Finisar Acquires Big Bear for 40 Gbps Transponders

Finisar Corporation acquired all of the optical transponder assets of Big Bear Networks for $1.9 million in cash. The assets purchased include equipment, inventory and intellectual property associated with Big Bear's 10Gigabit Ethernet Xenpak and X2 transponders and their industry leading 40Gigabit transponder that has already been qualified by a number of telecom equipment companies.Big Bear Networks realized approximately $4.0 million in revenues for transponder sales during calendar 2005 through October 31, most of which was for 40 Gbps products....

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Level 3 Sells IT Outsourcing Unit to Infocrossing

Level 3 Communications completed the sale of its IT infrastructure management outsourcing subsidiary, (i)Structure, to Infocrossing for approximately $84.8 million.(I) Structure, headquartered in Broomfield, CO, provides computing operations and managed infrastructure services to enterprise clients from data centers located in the central and western United States. http://www.level3.com http://www.infocrossing.com/istruct...

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Verizon Wireless to Offer MediaFLO's Mobile Real-time TV Services

Verizon Wireless will be the first U.S. wireless service provider to offer MediaFLO realtime TV services when the network is commercially available. Verizon is with QUALCOMM and its subsidiary MediaFLO USA Inc. to launch mobile TV services over the MediaFLO network in approximately half of the markets already covered by Verizon Wireless' CDMA2000 1xEV-DO-based broadband network.FLO technology is a new air interface originally developed by Qualcomm with multicasting capabilities designed to increase capacity and reduce content delivery costs to...

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India's BSNL Selects UTStarcom's IP DSLAM

India's Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) selected UTStarcom to deploy 90,000 lines of its AN-2000 IP-based DSLAM in the operator's growing nationwide broadband network. BSNL is the incumbent and largest telecommunications services provider in India, with a presence in the fixed-line, cellular mobile, long distance and data markets.brThis contract represents an expansion on a previously announced deployment of its AN-2000 IP DSLAM and related equipment for the second phase of BSNL's National Internet Backbone project. Financial terms were not disclosed....

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BellSouth Reorganizes into Retail and Business Units

BellSouth announced a new operational structure aligned around two customer units: Retail Markets and Business Markets.Retail Markets, which will focus on BellSouth's residential and small business customers, will be headed by David Scobey. Reporting to Scobey will be William Pate, Chief Marketing Officer-Retail Markets, and Paulino Barros, Chief Product Officer-Retail Markets.Business Markets will provide support for enterprise and wholesale customers and will be led by Dick Anderson, vice chairman and president, Business Markets. Reporting to...

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ViaSat Acquires Efficient Channel Coding

ViaSat acquired privately- held Efficient Channel Coding Inc. (ECC), a producer of broadband communication integrated circuits and satellite communication systems. Terms of the deal include initial consideration of approximately $16.5 million and the assumption of certain stock options as well as $9.0 million of additional consideration to be paid in cash and/or stock based on ECC meeting certain financial performance targets over the next two years.ViaSat said the deal enhances its position in the new S2 version of the DVB-RCS satellite broadband...

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NTT America Consolidates Global IP and Enterprise Services

NTT America, a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation, announced the launch of its Global IP Network business and Enterprise Hosting business in addition to the private network services already offered under the Arcstar brand. Both the Global IP Network and Enterprise Hosting businesses were previously operated at Verio, another NTT Communications subsidiary, which was acquired in September 2000.By combining the offerings under one roof, NTT America will be in a position to provide integrated data networking, IP, and hosting...

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AT&T Resumes Trading Under "T" Symbol

The new AT&T resumed trading under its legendary "T" symbol on the New York Stock Exchange. The company said its decision to adopt the "T" ticker symbol reflects both the rich heritage of the combined enterprise as well as its commitment to lead the next major shift in communications technology -- the transformation to integrated solutions based on Internet Protocol. The "T" symbol was used by AT&T Corp. before its acquisition by SBC Communications Inc. AT&T Corp. was a member of the Dow 30 until April 2004. The "T" ticker symbol...

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Pactolus Appoints VPs of Engineering and Advanced Technology

Pactolus Communications Software, a developer of Class 4/5 SIP-based IP voice services, named Steve Weeks as Vice President of Engineering and Jeff Gibson as Vice President of Advanced Technology Development.Weeks was most recently VP of Engineering for Brontes Technology and also served as Vice President of Research and Development for NBX Corporation, which developed a packet-switched PBX.http://www.pactolus....

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Paragon Wireless Raises $7 Million for VoWLAN

Paragon Wireless, a start-up based in Dallas, Texas and Beijing, China, raised $7 million in Series B funding for its VoWLAN solution. Paragon designs and develops standards-compliant VoWLAN equipment including handsets and access points. ParaPhone is a smart phone with IEEE 802.11 and SIP-based VoIP engine. It provides end customers real multimedia experience, such as VoIP, E-mail, web surfing, MP3, high-quality photo, and video streaming in home, office, and hot spot/zone. ParaPhone Twins combines VoWLAN and GSM/GPRS into a single handset. It...

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Cox Boosts Cable Modem Speeds to 9 Mbps downstream, 1 Mbps upstream

Cox Communications has increased the speed of its fastest Cox High Speed Internet package at no additional charge for customers in Cleveland, OH, Kansas, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, OK, as well as Orange County and San Diego, California. Cox High Speed Internet customers that subscribe to the Premier package in these markets now get speeds up to 9 Mbps downstream and up to 1 Mbps upstream, a download speed up to 80% faster than before the upgrade.Earlier this year, Cox also increased data speeds in its Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska,...

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Agilent's Semiconductor Group Begins Operations as Avago

Agilent Technologies completed the divestiture of its Semiconductor Products business to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion.The new company will operate under the name Avago Technologies.Avago Technologies has a portfolio of more than 5,500 products, which are sold into a broad set of applications and end markets, including wireless and wired communications, industrial, automotive, consumer electronics...

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CNN Launches Paid Broadband Video Service

CNN launched a paid, broadband Internet news service offering live and on-demand content without commercials. A free video news service with commercials remains available on the company's website.CNN Pipeline offers up to four simultaneous news streams. Ad ownloadable player uses Windows Media 9 encoding and requires approximately 750 kbps of bandwidth. A Web-based player needs about 450 kbps.The service costs $0.99 per day, $2.95 per month or $24.95 per year. http://www.cnn....

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Norwegian Broadcasting Offers Interactive Mobile TV App

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation launched a trial, interactive mobile TV service that allows users to vote, chat and communicate with a television presenter while watching their favorite show. Ericsson and NRK launched a downloadable client for the existing interactive TV format, Svisj. http://www.ericsson....

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Korean Broadcasters Launch Terrestrial DMB

Major Korean broadcasters, including KBS, MBC, SBS and YTN, launched free terrestrial digital media broadcasting (DMB) to specially-equipped mobile phones. The mobile TV offerings, which are initially is available in the Seoul area, are generating a luke warm response from service providers, according to the Korea Herald, because of an uncertain business model for the network operators. A growing number of DMB-enabled mobile handsets could change the outlook by next year. http://www.kbs.co.krhttp://www.koreaherald.comIn May 2005, SK Telecom...

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NTT DoCoMo Invests in ACCESS CO. for Mobile Browsers

NTT DoCoMo is increasing its equity stake in ACCESS CO., a Tokyo-based developer of software for mobile phones, from 7.12% to 11.66%. DoCoMo and ACCESS have been strengthening their partnership to develop mobile phone browsers and ACCESS's browser is widely used in DoCoMo's 3G FOMA handsets. http://www.nttdocomo....

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NTT DoCoMo Invests in Aplix for Mobile Middleware

NTT DoCoMo has acquired 15,000 newly allocated shares, or 14.98%, of software company Aplix Corporation, a Tokyo-based developer of embedded software, for mobile phones and PCs. DoCoMo and Aplix already enjoy a close working relationship in the development of DoJa/Java platforms, which have enabled an increasing number of Java products to be adapted to 3G FOMA handsets. http://www.nttdocomo....

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Investors Bid $12 Billion for TDC

A group of international investors managed by APAX Partners, The Blackstone Group and Kravis Kohlberg Roberts made a $12 billion cash offer to acquire TDC, the incumbent carrier in Denmark. TDC's Board of Directors has recommended shareholders to accept the offer.TDC, which was fully privatized in 1998, has 13 million fixed line and mobile customers in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe. TDC is the largest alternative provider of Internet, data and telephone services in Switzerland and operates under the trademark sunrise. In Germany, TDC owns the...

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HP to Acquire Trustgenix for Federated Identity Mgt

HP agreed to acquire Trustgenix, a provider of federated identity management solutions, for an undisclosed sum. Trustgenix, which is based in Santa Clara, California is HP's original equipment manufacturing partner for HP OpenView Select Federation, which uses industry-standard federation protocols to link multiple accounts with different providers on the Internet so that secure user authentication occurs only once. When a user navigates to different sites belonging to the same federation, Select Federation recognizes the user and is able to provide...

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HP Unveils OpenCall Media Platform for IMS

HP unveiled a new version of its OpenCall Media Platform to help telecom carriers deliver blended voice, data and multimedia services across wireless, wireline and broadband networks.The new OpenCall Media Platform Media Resource Function (MRF) provides a foundation for advanced multimedia and interactive services in emerging Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) networks.Current and planned capabilities include audio and voice services (interactive voice response, voicemail, conferencing) as well as a wide range of multimedia, collaborative...

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SunCom Selects Ericsson for IMS, UMA, Softswitch

SunCom Wireless, a mobile carrier serving the southeastern U.S., has selected Ericsson's Mobile Softswitch solution for its next generation core network. Additionally, the two companies will conduct IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) trials to prepare the operator's network for next generation capabilities.SunCom has begun to deploy Ericsson's Mobile Softswitch solution to carry voice and data traffic in 3GPP Release 4- compliant network architecture. After just two months of installation, the softswitch started full...

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China Telecom Selects Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System

China Telecom will adopt the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System to integrate the supercore network nodes of ChinaNet, the largest IP service network in China. Financial terms were not disclosed.Traffic processed by the Cisco CRS-1 will then transit the previous multi-router structure of ChinaNet's core network nodes in eight cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Xi'an, Chengdu, Wuhan and Nanjin. After integration, ChinaNet will significantly enhance the network capacity and improve management efficiency, enabling China Telecom to strengthen...

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Juniper Routers Selected for China Next Generation Internet (CNGI)

Juniper Networks' M- and T-series routing platforms have been selected for the core of the China Next Generation Internet (CNGI) project. The CNGI project was launched in 2003 by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and its charter is to create a next-generation national IPv6 backbone covering 20 cities and 39 massive network points of presence (GigaPOPs) to provide pervasive advanced IP services. Financial terms were not disclosed."As one of the world's most ambitious IPv6 projects, all of China's major service providers...

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Alcatel Claims #2 Position in IP Edge Aggregation Routing

Alcatel has overtaken to Juniper to claim the #2 position in market share for IP edge aggregation routing in Q3, according to a new report from Synergy Research Group that was released by the company. According to Synergy, Alcatel secured 23.6% of the IP edge aggregation routing market in Q3 2005, compared to Cisco at 45.9% and Juniper at 19.7%. In Q2, Synergy Research Group found that Cisco held 60.4% and Juniper 20.7% of this same IP edge aggregation market worldwide.Alcatel noted that more than 90 wireline and wireless service providers in...

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RIM's BlackBerry Service Faces Possible Shut-Down in Patent Dispute

In a long-running patent dispute, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that a settlement agreement between Research In Motion Limited (RIM) and NTP was not an enforceable agreement. The ruling raises the possibility that RIM's popular Blackberry mobile e-mail service could be shut down in the U.S.RIM said it will file a request that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear its appeal in the patent case. While further review by the Supreme Court is generally uncommon, RIM continues to believe this case raises significant national...

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Verizon Begins FiOS Deployment in Washington State

Verizon announced plans to rollout FTTP to its local telephone customers in Washington state, including the cities of Bellevue, Bothell, Everett, Kenmore, Kirkland, Redmond, and adjacent areas in the two counties. Washington becomes the 16th state in which Verizon will deploy its all-fiber network. Verizon expects to install more than 2.7 million feet of fiber-optic cabling throughout the region in 2006, passing about 60,000 homes and small businesses with fiber. http://www.verizon....

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TiVo Builds DVR Application for Intel Viiv

TiVo confirmed that it is building an application that will enable it to work with Intel Viiv technology. The new application will further extend TiVo's "TiVoToGo" features, allowing existing TiVo subscribers to securely transfer their favorite television programs from their TiVo Series2 DVR to an Intel Viiv technology based PC using only the remote control. The application will also allow any content downloaded from a TiVo DVR to an Intel Viiv technology enabled device to be securely played back on certain compliant media adapters, which will...

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Intel Announces Content Partners for "Viiv" Digital Home Systems

Intel is aiming to accelerate the trend towards on-demand, Internet-based entertainment by working closely with video content distributors, the music industry and gaming companies on a worldwide basis. Specifically, Intel is working with more than 40 content providers for its forthcoming "Viiv" PC platform for digital home entertainment. Intel plans to verify that these content services and applications run on the new Viiv platform, which will encompass consumer devices and networked media devices, portable media players, digital media adapters,...

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Nokia Tests Fixed-Mobile Convergence in Philippines

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and Nokia have set up a Next Generation Network Laboratory to develop and test end-to-end Fixed- Mobile Convergence services prior to their commercial launch. The Next Generation Network Laboratory can leverage PLDT's current fixed and mobile networks to create converged services for PLDT Group customers. Nokia has been the main GSM network supplier to PLDT's Smart Communications division since 1998. Nokia's solution includes a Unified Core and converged access networks as well as Nokia multimedia...

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Farmers Telephone Extreme's Ethernet to Link Central Offices

Farmers Telephone Cooperative (FTC), which serves over 60,000 customers in rural South Carolina, selected Extreme Networks' Metro Ethernet network infrastructure for linking 17 FTC central offices. FTC chose Extreme Networks BlackDiamond modular switching platform. The new network has to be capable of supporting emerging IPTV services using wire speed Layer 2 Ethernet with non-stop forwarding, traffic prioritization and device redundancy. The new equipment will aggregate thousands of ADSL connections to the customer premises. http://www.extre...

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OnFiber Deploys World Wide Packets for Ethernet

OnFiber, which builds and operates metro networks in major U.S. markets, has selected World Wide Packets' LightningEdge Carrier Ethernet Product Family to enable Ethernet services for business customers. World Wide Packets said its solution was selected because of its ability to provide automated provisioning, which simplifies integration and maintenance while ensuring predictable, flexible and scalable results. OnFiber's Ethernet services range from 10 Mbps to 1000 Mbps. With the World Wide Packets rate limiting feature, increasing from 10Mbps,...

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T-Com Venture Fund invests in Nominum

The T-Com Venture Fund has made an equity investment in Nominum, a developer of IP address infrastructure solutions. Nominum's Foundation product family includes scalable, reliable and secure DNS and DHCP servers and IP address management (IPAM) systems for service providers. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.nominum.com http://www.t-venture...

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TI's OMAP2 Processor Accelerates H.264 and VC-1

Texas Instruments (TI) began sampling its new OMAP2-based processor for 3G mobile phones, boosting video performance by up to 4X and imaging performance by up to 1.5X. TI said the device will enable secure downloadable media streaming and playback, digital video recording, still image capture, video teleconferencing and 3D gaming on 3G phones.The latest OMAP2430 application processor offers even higher performance than first-generation OMAP 2 processors while at a lower cost. The OMAP2430 includes TI's latest generation imaging, video and audio...

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Lucent and Infoblox to offer IP Address management for Enterprises

Infoblox and Lucent Technologies have teamed to offer a scalable, secure, and easy-to-deploy IP address management (IPAM) solution for mid-to-large enterprise customers. The new IP address management solution, which includes support for the domain name system (DNS) and the dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP), combines Infoblox's network appliance and distributed grid management technologies with Lucent's VitalQIP IP Address Management software. Pricing for the Infoblox-1000 appliance with the Infoblox Integration Module for Lucent VitalQIP...

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MFA Forum Notes Progress, Elects New Board Members

�Following its fourth-quarter meeting in Boston earlier this month, the MFA Forum (MFAF) announced that several technical specifications are ready for final vote. Going to final ballot are specifications addressing ATM and Frame Relay to MPLS Control Plane Interworking: Client-Server and Use of Virtual Trunks for ATM/MPLS Control Plane Interworking, and High Speed Connections for ATM.The two Control Plane Interworking specifications define the control plane and protocol interworking procedures for ATM and Frame Relay connections across an IP/MPLS...

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neuf Cegetel Reaches 350,000 VoIP Users with Nortel Softswitch

neuf Cegetel, the largest alternative operator in France with an installed based of one million residential broadband subscribers, has deployed VoIP services to more than 350,000 of these subscribers using Nortel solutions. Nortel's VoIP solution for neuf Cegetel includes the Communication Server (CS) 2000 superclass softswitch for both consumer and business VoIP services. neuf Cegetel has also deployed the Nortel Media Gateway (MG) 15000, which serves as a high density IP trunk gateway to interconnect with other carrier networks.Earlier this year,...

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Orca Hires New CTO

Orca Interactive, a supplier of middleware and applications for IPTV, named Dr. Ofer Weintraub as its new CEO. Most recently, Weintraub was a telecom and cellular consultant with The Standard Insider, a consulting firm based in Herzelyia, Israel, and focused on mobile data services and IP infrastructure (IMS). He previously served as chief technology officer and research group manager at Emblaze Systems where he was responsible for the overall technology roadmap, standardization work and patent applications, and was personally involved in contributing...

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Tropian Secures Funding for Multimode Radio Silicon

Tropian, a start-up based in Cupertino, California, announced the completion of an additional financing round led by Crosspoint Ventures for its patented "Polar Impact" approach to Radio systems.Tropian provides multi-mode radio solutions for the cellular handset market. The company's Polar Impact polar modulation approach to RF design supports multiple standards. Its products offer a combination of multimode capability, with a single radio and power amplifier for all modes, and greater power efficiency and integration. http://www.tropian....

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Ericsson HSDPA Deployments Underway in 15 Countries

Ericsson's HSDPA solution is now in operation in 15 countries, providing data speeds up to 3.6Mbps in the downlink. "We have received positive reactions from our customers to the opportunity to explore the mobile broadband possibilities of HSDPA at an early stage. There are now 15 live HSDPA systems, with ongoing evaluations of applications. This strengthens my belief that we will see many successful HSDPA launches during 2006, based on our solution," said Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson. http://www.ericsson....

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Cingular and Orange Offer Consolidated Services for Multinationals

Cingular Wireless and Orange SA will offer consolidated mobile services to multinational companies in the U.S. and Europe under Cingular's WorldView program.Cingular and Orange customers with operations in the U.S., Great Britain, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland now can access and manage their combined Cingular and Orange wireless usage and expenditures through a secure online portal, called WorldView Wireless Information Navigator, which is available exclusively to WorldView customers.In addition to this combined domestic/international...

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Cisco to Acquire Cybertrust's Intellishield Alert Manager

Cisco Systems agreed to acquire select intellectual property and assets of Cybertrust, including its security intelligence information service, known as Intellishield Alert Manager. Cisco will pay $14 million in cash in exchange for the technology, customer contracts and other components of Cybertrust's Intellishield Alert Manager. Intellishield Alert Manager is a web-based security intelligence service, providing daily information to customers about information security threats and IT product vulnerabilities that affect the entire corporate information...

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Bluetooth Shipments Take Off

More than 9.5 million Bluetooth-enabled products are shipping per week, according to IMS Research and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). In May, the shipment figures were 4.75 million per week and in September -- only four months later -- this figure had doubled. "By doubling the Bluetooth shipments in just four months, Bluetooth technology has once again proved itself as the wireless technology for the personal area network," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. http://www.bluetooth....

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Mexico's Cablemas Selects ARRIS' CMTS

Mexican Multiple System Cable Operator (MSO) Cablemas has selected the ARRIS Cadant C4 CMTS to provide VoIP and high-speed data service to its customers. Several fully-loaded C4 CMTS chassis have been installed and activated in Tijuana in anticipation of widespread VoIP and high speed data deployments throughout the Cablemas service area of more than 1.5 million homes passed. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.arrisi....

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FCC Chairman Urges A-la-Carte Video Programming or New Decency Requirements

In testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin called on the cable industry and direct satellite broadcasters to offer better tools and packages to filter between adult-oriented content and family-friendly programming or face new rules. Specifically, Martin called upon multichannel video providers to offer a-la-carte programming choices so that viewers do not have to purchase objectionable content as part of a "basic" or "expanded basic" package.Some highlight of his testimony:"I...

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TiVo Adds 434,000 Subscribers in Latest Quarter

As of October 31, 2005, TiVo had 4,008,000 subscribers, which represents 74% growth in the subscription base during the past year. Total net new subscription additions in the most recent quarter were 434,000, an increase over the 419,000 total net new subscriptions added in the same quarter of last year.TiVo-Owned gross subscription additions were 92,000 for the quarter, compared to 119,000 in the third quarter of last year. TiVo-Owned net subscription additions were 55,000 compared to 103,000 in the third quarter of last year. DIRECTV net subscription...

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Freescale Develops 24-Mbit Nanocrystal Memory in CMOS

In what it termed a major step toward replacing conventional floating gate-based flash memories, Freescale Semiconductor announced the first production of 24-megabit (Mbit) memory array based on silicon nanocrystals. Silicon nanocrystal memories are part of an advanced class of memory technologies called thin-film storage. Freescale said they are more scaleable than conventional floating gate-based flash technology, as their tunnel oxide thickness can be reduced without impacting data retention. The charge is stored on isolated nanocrystals and...

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More than 120 Million Wi-Fi Chipsets Shipped in 2005

Approximately 120 million chipsets will ship in 2005, according to In-Stat and the Wi-Fi Alliance."Wi-Fi has truly come of age," said Frank Hanzlik, Managing Director of the Wi-Fi Alliance. "Today more than 90% of notebook computers are Wi-Fi enabled, and as we look ahead, there are seemingly limitless opportunities, due to the insatiable consumer and enterprise demand for the technology. We expect the next milestones will come even faster as Wi-Fi becomes integrated into consumer electronics and mobile handsets and more people around the world...

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FLO Air Interface Enables Multicast to Mobiles

The new FLO (Forward Link-Only) Air Interface Specification (AIS) has been ratified by the FLO Forum, an association of wireless industry leaders. The technical requirements captured in the AIS form a foundation for compatibility standardization for FLO based terrestrial mobile multimedia multicast systems.FLO technology is a new air interface originally developed by Qualcomm with multicasting capabilities designed to increase capacity and reduce content delivery costs to mobile handsets. The AIS includes a complete description of the Physical...

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TiVo Announces First Advertising Search Product for Television

TiVo plans to launch a television-based advertising search solution in Spring 2006. Advertisers will have the ability to deliver television advertising, on demand and targeted to consumers, without the limitations of traditional television media placement. Advertisers will be able to reach viewers in the market for a certain product or service. Ads will be delivered to subscribers who can conduct a search for a product by category or associated with keywords.Leading media and advertising agencies including Interpublic Media, OMD, Starcom Mediavest...

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Alcatel Introduces High-Density 10GigE Enterprise Switches

Alcatel introduced a family of high-performance 10-Gigabit Ethernet core switches. The new OmniSwitch 9000 family, which is the first chassis on the market to use Broadcom's Strata XGS III family of Ethernet switch chips, offers 570 Mbps of aggregate switching capacity, enabling high densities of 10GigE or Gigabit Ethernet connections. It deliver wire-rate processing for IPv6 and support multicast applications.The OmniSwitch 9000s are part of Alcatel's end-to-end enterprise switch family that includes stackable and modular edge switches, which...

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Cisco and Northrop Grumman Supply IP Video for U.S. Military

Cisco Systems will provide IP-based video and voice conferencing capabilities to the Department of Defense through the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) as part of the Northrop Grumman Corporation team.The DISA Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization awarded the Defense Information Systems Network Video Services II (DVS II) task order under Encore I, which is a seven-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract awarded by DISA in 2002.Under the $51 million, one-year DVS II task order, Northrop Grumman's Mission...

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PMC-Sierra Adds Processors for Network Storage and Media Servers

PMC-Sierra announced the addition of network storage devices to its portfolio of Multi-Service Processor (MSP) solutions. The new MSP devices -- MSP2200, MSP2202, MSP2204 and MSP2206 -- are storage-optimized processors integrating key features such as hard disk drive (HDD) controllers, while providing superior performance and significantly lower costs compared to general-purpose processors. PMC-Sierra said the new family of network storage processors represents a natural extension to its VoIP solutions for the digital home and office."The expansion...

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Alvarion's WiMAX Solution Deployed in Mali

Ikatel, an affiliate of France Telecom offering broadband data services in the West African country of Mali, will install Alvarion's BreezeMAX 3500 system, including hundreds of CPEs based on the Intel WiMAX chip to deploy a WiMAX network in the capital city of Bamako. Ikatel, a leading GSM and Internet operator in Mali, expects to deploy the network by year-end. http://www.alvarion....

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DCL and MetaSwitch Report Record 30% Revenue Growth

Data Connection (DCL) reported a 30% rise in revenues to $68 million for its financial year ended 31-Aug-2005. The year also represented the 24th consecutive year of increasing profitability, with record earnings of $16M. Data Connection saw increased revenues from all its business units contributing to this record year for the entire company.MetaSwitch, the next generation softswitch division, more than doubled its gross revenue from the previous year, increasing its share of total revenue to 40%. The division now has over 170 deployments -...

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Redback Teams with HP for MPLS VPNs

Redback Networks an HP will offer an integrated solution for managing MPLS virtual private networking services. The solution combines the edge routing, Ethernet aggregation and subscriber management capabilities of the Redback SmartEdge Service Gateway with the management capabilities of the HP OpenView Service Activator, simplifying operations support system (OSS) integration and reducing time-to-market for new IP services.The SmartEdge platform supports both Layer 2 and Layer 3 MPLS VPN services in conjunction with virtual routers to create a...

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Conexant Selected by LG for DVB-S2 Set-Top Box

LG Electronics has incorporated Conexant's satellite set-top box (STB) DVB-S2 demodulator and CX24118 advanced modulation 8PSK tuner in their new high-definition television (HDTV) receiver. LG's model H20 is the world's first set-top box based on DVB-S2, the industry's newest digital video broadcast standard. DVB-S2 leverages key developments in channel coding and modulation to provide up to a 35% capacity increase over the previous DVB-S standard. The H20 STB is currently being deployed by DIRECTV in the United States. http://www.conexant....

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Siemens Supplies ADSL2+ and Mobile Technology to Greenland

Siemens Communications is supplying ADSL2+ for the 57,000 inhabitants of Greenland. By the end of the year, all settlements on the island will be connected to the IP-DSLAMs of the ADSL2+ network, enabling Internet access at 12 to 24 Mbps. Currently, satellite or microwave links are used to link settlements across Greenland because it is not feasible to bury fiber in the ice. Siemens is also deploying IP-based nanoBTS GSM base stations in conjunction with the new local switching technology. This technology enables intra-village mobile phone...

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BNS Showcases MPEG-4 IPTV Middleware for Flexible Pricing Models

Broadband Network Systems Ltd (BNS) is showcasing MPEG-4 standard-based middleware at this week's IPTV Forum Asia in Hong Kong.The BNS solution features a real-time pricing engine that enables service providers to create complex IPTV business models with highly flexible pricing. The BNS booth will also feature key showcases by BNS's partners Entone (VOD content management), Envivio (MPEG-4 H.264 broadcast series encoders and middleware) and Widevine...

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China Reaches 380 million mobile subscribers, Further Growth Forecast

China currently has 380 million mobile subscribers. Nokia said it holds about 30% market share amongst handset makers in China. The company is forecasting an additional 250 million mobile subscribers in China by 2010. http://www.nokia....

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Marconi Posts Quarterly Profit

Marconi reported quarterly revenue of £312 million, up 9% sequentially and up 2% on the prior year. The adjusted gross margin was 30.8%, compared with 33.4% a year earlier. There was a profit of £7 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of £6 million in the prior quarter and a profit of GBP 2 million a year earlier.Marconi said optical and access network solutions continue to be its main drivers of growth. http://www.marconi.comIn October 2005, Ericsson agreed to acquire most of Marconi for approximately £1.2 billion (US$2 billion)....

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Swiss Federal Council to Block Swisscom-Eircom Acquisition

Switzerland's Federal Council has instructed its representative on the Board of Directors of SwissCom to vote against the company's proposed acquisition of Eircom, the incumbent telco in Ireland, and other possible acquisitions that Swisscom might make abroad. Market observers believed that Swisscom might have been contemplating a bid for Tele Danmark (TDC). Instead, the Swiss government is encouraging SwissCom to distribute available capital to its shareholders. The Swiss state holds approximately 66% equity stake in SwissCom. In a statement...

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Canada's Rogers Cable Hits Milestone of 100,000 HD Subscribers

Since January 2005, Rogers Cable Communication has more than doubled its HDTV customer base, which now exceeds 100,000. The cable company now offers up to 28 HDTV channels.Rogers Digital Cable also noted that 1 in 3 new HDTV customers adding an HDPVR to their service. Rogers offers the Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 8300HD PVR digital terminal, which features a dual tuner and the ability to record up to 20 hours of HDTV programming or 90 hours of regular television programming. http://www.rogers.comRogers Cable passes 3.4 million homes in Ontario,...

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Sagem and ST Debut First Single-Chip MPEG4 Set-top Box

Sagem introduced the first MPEG4 set-top boxes based on a single-chip decoder. The new advanced range of STBs from Sagem employs ST's next-generation MPEG4 decoder chip for HDTV, the STB7100. Sagem's first two STBs available in the new family are standard-definition (SDTV) models, the SAGEM ITD80 for Pay and Free-to-air DTT (digital terrestrial TV) broadcast reception, selected by CANAL+, and the SAGEM ITAD80 for both IPTV and Free-to-air DTT,...

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Trilithic to Provide Emergency Alerts for Nortel's IPTV

Trilithic's Emergency Alert Systems will be offered as a part of Nortel's IPTV Ecosystem. As Trilithic's E.A.S. provides FCC mandated National Level Alerts for notifying the TV-watching public, as well as interruptions for National Weather Service weather warnings and the Amber Alert.Trilithic's Emergency Alert System for IPTV provides a digital solution capable of various configurations for local and centralized channel insertion, and the flexibility of no channel insertion. Through a user-defined configuration, the E.A.S. alert message text and...

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Hong Kong's PCCW Tops Half Million IPTV Subscribers

PCCW, the incumbent telecom operator in Hong Kong, has topped the half million mark for its now Broadband TV service. The milestone was reached one month ahead of the projected target date of December 31, 2006.PCCW Ltd also announced the addition of major new channels on now TV, in line with its aim of providing a comprehensive range of top quality viewing options for subscribers. New content includes CNN International, HBO Family and HBO Hits, and new VOD titles from Star Chinese Movies. http://www.pccw....

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PCCW Rolls Out MPEG-4 AVC HD IPTV with Tandberg

Hong Kong's PCCW's now Broadband TV service is using TANDBERG Television's advanced compression solutions for its rollout of HD IPTV over DSL. The deal expands on the two companies' existing relationship and will make now TV Asia's first advanced encoding HD operator, as it deploys the TANDBERG HD encoding solution for MPEG-4 AVC.The now Pay-TV service launched in 2003 and has been using TANDBERG Television MPEG-2 encoding for its premium channels. With the TANDBERG EN5990 MPEG-4 AVC encoder now TV will be able to deliver an HD service with sport,...

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Ericsson Acquires Australian Systems Integration Company TUSC

Ericsson announced the acquisition of TUSC, an Australian company that specializes in systems integration for telecommunications, utilities and enterprises. TUSC, which has around 80 employees, is a subsidiary company of Allied Technologies Group, listed on the Australian stock exchange. Financial terms were not disclosed.Ericsson said this acquisition illustrates its ambition to further strengthen and develop its position within telecommunications services and the focus areas of systems integration, telecom management and operational support...

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Shaw Family Purchases One Million More Shares

The Shaw Family, and entities owned or controlled by them, completed the purchase of an additional 1,000,000 Class B Non-Voting Shares of Shaw Communications. The Canadian communications company provides cable television, High-Speed Internet, Digital Phone, telecommunications services (through Big Pipe Inc.) and satellite direct-to-home services (through Star Choice Communications Inc.) to approximately 3.0 million customers. http://www.shaw.caShaw Communications Inc. was incorporated in 1966 under the name Capital Cable Television Co. Ltd. ...

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Raptor Networks Raises $7.7 Million for Distributed Switching

Raptor Networks Technology, a supplier of modular switching technologies for video, VOIP, high speed storage and other latency sensitive network applications, announced $7.728 million in equity financing led by Brookstreet Securities Corporation. The terms of the transaction include warrants that give the investors the right to purchase additional common stock which, if exercised, would increase the total value of the funding to over $20 million.Raptor Networks' has developed a "Distributed Network Switching Technology" blurs the distinction between...

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Scientific-Atlanta Comments on Shareholder Suits

In response to two purported class action lawsuits related to its announced acquisition by Cisco Systems, Scientific-Atlanta said it believes the complaints are without merit and intends to defend the actions vigorously.Scientific-Atlanta said its board engaged in a thorough and deliberative process to obtain the best transaction at the highest price available for its shareholders, culminating in the definitive merger agreement with Cisco, which was announced on November 18. As previously announced, Cisco is acquiring Scientific-Atlanta for $43...

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LG Electronics Launches First DVR with Microsoft Program Guide

LG Electronics launched the first DVR for North America featuring the new Microsoft Program Guide service.The LG LRM-519 Digital Media Recorder (MSRP $599) is a combination digital video recorder (DVR) and DVD recorder powered by Windows Media Center Technologies with a 160-gigabyte hard drive.The Microsoft Program Guide service is available through three subscription options: a one-month subscription for $9.99, a one-year subscription for $99.99 or a one-time subscription for $249. The service allows users to search up to 14 days of programs...

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Nokia Lands US$141 Million GSM Contract with India's BSNL

Nokia was selected for a comprehensive GSM/EDGE and GPRS network expansion project in North India by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The expansion, valued at US$141 million, will include core and radio network equipment, and an extensive range of services.The expansion will enable BSNL to significantly increase its network coverage and capacity in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh (both east and west circles), Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.The new contract is an extension of a US$284 million GSM/EDGE...

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TeliaSonera Denmark Tests Motorola's UMA Solution

Following an initial six-month trial of Motorola's Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) solution, TeliaSonera Denmark is moving to phase two of the trial project -- making calls with Motorola A910 handset over the first 3GPP compliant UMA system in an operational network environment.The market trial is an important step forward in delivering Motorola's vision of Seamless Mobility incorporating products and services from across the organization. The complete, fully tested UMA solution from Motorola includes network infrastructure, A910 handsets, and integration...

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T-Systems Teams with PROGNOSIS for VoIP

Integrated Research will supply its PROGNOSIS performance monitoring solutions to Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems division for a VoIP deployment in Germany. PROGNOSIS for IP Telephony is a suite of lifecycle management solutions spanning VoIP network-readiness assessment, pre-deployment assurance testing and ongoing performance management for Cisco IP Communications environments. The company also announced the opening of a new office in the center of Frankfurthttp://www.ir.com/http://www.t-systems.com/...

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NEC Selects Ikanos for New VDSL Equipment

NEC Magnus Communications has selected Ikanos' Fx 100100 and Fx100100S-4 chipsets to deliver up to 100 Mbps symmetrical data services in new versions of its broadband access products.NEC Magnus has used Ikanos' VDSL chipsets in its access platforms and customer premises equipment for three years, most recently in systems that deliver up to 100 Mbps downstream and 50 Mbps upstream performance in MTU/MDU applications. With the latest Fx and FxS series chipsets, NEC Magnus can now offer systems providing up to 100 Mbps symmetrical data rates. Moreover,...

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Disability Groups Call for Telecom Legislation for Access to Broadband Services

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD), the American Foundation for the Blind other disability groups is calling upon Congress to enact legislation mandating disability access to Internet-based communication services.The groups are urging that any updates to the Telecom Act include disabled access provisions for all services. Kelby Brick, NAD Director of Law and Advocacy, said: "People with disabilities use communications technologies every day that were not even in existence at the time our nation's communications laws were last amended....

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Nintendo Reports Strong Initial Uptake for WiFi Gaming

Nintendo reported that 45% of people who bought its new "Mario Kart" DS racing game for its Nintendo DS system already have test driven its free Wi-Fi capabilities.On November 14, Mario Kart DS became the first game to use Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Through the end of Sunday, more than 112,000 people in the United States had purchased the game. In the same time frame, nearly 52,000 unique users had logged onto Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to play against people from all over the country.Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection lets users connect to the service at...

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Loral Emerges From Chapter 11

Loral Space & Communications completed its financial reorganization and emerged from the Chapter 11 process. Loral exits chapter 11 with approximately $180 million in cash. During the chapter 11 reorganization, Loral did not require any debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, and, as of its emergence from chapter 11, has only $126 million of debt in the form of the notes issued by Loral Skynet. Loral Skynet has also issued $200 million of preferred stock to certain creditors of Loral Orion.Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) is a leading manufacturer...

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QUALCOMM Announces Foundry Partnership with Samsung

QUALCOMM announced a new manufacturing partnership with Samsung Electronics focused on advanced CMOS-based foundry processes for CDMA. QUALCOMM and Samsung's new foundry partnership expands on the two companies' existing relationship, and builds upon QUALCOMM's fabless business model of outsourcing foundry operations to partners such as Samsung. The companies will collaborate on current and future technology needs, with plans including the usage of Samsung's 90 nanometer (nm) and sub-90 nm nodes to enable manufacturing of leading-edge system-on-a-chip...

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CopperGate Secures $14.5 Million for Home Networking Silicon (HPNA)

CopperGate Communications, a start-up based in Tel Aviv, raised approximately $14.5 million in a third round funding for its chipset solutions for multimedia home networking.The financing led by new investor Carmel Ventures, with the participation of existing investors Tamir Fishman Ventures and the Challenge Fund. CopperGate has been a prime contributor to the HPNA V3 specification for high performance multimedia home phoneline networking. HPNA V3 standard chipsets utilize existing coax cables and telephony wiring in the home for connecting devices...

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Cisco Partners with ZTE in China, Asia-Pac

Cisco Systems will partner with ZTE Corporation to pursue business opportunities in the telecommunications service provider market in China and the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan. The agreement was signed at a ceremony at ZTE's headquarters in Shenzhen, China earlier this month.http://www.cisco.com http://www.zte.com...

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