Optical Internetworking Forum Launches New Project

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) is embarking on two new technical projects: the Architecture and Signaling working group, in conjunction with the Carrier working group, will address Neighbor Discovery as it applies to links used by the optical control plane. Neighbor Discovery is a process that allows the control plane to identify new links and to initialize the control plane to use those links. OIF working groups will seek to define Neighbor Discovery requirements based on carrier scenarios and define control plane extensions to achieve...

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NEC Assembles 3G Base Stations in China

NEC has commenced production of 3rd Generation mobile radio base stations (Node-B)at one of its production sites in China. The facility procures major core pre-product modules, such as channel coding cards and line cards, from NEC's major manufacturing sites in Japan, and other general parts such as power modules and racks from local vendors. The plant then assembles and customizes them according to the requirement of each operator.The first lot of the products has been delivered in January to operators in Europe. The plant will also be used for...

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Alcatel to Resell Widevine Cypher for TVoDSL

Alcatel has entered into a global agreement to resell Widevine Technologies' Cypher technology-Virtual SmartCard and Application Level encryption for securing content over video networks. The Widevine Virtual SmartCard solution is currently used a content security solution in the TVoDSL and FTTH markets. The companies cited Chunghwa Telecom's rollout as the catalyst for their agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.widevine.com/http://www.alcatel....

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StarOne Selects Alcatel for South American Satellite

Star One, the largest satellite solutions company in Latin America, awarded a contract valued at US$150 million to Alcatel for the construction of a telecommunications satellite serving South America. It is the second satellite that Alcatel will build for the Brazilian operator.Star One C2, which will be based on the Alcatel Space Spacebus 3000B3 platform, will be fitted with 44 transponders, 28 C-band and 16 Ku-band and 1 X-band. Star One C2 will replace the Star One B2 satellite in the C band for direct TV broadcasting over South America...

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Siemens Sets up Carrier Ethernet Network in Kenya

Kenya Data Networks Ltd. (KDN) has commissioned Siemens Communications to deliver, install and maintain an optical network. The fiber optic rings will be installed in Nairobi and equipped with Siemens Carrier Ethernet technology. The installation is planned for completion in spring of 2005. By that time the metro network should cover a distance of 35 kilometers. Financial terms were not disclosed.The main components in the network are Surpass hiD products, which were developed jointly by Siemens and the Korean company Dasan. Siemens has been the...

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T-Com Selects Marconi for Europe's First 40G Optical Network

T-Com, the fixed-network unit of Deutsche Telekom, awarded a three-year contract to Marconi to build Europe's first 40 Gbps optical network. Marconi will supply T-Com with its Multihaul 3000 DWDM transmission platform and its ServiceOn Optical network management system. The Multihaul 3000 will act as an expressway carrying high-bandwidth traffic between switching nodes in the network, with a capacity of 3.2 Tbps (terabits per second) on each optical fiber pair. This will give T-Com an unrivalled capacity in its core network. T-Com's decision...

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CableLabs Issues Headend VoD Specs

CableLabs issued the first set of specifications to aid in the creation of next-generation Video-on-Demand (VoD) cable services through the development of headend metadata and content distribution documents. Common metadata specifications are expected to pave the way for new types of VoD application models, such as enhanced VoD, subscription VoD, advertising, and audio services in the cable headend. The newly released specifications build upon a family of specifications that currently are in use. The ADI2.0 (Asset Distribution Interface) Asset...

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Broadcom Reports Q4 Revenue of $539 Million

Broadcom reported Q4 net revenue of $539.4 million, a decrease of 16.6% from the $646.5 million reported for Q3 2004 and an increase of 12.6% from the $479.1 million reported for Q4 2003. Q4 net income (GAAP) was $71.1 million, or $.20 per share (diluted), compared with GAAP net income of $43.9 million, or $.13 per share (diluted), for Q3 2004. "As discussed previously, our fourth quarter results were negatively impacted by the industry-wide inventory correction that affected all of Broadcom's business groups, but which was most pronounced within...

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Nokia Estimates 1.7 Billion Mobile Users Worldwide

Nokia reported record mobile device volumes in Q4 2004, saying it now estimates that mobile subscriptions worldwide number 1.7 billion. The company cited the ongoing boom in growth markets such as Latin America, Russia, India and China, and brisk sales of color screen and camera phones. However, Nokia's North American phone volumes were disappointing. Nokia's full-year 2004 mobile device market share was 32%, based on an estimated market volume of 643 million units. Additional highlights of the quarterly report include:Q4 net sales increased 3%...

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Verizon Cites Strong Wireless Growth, Good Start for FTTP

Verizon Communications' Q4 revenues increased 6.2% to a record $18.3 billion, driven by a 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit, year-over-year revenue increases for wireless services. Wireless contributed $27.7 billion to the corporation's $71.3 billion total revenues in 2004. For the fourth quarter 2004, Verizon reported earnings of $3.0 billion, or $1.08 per diluted share, compared with a loss of $1.5 billion, or 53 cents per share, in the fourth quarter 2003. Some highlights for the quarter:Verizon Wireless contributed more than 40 percent...

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T-Mobile USA Adds 1 Million Net Customers in Q4

T-Mobile USA added more than 1 million net new customers in Q4 2004, compared to 901,000 in the third quarter of 2004 and 1,015,000 in Q4 2003. The company ended the year with over 17.3 million customers. Net new postpay customer additions amounted to 812,000 in Q4. Postpay churn was 2.6%, the same as the third quarter of 2004. Blended churn, a mix of postpay and prepay customers, was 3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2004, up from 3.0% in the third quarter of 2004, and down from 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2003. http://www.t-mobile....

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Chunghwa Telecom Consolidates on Cisco 12800 Routers

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom has selected Cisco Systems for an IP Next Generation Network to consolidate traffic of all its services. Cisco 12800 Series Routers will be deployed to scale company's IP backbone to support all its services including MPLS VPNs, multicast video, VoIP and other Internet-related services. Since 2001, Chunghwa Telecom's HiNet division has used the Cisco 12000 Series Routers for its broadband infrastructure. The major installation of the CHT IP network took less than two months. The upgraded network is expected to serve more...

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France's neuf telecom Expands TV-over-DSL Network

neuf telecom's has reached a major milestone in delivering broadband services throughout France with the deployment of a network connecting 3,000 cities in 18 months. neuf telecom is using Cisco equipment for the extension and expansion of its network to support local loop unbundling and to facilitate triple-play over ADSL to residential customers. Cisco's 7600 Series routers, Catalyst 3000 Series switches and Cisco IOS network infrastructure software are used to provide the QoS-enabled multi-service network, supporting intelligent video distribution...

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SBC Offers Discounted 3 Mbps Service

SBC Communications trimmed the price on its fastest DSL tier for bundle customers. SBC Yahoo! DSL Pro service, which provides download speeds of up to 3 Mbps, is now $29.99 a month with a one-year term agreement and when bundled with an SBC unlimited local and long distance calling plan. Previously, the lowest price for the 3 Mbps service was $36.99 when ordered online or as part of a Total Connections bundle with a one-year term agreementhttp://www.sbc....

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Nortel Appoints Peter Currie as CFO

Nortel Networks announced today the appointment of Peter Currie as CFO. Currie is rejoining Nortel as he had previously served as senior vice president and chief financial officer from 1994 until early 1997. He most recently served as vice chairman and chief financial officer of RBC Financial Group, one of North America's leading financial services organizations. This appointment was made following the decision by William Kerr, the current CFO, to step down from this position, which he had assumed last year to lead the completion of the restatement....

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DIRECTV Adds 444,000 Subscribers in Q4

The DIRECTV Group added 444,000 net subscribers in Q4, driving full year 2004 additions to more than 1.7 million. As of December 31, the total number of DIRECTV platform subscribers was 13.94 million representing an annual growth rate of 14% compared to the 12.21 million platform subscribers as of December 31, 2003. Additional highlights include:DIRECTV U.S. gross subscriber additions in Q4 increased by 21% to a fourth quarter record of 1,103,000 due to higher penetration rates in local channel markets,Q4 ARPU was $71.92, compared to $71.75 a...

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ECI Telecom's Hi-FOCuS Employed for Video/DSL

ECI Telecom announced today that over 1 million of its installed Hi-FOCuS broadband lines will be used by carriers to deliver video over copper. The company said its customers in several countries, including Taiwan and France, have recently received approvals and licenses to deliver TV & video over broadband networks. http://www.ecitele....

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Novatel Wireless Raises Guidance Citing EV-DO Card Sales

Novatel Wireless increased its financial guidance citing increasing shipments of its newly introduced EV-DO cards and quad-band UMTS cards. The company is currently expecting first quarter revenues to more than double from the prior year period and range between $32 to $34 million. http://www.novatelwireless....

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PMC-Sierra Reports Q4 Revenue of $61.8 Million

PMC-Sierra reported Q4 revenues of $61.8 million compared with $71.2 million for the third quarter of 2004 and $70.6 million for the same period a year ago. This represented a decrease in revenues of 13 percent sequentially and 12 percent on a year-over-year basis. GAAP net income in the fourth quarter of 2004 was $13.1 million (GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.07). This compares to GAAP net income of $6.3 million in the third quarter of 2004 (GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.03). "We believe that our revenues stabilized in the fourth...

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WSJ: SBC and AT&T Holding Acquisition Talks

The Wall Street Journal reported that SBC Communications is in talks to acquire AT&T in a deal potentially valued at over $15 billion. The combination, if approved by regulators, would give SBC access to AT&T corporate and government customers, as well as the largest Internet backbone, among other assets. http://www.wsj....

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