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.



The network initially will be provisioned with multiple 10 Gbps wavelengths. It will be capable of carrying multiple 40 Gbps wavelengths, for a total potential capacity of almost 3 Terabits per second. . In addition to the fiber, Level 3 will provide a wide range of maintenance services to the backbone, which will be managed out of Comcast's existing east and west National Operations Centers.



The companies said the deal would enable services such as video-on-demand, high definition television, digital video recorders, high-speed Internet access and advanced voice services. http://www.comcast.com/http://www.level3.com/

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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 the multiplayer split-screen System-Link feature and Xbox Live. Sandvine said that "the explosion in X-Box Live traffic attributed to Halo II should be seen as a clarion call." In order to avoid network disruptions or "jitters" that degrade the pace and flow of virtual competition, network managers must be capable of identifying game traffic and setting quality of service (QoS) policies that protect it from interference.



Sandvine's trend analysis, "Gaming and QoS on broadband networks," can be downloaded from the company's website. http://www.sandvine.com/solutions/download_center.asp

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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 will expand and strengthen its network coverage, enable new services and support continued customer growth.



Sprint's wireless infrastructure build-outs in the United States are divided among three vendors:

• Lucent Technologies received a three-year contract to enhance Sprint's nationwide 3G network, including CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology. It will upgrade Sprint's existing Lucent-supplied base
  stations with an additional RF carrier where needed and provide key elements of its IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) solution.



• Motorola received an extension to the end of 2006 of its existing CDMA infrastructure supply agreement, involving CDMA2000 1x base station equipment and related services as well as Motorola's mobile broadband CDMA2000 1xEV-DO solution in markets served by CDMA 1X infrastructure.



• Nortel Networks received a three-year contract to provide CDMA2000 1X radio base stations, base station controllers, switching platforms and other related equipment across Sprint's existing Nortel footprint. Nortel will also supply Sprint with the new Nortel PDSN (Packet Data Service Node) 16000. Nortel will also provide CDMA2000 1xEV-DO equipment in several key markets.

http://www.sprint.com

• In June 2004, Sprint announced its plan to provide next-generation EV-DO wireless service at peak data rates of up to 2.4 Mbps to major U.S. metro areas during 2005.

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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 service also includes seven custom calling features: enhanced voicemail, call waiting, caller ID, caller ID blocking (*67), call return (*69), three-way calling and call forwarding, in addition to access to directory assistance (411).



Cablevision's Optimum Voice also provides E-911 service and is CALEA compliant. http://www.cablevision.com/

• As of 30-Sept-04, Cablevision had 1,259,024 cable modem customers. Total cable television revenue per basic video customer was $83.89. VOD/SVOD services provided average revenue $5.00 per digital subscriber per month.

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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 Digital 5 into a low-cost reference design that will enable Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to quickly bring to market a new class of low-cost digital media adapters and DVD players. http://www.digital5.com/http://www.atheros.com

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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, performance and manageability of a comprehensive database, server and networked storage configuration. The working infrastructure is architected, configured and validated at the Oracle Global IT Data Center.



Commercial and enterprise organizations can use the resources of Project MegaGrid to implement their own grid computing solutions.



In addition to the technology provided by the four companies, Cramer and F5 Networks are also contributing to Project MegaGridhttp://www.oracle.com/megagrid

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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 films are produced each year in the U.S. alone, and virtually all of them require transferring massive digital content among multiple production, distribution, and marketing partners. Much of the media content is still sent by physical courier. http://www.above.net/

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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 interface, Treasury users will also have access to online ordering, billing, help desk support and network performance information so they can actively manage the network.



AT&T's team of subcontractors includes Accenture, BAE Systems, DreamHammer, GTSI, Lucent Technologies and SRA. http://www.att.com

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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.gov

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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 aspects of employee Internet usage, enabling corporations to ensure network integrity and full compliance with legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley. Infonet provides reporting on all aspects of Internet traffic down to user level. It is also adding a managed virus scanning service.



In addition to the layered security application services above, Infonet has upgraded all aspects of its core managed firewall services on which these services are delivered. Upgrades include co-location options and a new high availability (dual firewall) solution available for all Infonet Managed Firewall Services, including: Network Firewall Service, Premises Firewall Lite & Premises Firewall Unlimited,
and Branch Office Firewall Service. http://www.infonet.com

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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.com

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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, and capture that conforms to the new draft standard for 10-Gigabit Ethernet defined by the IEEE 802.3ae specification.



Spirent said it brings the SmartBits 10GbE system to market within just seven months of initial development. The platform is designed for network equipment manufacturers and carrier technology labs,http://www.spirentcom.com

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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 1,300,000 homes in their franchises. These operators expect to launch outsourced VoIP service in their markets within the next several months. http://www.net2phone.com

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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 operates in the 5-GHz band and has a bandwidth of 100 MHz. The OFDM transmission protects the signals against most types of interference, such as the echoes that are produced when the signals reflect off buildings.



Siemens said the technology is highly promising for future mobile communication. By the year 2015, the need for transmission capacities for voice, data, image and multimedia is conservatively anticipated to rise by a factor of 10.



The Siemens research team is already working on further increasing the data rate and enhancing the mobility of devices equipped with multiple antennas. http://www.siemens.com/communications

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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, a provider of satellite-based broadband access solutions. http://www.newskies.comhttp://www.g2sat.com

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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, data and communications applications for small and mid-sized businesses and includes applications such as mobility, customer contact centers, and conferencing features. Avaya has sold more than 38,000 IP Office systems for businesses worldwide.



• PARTNER Advanced Communications System, which is a key system with advanced telephony features such as email and voice mail access and management from a single PC mailbox, and connectivity to DSL for Internet access and voice over DSL. There are more than one million PARTNER systems in operation worldwide.

Under the partnership, Verizon's sales teams will facilitate sales, and Avaya and its distributors will provide training and support for the sales teams. Avaya Global Services will be responsible for customized installation and maintenance support through the company's 24 Network Operations Centers and 13 Technical Centers. http://www.avaya.comhttp://www.verizon.com

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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 cash and non-cash costs. As a result, the company now expects to record a net loss of US$0.05 to US$0.06 per share.



Zarlink is based in Ottawa, Canada.. http://www.zarlink.com

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