Level 3 to Extend Comcast's National Fiber Infrastructure

Comcast reached a long-term agreement with Level 3 Communications that provide inter-city and metro dark fiber as part of Comcast's extension of its fiber footprint. Comcast's backbone is principally based on 20-year dark-fiber IRU's (indefeasible rights of use) from Level 3 and other sources. The new agreements currently total over 19,000 route miles, and cover 95% of Comcast's national footprint. The initial cost of the network, including fiber capacity and routing and optical equipment, is expected to involve approximately $100 million of capital....

Read More

Microsoft Xbox Live Traffic Quadruples Following Halo-2 Launch

Microsoft Xbox Live traffic on service provider networks quadrupled following the November 9th launch of Halo-II -- which set entertainment industry records by selling 2.4-million units in the U.S. and Canada on the first day of availability, driving cash register receipts to the $125-million mark. A new study by broadband traffic measurement specialist Sandvine Incorporated shows that these traffic levels are continuing, raising QoS concerns for service providers eager to keep gamers. Halo II, which requires low network latency, makes use of...

Read More

Sprint Awards $3 Billion in Wireless Contracts to Lucent, Motorola and Nortel

Sprint has finalized multiyear wireless services infrastructure build-out agreements totaling approximately $3 billion with Lucent, Motorola and Nortel. Sprint expects to spend about $1 billion of the $3 billion investment total to upgrade its network to EV-DO. The contracts involve new switching and radio hardware and software for cell sites, capacity augmentation, and Sprint's EV-DO (Evolution, Data Optimized) wireless high-speed data network deployment. The contracts also include future 1xEV technology upgrade options. Sprint said the investment...

Read More

Cablevision Surpasses 250,000 Cable VoIP Users, Daily Adds at 1,000

Cablevision Systems is adding more than 1,000 new cable VoIP users per day in its New York metropolitan market. Cablevision's Optimum Voice digital voice- over-cable (VoIP) service has now surpassed the 250,000-customer milestone. Cablevision recently announced that the standard monthly price for Optimum Voice would remain unchanged at $34.95 in 2005. The residential VoIP service, which must be combined with the company's cable modem Internet service, provides unlimited local, regional and long-distance calling across the U.S. and Canada. The...

Read More

Atheros and Digital 5 Collaborate on Wireless Digital Media Adapters

Digital 5, a developer of home content distribution software, is collaborating with Atheros Communications to create a reference design for low-cost, wireless-enabled digital media adapter and DVD player applications. The reference design is capable of wirelessly delivering a content from a Windows PC, media gateway, or Internet connection to a TV or audio system anywhere in the home. The design combines an Atheros 802.11a/b/g chipset with Super AG technology, an advanced digital media processor from ALi Corporation, and multimedia software from...

Read More

Dell, EMC, Intel and Oracle Launch Project MegaGrid

Dell, EMC, Intel and Oracle announced the launch of Project MegaGrid - - an initiative that aims to make it easier to develop a complete enterprise grid computing solution that outperforms traditional offerings at a fraction of the cost. The initial phase of Project MegaGrid is focused on designing, testing and documenting industry standard best practices for building effective enterprise grid computing infrastructures taking into account cost and performance requirements. These practices also include conducting a series of tests for scalability,...

Read More

AboveNet Unveils PushMedia Optical Network for Film Industry

AboveNet launched a new "PushMedia" service aimed at the film and broadcast industries. AboveNet PushMedia Services provide a dedicated, private fiber optic network that directly connects between the major studios and the post-production. AboveNet said it has targeted virtually all of the key contributors in the production chain, including major studios and productions in Burbank, Century City, Culver City, Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley, New York, London, and the San Francisco Bay area. The company estimates that more than 400 major feature...

Read More

AT&T Wins $1 Billion Treasury Department Contract

AT&T Government Solutions and its team of subcontractors have been chosen by the Treasury Department to build and deploy the largest civilian agency network, serving more than 1,000 domestic locations and tens of thousands of users in the U.S. and overseas with an IP VPN. The Treasury Communications Enterprise (TCE) contract calls for three base years and seven one-year options and its value could reach $1 billion. AT&T will build a secure, high-speed IP VPN that converges Treasury's voice, video and data traffic. Using a common Web-based...

Read More

FCC Commissioner Adelstein Sworn In For Full Five-year Term

Jonathan S. Adelstein was sworn in as an FCC commissioner for a new five-year term that expires June 30, 2008. http://www.fcc....

Read More

Infonet Introduces Four New Firewall Services

Infonet Services Corporation introduced new additions to its managed security services portfolio, including four new firewall options and a number of new layered security services to help enterprises eliminate risks resulting from employee use of the Internet. Infonet said its upgraded managed firewall (MFW) security controls are specifically aimed at a new generation of threats caused by employee use of the Internet. These include Instant Message (IM) Control and URL Filtering and Blocking. Infonet is also adding the ability to report on all...

Read More

Voiceglo Expands VoIP Reach to Canada

Voiceglo will begin offering 14 new Canadian area codes for its Glophone service, with numbers for Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec. Voiceglo is also adding 31 new area codes available for cities in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Virginia and Wisconsin. Currently, more than 219 area codes across the United States are available to users worldwide with this expansion. http://www.glophone....

Read More

Spirent Unveils High Density 10 Gigabit Ethernet Test System

Spirent Communications announced the SmartBits 10GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) Test System designed for testing 10GbE wide area equipment and networks. Spirent's SmartBits 10GbE Test System provides detailed testing of WAN/LAN interface Ethernet, IPv4/v6 and MPLS, as well as SONET Frame and other metro network protocols. The system offers a suite of up to 12 ports of 10GbE testing capability in a single chassis. Spirent is also introducing two new modules -- the XFP-3720A and XFP-3721A , both of which provide 10-Gbps wire-rate traffic generation, analysis,...

Read More

Net2phone Reports Revenue of $20.3 Million

Net2phone reported quarterly revenue of $20.3 million, as compared with $21.1 million from the prior quarter, and $20.4 million the same quarter last year. Gross margin of 42% for the quarter. Net loss for the quarter was ($8.2) million compared to a net loss of ($6.3) million in the prior quarter and net income of $5.1 million last year. Last month, Net2Phone announced multi-year production VoIP agreements with Bresnan Communications, Millennium Digital Media, Coditel Belgium, Coditel Luxembourg and EST Videocommunication, representing more than...

Read More

Siemens Mobile Achieves 1 Gbps Over the Air Transmission

The research laboratories of the Siemens Communications Group set a world record for mobile transmission capacity by transferring real time data at the rate of 1 Gbps (1,000 megabits per second), To achieve its record-setting high speed, Siemens combined an "intelligent antenna system" consisting of three transmitting and four receiving antennas with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Multiple antennas simultaneously transmit different flows of data over one and the same radio channel and frequency band. The experimental system...

Read More

New Skies to launch IP Service on NSS-7 Satellite

G2 Satellite Solutions, a subsidiary of PanAmSat, plans to launch a fully managed IP-networking service in the African and Middle East regions for government and military customers by using New Skies' NSS-7 satellite. The service is designed to support ongoing humanitarian, diplomatic and military efforts throughout the region by offering highly secure IP-based enterprise networks. The service employs a 9.3-meter antenna accessing NSS-7 from G2's government teleport in Silver Spring, Maryland, and broadband networking technology from iDirect Technologies,...

Read More

Verizon to Offer Avaya Solutions to Small and Medium Businesses

Avaya and Verizon agreed to collaborate in offering to small and medium sized businesses a suite of communications solutions that include systems, applications and services from both companies. Under the agreement, Verizon will offer two suites of Avaya products to the small and medium business market -- both single and multi-site -- in retail and wholesale trade, transportation, and other industries. The product lines Verizon will offer include:Avaya IP Office, which is an "all-in-one" office communication solution that brings together voice,...

Read More

Zarlink Cites Weak Dollar for Lower Q4 Financial Expectations

Citing the rapid decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, Zarlink Semiconductor lowered financial guidance for its fiscal quarter ending December 24, 2004. In October, Zarlink had projected revenues of between US$49 and US$52 million and a net loss of US$0.01 to US$0.03 per share. The company anticipates that revenues will be near the mid-point of guidance. However, company said the decline in the value of the dollar, coupled with higher than predicted costs for implementation of U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act section 404, is negatively impacting Zarlink's...

Read More