Cablevision to Sell Satellite Unit to Echostar for $200 Million

EchoStar Communications agreed to acquire Cablevision's direct broadcast satellite and certain other related assets for $200 million. The deal includes the Rainbow 1 satellite, located at the 61.5 degree W.L. orbital position, as well as FCC licenses to construct, launch and operate DBS services over 11 frequency channels at the 61.5 degree W.L. orbital location. In addition, EchoStar will acquire the contents of Rainbow DBS's ground facility in Black Hawk, S.D. and related assets. The EchoStar III satellite is also located at 61.5 degrees West...

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Agilent to Acquire Wavics for Handset Power Amplifiers

Agilent Techonologies agreed to acquire Wavics, a Korean-based designer and manufacturer of power amplifier modules for the worldwide mobile handset market. The technology reduces battery power consumption and allows CDMA and W-CDMA handsets to run cooler. Agilent said it plans to combine this new power amplifier capability with its miniature FBAR (film bulk acoustic resonator) filters to create higher-performance CDMA and W-CDMA front-end modules. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.agilent.com http://www.wavics....

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China's ZTE Reports 2004 Sales of US$4.1 Billion, up 169%

ZTE Corporation reported 2004 contract sales of RMB34 billion (approximately US$4,111 million), of which RMB13.6 billion (approximately US$1,644 million) was attributable to international sales, representing a year-on-year increase of 169.5%. The company said sales of handsets for the year 2004 exceeded 10 million sets, up 100% over the previous year. In particular, ZTE cited strength in GSM and 3G wireless technology. The company is now supplying its GSM equipment in over 20 countries. http://www.zte.cn/English/02news/detail.jsp?CateName=Ne...

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Lucent Supplies Optical Network for Jiangsu Telecom

Jiangsu Telecom has activated its next generation optical transmission network using Lucent Technologies' LambdaUnite Multi-Service Switch (MSS). Lucent also supplied the Navis Optical Management System, as well as technical support from Lucent Worldwide Services (LWS) to Jiangsu Telecom. LWS provided installation and testing services, and on-site support. The contract was first announced in May 2004. Lucent said the network marks the first deployment of Automatic Switched Optical Network (ASON) technology in China. A distributed control plane...

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Polaris Cites Gains for its Next-Generation DCS Solution

Polaris Networks, a start-up based in San Jose, California, announced a three year agreement to supply its Optical Multiservice Multiband Switch for deployment in McLeodUSA's metro networks. McLeodUSA plans to use the platform for wideband technology to support growth in its 25-state footprint by integrating its SONET transport network directly with cross-connect platforms in a cap-and-grow deployment. Financial terms were not disclosed. Polaris...

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Scientific-Atlanta PVR Selected by Telewest

Telewest Broadband selected Scientific-Atlanta's Explorer 8300DVB PVR set-top for a new personal video recorder service to be launched in the UK in 2005. The current interactive platform is based on middleware provided by Liberate and the Conditional Access System provided by Nagravision. This vendor integration effort, currently underway and scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2005, will be followed by launch of Telewest Broadband's PVR service in the second half of 2005. The new Explorer 8300DVB PVR will incorporate a DOCSIS tuner...

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SingTel Launches 3.5 Mbps Unlimited DSL Service

SingTel launched a new BroadBand 3500kbps Unlimited Plan targeted at residential customers. The service comes bundled with music downloads, video-on-demand and games. In line with the launch of its new 3500kbps Unlimited, SingNet BroadBand has also upgraded the upload speed of its existing 1500kbps service, to be on par with that of its new plan. The new upload speed for both its 1500kbps and 3500kbps plans is 350kbps. Each new subscriber is also provided access to more than 260 SingTel Wi-Fi hotspots throughout Singapore. http://www.sing...

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BT Wholesale appoints Managing Director

Cameron Rejali has been appointed managing director for products and strategy for BT Wholesale. Rejali joins BT Wholesale from the Sprint Corporation where he was most recently vice president of product management and development. http://www.btplc....

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Nortel Signs 3G Partner in China

Nortel announced a joint venture partnership with China Putian Corporation for research and development (R&D), manufacture and sale of third generation (3G) mobile telecommunications equipment and products to customers in China. China Putian, a state-owned enterprise, is one of the largest telecommunication equipment manufacturers in China. When established, the new company - named Putian-Nortel Networks Telecommunications Equipment Co.- will likely be headquartered in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, and will focus on TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous...

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Zhone Adds Voice Gateway Module to Access Concentrators

Zhone Technologies announced the availability of its new "VoiceFLEX" Voice Gateway module for its Multi-Access Line Concentrator (MALC) platform. With this new feature set, the MALC enables a full array of voice, data and video services over circuit or packet-based networks with TDM support for both GR-303 and V5.2, ATM support for AAL2 and ELCP, as well as VoIP support for both SIP and MGCP standards-based service implementations. The MALC with VoiceFLEX can be configured to deliver a range of narrowband and broadband services for residential...

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CableLabs Streamlines Testing in System Evaluation Group

CableLabs has established a new System Evaluation Group to handle certification, qualification and verification testing across all products in all projects. The new unit, which aggregates testing resources from across CableLabs, will help streamline testing for the growing number of products which are integrating functionality -- such as DOCSIS-enabled set-top boxes and residential gateways with CableHome, DOCSIS and PacketCable capabilities. The new group is headed by Craig Chamberlain. The group will have six unit heads: Mark Meyer, Director...

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Halo2 Drives Xbox Live Traffic

"Halo 2," which has sold more than 6.4 million copies worldwide since its launch in November 2004, is continuing to drive traffic on Microsoft's Xbox live service. The Xbox Live community has logged a record-breaking 91 million hours playing "Halo 2" since the title's launch -- more than any other Xbox Live game in the two-year history of the service. In addition, the gameplay has resulted in close to 61 million logged sessions on the game, with an average session lasting nearly 92 minutes, approximately the length of a major motion picture. Microsoft's...

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MCI to Acquire NetSec for Managed Security Services

MCI agreed to acquire NetSec, a privately-held provider of managed security services, for approximately $105 million in cash. NetSec provides managed and professional security services to top U.S. government agencies and some major corporate clients. It currently offers security monitoring and management capabilities in 32 countries. MCI said the acquisition accelerates its strategy to deliver next generation IP-based security services to our business and government customers. MCI plans to combine its network-based intelligence with NetSec's premise-based...

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AT&T Profit Rises, Revenue Falls in Challenging Market

AT&T reported Q4 consolidated revenue of $7.3 billion, which included $5.5 billion from AT&T Business and $1.8 billion from AT&T Consumer. Consolidated revenue declined 10.2% versus the fourth quarter of 2003, primarily due to continued declines in long-distance (LD) voice and data revenue, partially offset by an increase in bundled services revenue and solid growth in key services in the enterprise market, such as Internet Protocol & Enhanced services (IP&E-services). Net income was $625 million, or earnings per diluted share...

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