL, subrate voice and carrier voice solutions. The new DWDM connection enables core network connectivity and additional services, including a full suite of IP-based solutions and collocation service.


Asia Netcom said its new DWDM-based Tokyo MAN will also serve as a foundation for a truly next generation network featuring GMPLS. http://www.asianetcom.com

• In February 2004, China Netcom acquired full control of Asia Netcom, a company founded in March 2003 by a consortium lead by CNC which included Newbridge Capital and Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund.

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Huawei Announces US$400 million in African Contracts

Huawei Technologies announced US$400 million in networking contracts from the incumbent telecom operators in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.


Kenya's biggest mobile operator, SAFARICOM, selected Huawei for a US$34 million project to reconstruct and update its Intelligent Network.


Zimbabwe's state-owned fixed-line operator TEL*ONE and mobile operator NET*ONE awarded contracts to Huawei valued at US$288 million and US$40 million, respectively.


Huawei will provide network expansion and optimization solutions to TEL*ONE, which include switches, a national transmission backbone, CDMA equipment, and other Intelligent Network and data communications products. In the project with NET*ONE, Huawei will provide GSM equipment and services, expanding on the existing 170,000 lines of GSM that Huawei provided early this year.


Nigeria's second large mobile operator, Vmobile, selected Huawei to provide GSM base stations worth US$80 million. Vmobile plans to deploy GSM wireless equipment across 15 of the 36 Nigerian states. Huawei is also an equipment supplier for Nigeria's largest mobile operator, MTNhttp://www.huawei.com

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China Mobile Deploys Huawei's Softswitch

China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in the world, has activated the first four domains in its toll tandem network using Huawei's softswitch. China Mobile's tandem network connects 31 provinces, representing more than 31,000 E1s of capacity. The carrier has adopted dynamic voice coding/decoding technology in toll tandem network and implemented dual homing technology for the softswitches for disaster recovery.


China Mobile has also implemented Huawei's softswitch for the local exchange serving 400,000 lines in Hunan province.


Huawei noted that its mobile softswitch has been deployed abroad in multiple GSM networks. In UMTS, Huawei reports more than 30 commercial or trial networks are using its mobile softswitch, including ETISALAT in UAE, SUNDAY in HK, EMTEL in Mauritius, TM in Malaysia and in Tunis.

. http://www.huawei.com

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Entone to Launch Hydra IP Video Gateway

Entone Technologies announced its "Hydra" multi-television IP Video Gateway, which is able to support up to three simultaneous television streams and broadband Internet access over existing residential coaxial cabling. Whereas previous generations of IP set-top boxes required a separate box for each television in the home, Hydra is a single gateway device that can be shared by up to six televisions with any three of them receiving independent, simultaneous video streams. Video delivery within the home takes place over existing coaxial cabling. Entone is providing network interfaces for both ADSL2+ and FTTH/Ethernet deployments.


The gateway can also recognize signaling for telephone features, such as caller ID and call waiting, enabling these to be displayed on a TV screen. Entone is also supporting conditional access solutions--such as integrating DVB/DES descrambling which protects against service theft. http://www.entone.com

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Teknovus Raises $9 Million for Broadband Chips

Teknovus, a start-up based in Petaluma, California, raised $9 million in Series B funding for its broadband-access chipsets. Teknovus is currently shipping in volume its fourth-generation EPON chipset designed for triple-play deployments.


The funding round was led by Samsung America Ventures and Mitsubishi Corporation, with participation from SUIT Growth Fund and current investors Partech International, U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), and Portview Communications. Teknovus will use this new funding to expand global operations and move to the next level of technology required for EPONhttp://www.teknovus.com

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Force10 Cites Inroads in Super Computing Market

Force10 Networks announced that its E-Series switch/routers power four of the top 15 fastest supercomputers in the world, including one of the top five. As with most technology, research environments and national laboratories were early adopters of supercomputing technology. Among the leading research institutions that are leveraging the power of supercomputers, the Texas Advanced Computing Center (40), the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (10 and 22) and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (62) have deployed the E-Series to increase computational speeds. The company cited additional super computer deployments by government organizations and data-intensive industries, such as the oil and gas sector.


The Top500 project tracks in high performance computing. http://www.force10networks.comhttp://www.top500.org

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Ericsson Receives Contract Extension from T-Mobile USA

T-Mobile USA has extended an existing agreement with Ericsson to expand and upgrade the operator's wireless network. Specifically, Ericsson will provide GSM 1900 MHz wireless network equipment and network deployment, system integration and support services in 18 strategic T-Mobile USA markets -- including Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. -- in which Ericsson equipment is already installed. The agreement covers products from Ericsson's radio access, microwave transmission, Prepaid and Multimedia Messaging Service. T-Mobile USA also will realize increased radio access capacity and improved quality across the Ericsson footprint through Radio Optimization services and the deployment of Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) technology. Deliveries will begin immediately. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.ericsson.com

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Union Files Protest at T-Mobile USA

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) published a protest announcement aimed at Deutsche Telekom, accusing the firm of having a double standard by being a labor-friendly enterprise at home and an anti-union employer when it thinks it can get away with it in another country -- in this case the United States. The complaint involves layoffs associated with T-Mobile USA's acquisition of Cingular's network in California. The union cited T-Mobile's decision to fire 100 unionized technicians while keeping management employees. Cingular was forced to sell the California network to gain regulatory approval of its merger with AT&T Wireless. http://www.cwa-union.org/

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Consolidated Communications Plans Triple Play with Tut

Consolidated Communications, the nation's 15th largest telecommunications provider, has selected Tut Systems' Astria digital headend solution to deliver digital TV over its DSL and FTTH networks for its recently announced Consolidated Digital Video Service (DVS). Consolidated will deliver a triple play of voice, video and data services to customers in central Illinois. Based in Mattoon, IL, Consolidated Communications, Inc. is a family of companies managing more than 250,000 customer access lines throughout Illinois and Texas. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Consolidated DVS will consist of over 200 channels, including national broadcast and premium TV, local channels, 45 digital music channels, and a number of Pay Per View channels. The company's digital entertainment service completes a triple play that includes unlimited local telephone and high-speed Internet services for residential customers. Consolidated will offer customers special savings when they select a bundled package that includes digital TV, high-speed Internet, and local service. http://www.tutsys.com/http://www.consolidated.com/

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Best Buy Deploys Cisco Aironet Wireless LAN

Best Buy, North America's number one electronics retailer, has successfully deployed wireless networks across its Minneapolis-based corporate campus and in its more than 640 retail stores. The deployment uses Cisco Aironet 1200 Series Access Points, CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solution Engine and Cisco Compatible Business Notebooks from HP. The campus in Minneapolis includes more than 1,000 Cisco Aironet 1200 Series Access Points in strategic locations inside the 42.5 acre facility. The companies said approximately 60% of Best Buy's 5,000 corporate employees now take advantage of the Wi-Fi network in a variety of offices, conference rooms and common areas. http://www.cisco.com

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China Telecom Selects Cisco for CN2 Business Network

China Telecom selected Cisco Systems as the primary equipment provider for the business network portion of its next generation IP network, also known as ChinaNet Next Carrying Network or CN2. The network will connect more than 200 cities and provide premium services to corporate customers nationwide. Cisco also will provide equipment for the backbone network in Jiangsu, Hubei, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. In the past 6 months, China Telecom has awarded contracts valued at more than US$100 million to Cisco.


The CN2 business network will deploy Cisco 12000 Series routers, providing MPLS VPN services and serving as a platform for future metropolitan-area-network deployments. It will interconnect with ChinaNet's overseas POPs, which use the Cisco ONS 15454 platform in the United States and Hong Kong. http://www.cisco.com

• In October 2004, China Telecom selected Lucent Technologies for upgrades to its national optical backbone network. Under the project, Lucent will provide its WaveStar OLS 1.6T high-capacity DWDM system to build a transmission network spanning over 2,400 kilometers across China. The contracts were awarded as part of China Telecom's National Transmission Backbone Expansion Project.



• In September 2004, it was announced that China Telecom will deploy Nortel Networks Optical Long Haul 1600 Optical Line Systems to expand its optical backbone networks in the cities of Wuhan, Guangzhou, Changsha, Fuzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Hefei, Chongqing, and Chengdu. The expansion, scheduled for completion by the end of 2004, will boost transmission capacity to approximately 10 Gbps x 30 wavelengths. In addition, China Telecom's Shanghai Telecom and Zhejiang Telecom branches will use Nortel Networks Services Edge Router (SER) 5500 to expand their data networks.



• In August 2004, Alcatel Shanghai Bell announced a contract to supply 1.3 million Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) to China Telecom in southern China. The contract covers the deployment of the Alcatel 7300 Advanced Services Access Manager (ASAM) by China Telecom's subsidiaries in 15 provinces and municipalities across southern China such as Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi.

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