Qwest and BT Sign Voice Interconnection Agreement

Qwest Communications and BT agreed to exchange international voice telephone traffic. The companies said their interconnection agreement would enhance the quality and reliability of telephone services used by residential and business customers making international long-distance calls between the U.S., the U.K. and other international destinations.



International voice traffic between the UK and the U.S. is estimated to be more than 4 billion minutes of use per year.
http://www.qwest.com

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Fujitsu FLASHWAVE 7420 DWDM Granted RUS Listing

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) branch of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted "RUS Technical Acceptance" to the Fujitsu FLASHWAVE 7420 Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) platform. The RUS provides independent and rural utilities and telecommunications service providers with low-interest financing to assist them in the purchase of new equipment.



The FLASHWAVE 7420 platform is sold exclusively by Fujitsu to North American telecommunications carriers through a strategic technology partnership with ADVA Optical Networking.



With this award, the FLASHWAVE 7420 platform joins many other Fujitsu platforms on RUS material lists. Products currently on RUS lists include the FLASHWAVE 4500 Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP), the FLASHWAVE 4300 optical aggregation platform, the FLASHWAVE 4100 optical access platform and the FLASHWAVE 4010 remote SONET extension device. All of these platforms qualify for low-interest financing to aid in deployment in rural areas.http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom

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LG Develops T-DMB Broadcast Mobile Phone with Tensilica

LG Electronics is using Tensilica's "Xtensa" configurable processor core to deliver the world's first mobile phone capable of receiving digital broadcast signals. Compatible with the "Terrestrial digital-multimedia-broadcast" (T-DMB) system, a broadcast system currently being rolled out in Korea, the new mobile phone is powered by a digital media processor which was designed using the Tensilica Xtensa processor core and design environment.



The new LG phone allows consumers to watch television programs, while using normal dialing functions simultaneously. T-DMB broadcast services in Korea are expected to be rolled out in the first half of 2005. LG is working to establish the Korean T-DMB standard as a global standard.



Tensilica said its new SOC can also be applied to notebook computers, PDAs and car terminals, speeding the adoption of the T-DMB standard.
http://www.tensilica.com

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Equinix to Provide Hosting for Movielink Video-on-Demand

Equinix announced a deal to provide hosting for Movielink's broadband video-on-demand (VOD) services in tis Washington, D.C. area Internet Business Exchange center. Movielink will use Equinix's network-rich data center environment to directly connect with broadband networks providing access to end-users. The direct connectivity to leading carriers and ISPs is expected to reduce bottlenecks in the path between content and end-users, providing improved performance levels.
http://www.equinix.com

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Yahoo! Signs Portal Deal with Verizon

Verizon Communications and Yahoo! announced a multi-year alliance to deliver a fully integrated co-branded broadband offering to subscribers of Verizon Online's DSL and new fiber-based FiOS services. The co-branded service will be offered, at no additional charge, to Verizon consumer broadband subscribers beginning this summer. Yahoo! receive monthly per-subscriber fees. Verizon Online will share in revenues from premium service subscriptions, searches and advertising.



Verizon already offers a broadband portal in conjunction with MSN. Customers will now have the additional choice of Yahoo!



Verizon and Yahoo! are planning aggressive marketing campaigns on the Yahoo! network as well as through Verizon advertising. Verizon and Yahoo! have also agreed to continue to look for additional partnering opportunities outside the co-branded broadband services agreement.
http://www.verizon.com
http://www.yahoo.com

• In May 2003, Verizon Online debuted MSN 8 Internet service for its DSL subscribers. The service results from an agreement between Verizon and MSN to deliver co-branded high-speed DSL Internet access and services.



• In November 2004, SBC Communications and Yahoo! announced a multi-year extension to their alliance to provide co-branded DSL and Dial services. More significantly, the companies agreed to expand the partnership beyond the PC to home television and audio systems, Cingular wireless phones, SBC FreedomLink Wi-Fi and SBC Home Networking equipment. The first new products developed as part of the expanded alliance will be available in 2005.



• In June 2003, Yahoo! and BT announced a far-reaching alliance to deliver a co-branded Internet experience to broadband and dial-up consumers in the UK.

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Intel Reorganizes into 5 Groups

Intel announced a broad reorganization into 5 business units:

• The Mobility Group, led by Sean Maloney and Dadi Perlmutter , will develop platforms for notebook PCs and handheld computing and communications devices, and is aimed at making the growing numbers of different mobile devices work together better and easier to use.



• The Digital Enterprise Group, led by Pat Gelsinger and Abhi Talwalkar, will develop computing and communications infrastructure platforms for end-to-end solutions in businesses.



• The Digital Home Group, led by Don MacDonald, will develop computing and communications platforms for use by consumers in the emerging digital home, with emphasis on living room entertainment applications and consumer electronics devices.



• The Digital Health Group, led by Louis Burns, will develop products and explore business opportunities for Intel architecture products in healthcare research, diagnostics and productivity, as well as personal healthcare.



• The Channel Products Group, led by Bill Siu, will seek to expand in global markets by combining into one organization existing groups focused on developing and selling Intel products to meet the unique needs of local markets worldwide.

Intel said the platform-based organizations reflect "the ongoing convergence of computing and communications by incorporating both capabilities across the new groups."http://www.intel.com

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Intelsat Loses IS-804 Satellite to Electrical Anomaly

Intelsat reported the total loss of its in-orbit IS-804 satellite due to unexpected electrical power system anomaly on January 14. The satellite, launched in 1997, furnished telecommunications and media delivery services to customers in the South Pacific. A number of Intelsat-operated satellites in the region are being utilized to restore service to affected customers. Intelsat expects to record a non-cash impairment charge of approximately $73 million to write off the value of the IS-804 satellite. The IS-804 was not insured.



Intelsat said the loss of the satellite could impact its pending acquisition by private investors led by Zeus Holdings.



Intelsat also stated that it is working with Lockheed Martin Corporation, the manufacturer of the satellite, to identify the cause of the problem. Intelsat currently believes that there is no connection between this event and the recent IA-7 satellite anomaly as the two satellites were manufactured by two different companies and their designs are different.
http://www.intelsat.comIn November 2004, Intelsat reported the loss of its in-orbit Americas-7 satellite following an unexpected electrical distribution anomaly. Customer traffic was diverted to alternative satellites. After a week of intensive recovery efforts, Intelsat regained contact and control of its Americas-7 satellite. The Americas-7 satellite, which operates at 129° West, was launched in September 1999 and covers the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Central America, and parts of South America. The satellite was self-insured by Intelsat.

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Ericsson Selected for T-Mobile's GSM Net in Germany

T-Mobile Germany, the mobile branch of Deutsche Telekom in Germany, selected Ericsson as the supplier and integrator for the replacement of 10,000 of T-Mobile's existing GSM radio base stations. The new equipment will use GSM/GPRS technology. The replacement operation begins in January 2005 and is to be completed in 3 years time. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.ericsson.com

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tel(x) Partners with Hong Kong Colo Provider

tel(x) announced a strategic partnership with HKCOLO, a neutral colocation and network interconnection provider based in Hong Kong. The alliance's goals are to help foster strategic business opportunities between US, Chinese and international carriers. Both carriers and large network enterprise customers in the tel(x) NYC and HKCOLO sites will no longer need to establish a physical PoP (Point of Presence) overseas to interconnect to others in a different hemisphere.
http://www.telx.com/http://www.hkcolo.com/

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QUALCOMM Joins TGn Sync Proposal for 802.11n

QUALCOMM is joining TGn Sync, a cross-industry group that is developing an IEEE 802.11n standard proposal. Previously, QUALCOMM was separately responsible for one of the four remaining 802.11n system proposals that were submitted to IEEE for the development of the next generation of high-performance local area wireless networks.



QUALCOMM is now withdrawing its own proposal from the IEEE process and will back the TGn Sync proposal.



The 802.11n standard is expected to deliver wireless throughputs of 100 Mbps in home networks.



TGn Sync's proposal was developed under the guidelines of the IEEE Standards Association and submitted to the IEEE 802.11 Task Group N (TGn). The group said its proposal dramatically improves the capabilities of wireless networks while supporting the antenna configurations, product designs and protocol requirements of hundreds of millions of cellular handsets, enterprise base stations and Wi-Fi-enabled computers already in use worldwide.
http://www.qualcomm.com/http://www.tgnsync.net/In August 2004, two groups announced plans for joint proposal to the IEEE 802.11 Task Group N (TGn) for the next generation 802.11n standard.

TGn Sync is a coalition backed by Agere Systems, Atheros Communications, Cisco Systems, Intel Corporation, Marvell Semiconductor, Nokia, Nortel Networks, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, SANYO Electric Co., Sony and Toshiba. The companies said their TGn Sync specification would enable wireless LAN data rates to scale up to 243 Mbps in two-antenna designs and over 600 Mbps in larger systems. The proposal also includes methods to reduce power consumption for small mobile phones and increase the user capacity of public networks. The proposal also uses adaptive radio techniques to ensure that wireless products can adjust to the planned expansion of unlicensed and licensed spectrum in China, Japan, South Korea, North America, the European Union (EU), and other regions.

The "WWiSE" consortium is backed by Airgo Networks, Bermai, Broadcom, Conexant Systems, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments. Its proposal would support data throughput in excess of 100Mbps while building upon and extending the capabilities of Wi-Fi. It would specify mandatory modes affording backwards compatibility and interoperability with existing Wi-Fi devices in the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands .

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Aruba Extends WLANs over Internet using IPSec

Aruba Wireless Networks (Aruba) unveiled new technology that enables enterprises to securely extend their 802.1X framework for wireless networks across the Internet using IPSec, securely connect wired and wireless users through the industry's first hybrid grid point and see changes to their RF environment in real time.



The launch includes the Aruba 70, a hybrid wired/wireless grid point in a thin form-factor suitable for wall mounting. It also functions as a secure remote office-in-a- box solution, leveraging IPSec to seamlessly extend the enterprise network across the Internet . The Aruba 70 comes equipped with dual 802.11a/b/g radios, an integral tri-band, omni-directional antenna, external antenna jacks for a variety of 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz antennas, dual Ethernet ports, and a USB port for service extensions (such as UWB, 802.11n, smart cards for added security, Bluetooth detection, WiMax, etc.). Redundant Ethernet ports can be connected to different Ethernet switches on the same or on different subnets. Automatic failover between the two ports ensures non-stop connectivity.



Aruba' new AirOS 2.3 adds an 802.1X VPN solution for securely extending access and grid points across untrusted networks such as the Internet. Unlike competitive solutions that require a trusted and secure transport network, Aruba's remote AP solution leverages IPSec to allow access and grid points to be securely attached to any Internet connection. But unlike IPSec VPNs, Aruba's solution requires no client software or client shims such as with SSL VPNs. Aruba's solutions leverages native 802.1X clients and works with all corporate applications.



Aruba's 2.3 software also adds a live site survey capability, giving administrators real-time monitoring and display of RF coverage and interference. Combining RF calibration technology and RF mapping, companies can now view coverage level, interference sources and other RF data at any point in the network.
http://www.arubanetworks.com/

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Cavium Expands its NITROX Soho Processors

Cavium Networks has expanded its NITROX Soho processor family with the addition of two new devices designed for high performance SOHO/SME gateway with up to 200 Mbps of routing, firewall and VPN throughput and over 100 IKE or SSL transactions per second.



Additionally, these new devices can support multiple security protocols such as: IPSec, SSL and CCMP simultaneously with no performance degradation. The new NITROX Soho CN220 and CN225 are software and footprint compatible with existing family members enabling excellent portability and scalability.



Cavium Networks said SOHO and SME router and gateway performance requirements are rapidly increasing due to new technologies such as wireless 802.11n, FTTH, Broadband Ethernet and VDSL. Additionally, users are demanding full line-rate VPN/Firewall security with support for multiple protocols such as IPSec, CCMP and easy to use SSL VPN technology at mass-market price points. Unlike current processors in this mass-market segment, Cavium's NITROX devices support line rate packet and security performance for these new technologies and they support hardware acceleration for user authentication algorithms such as RSA and DH.



The NITROX Soho Processor family now includes five different hardware and software compatible CN2XX processors in 166MHz or 200MHz versions. All of these devices integrate a MIPS32 4Km Processor with 16KB I-Cache and 16KB D-Cache, 16KB scratchpad and a 32 bit SDRAM main memory interface. The new CN22X products integrate two security acceleration engines, with full packet and protocol processing offload. This frees up the CPU for other applications and enables support of up to 200Mbps of all standard encryption and hashing algorithms.
http://www.cavium.com/

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Bluesocket Raises $10 Million for WLAN Systems

Bluesocket, a start-up based in Burlington, Mass., closed $10 million in Series B equity financing. Bluesocket supplies systems to secure and manage wireless local area networks (WLANs) for enterprises, institutions and public access venues. The company recently was awarded a GSA Federal Supply Schedule contract in addition to achieving FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certification from the US Government's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Canadian Government's Communications Security Establishment (CSE). Bluesocket also recently announced its WG-400 Wireless Gateway, an enterprise-class solution delivering remote administration and management, interoperability and security for wireless LANs operating in remote branch offices.



The internal round had participation from current investors including Vesbridge Partners (formerly St. Paul Venture Capital), Menlo Ventures, Boulder Ventures, Ascent Venture Partners, Ridgewood Capital, and Ironside Ventures. The additional financing brings Bluesocket's total funding to date to $42 million.



Bluesocket also announced it has appointed Peter Smith as Chairman of the Board, in addition to the appointment of Gary Eichhorn to the Board.
http://www.bluesocket.com

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ADTRAN Introduces Modular Radios for TDM and IP

ADTRAN introduced a new series in its TRACER family of license-free wireless products. The new TRACER 6000 Series of modular microwave radios combine TDM and IP functionality in a single 1U chassis. Customers can combine a variety of plug-in modules to meet requirements for all TDM, all IP, or mixed-mode services. Customers with T1 networks can combine TDM T1 and IP services (up to 8 T1s or up to 16 Mbps), while customers with E1 applications have the ability to combine TDM E1 and IP services (up to 8 E1s or up to 16 Mbps).



The radios operate in the 5.8 GHz ISM band for point-to-point connectivity with user adjustable bandwidth up to 16 Mbps full duplex at distances up to 48.3 km (30 miles). They offer multiple software-selectable channel plans and are firmware upgradable via TFTP or XMODEM.
http://www.adtran.com

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