PCTEL VoIP Roaming Client for Wi-Fi, GSM

PCTEL released a VoIP-Enabled Roaming Client that enables users to initiate and receive calls using a single number on cellular and IP networks. The initial release operates over GSM and Wi-Fi networks. Later releases will incorporate CDMA standards. The VoIP client was developed in cooperation with a leading MobileVoIP infrastructure vendor.



Key features of the Roaming Client VE include connection management, profile management, Wi-Fi HotSpot authentication and 802.1x / WPA security. The Roaming Client-VE utilizes SIM-EAP for authentication. Using a single user interface, a user can share contacts, call histories, and other common phone features.



PCTEL said that the latest 3G/WiFi Smart Phones will be able to initiate a VoIP call from a Wi-Fi HotSpot and then maintain that call while roaming onto a cellular network, when supported by the appropriate infrastructure. The initial release will roam in standby mode.



PCTEL currently supplies its Roaming Client products to T-Mobile (U.S.), Cingular, SBC, NTT DoCoMo, NTT Communications, GoRemote and others.
http://www.pctel.com

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Navtel Releases SIP Discovery Tool

Navtel Communications announced the immediate availability of a "SIP Discovery" expert analysis tool. SIP Discovery is capable of measuring any device's load and message transfer/response latency over long periods of time, The tool can be used to determine and display each session's status and all analysis results can be exported to cross-platform file format. It is available on both Navtel's InterWatch platform and any Windows-based PC.
http://www.navtelcom.com

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U.S. House Plans Hearings on Telecom Act of 96

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet is expected to hold the first of four telecom hearings next week on updating The Telecommunications Act of 1996. Congressman Fred Upton (R-Michigan), who heads the subcommittee, expects that a bill will be introduced following the hearings and that it will be brought to the House floor for a vote by summer.http://energycommerce.house.gov/

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Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium Starts Work

The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC), an international collaborative forum created in September 2004 to advance a new vision of networking technology for governments and the military, has named a 17-member Advisory Council. The mission of the NCOIC is to accelerate interoperability in systems that serve military, homeland security, civil and commercial users.



The group will work to identify the enabling technology approaches that enable the network-centric transformation of the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, as well as the Ministries of Defense of allied governments.



The NCOIC is Chaired by Dr. Paul Kaminski, who served as U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology from 1994 to 1997. The other members of the NCOIC Advisory Council include senior military, intelligence and Homeland Security officials.
http://www.ncoic.org/

• Founding corporate members of NCOIC include BAE Systems, Boeing, CACI, Carrillo Business Technologies, Cisco Systems, EADS, EMC Corporation, Ericsson, Factiva, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, HP, Honeywell, IBM, Innerwall, L-3 Communications (Integrated Systems), Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Oracle, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, SAAB, SAIC, Smiths Aerospace, Sun Microsystems, Thales, and Themis with The Open Group acting as the management company.

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Cox to Extend Circuit Switched Telephony Contract with ARRIS

Cox Communications intends to continue to deploy ARRIS' Cornerstone Constant Bit Rate (CBR) telephony equipment. Cox also intent to utilize ARRIS Touchstone Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adapters (E-MTAs) as it transitions to VoIP in new and future VoIP markets. The companies have signed a letter of intent covering these two decisions.
http://www.arrisi.com/

• In November 2004, Cox Communications announced the availability of Cox Digital Telephone in Southwest Louisiana, its fifth market where it is offering cable VoIP service and its 17th market with phone service. Recently, Cox launched Cox Digital Telephone via VoIP in Tulsa, Okla., Baton Rouge, La., and West Texas.

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BT Outsources HR Work to Accenture

BT awarded a 10-year, £306 million (US$575 million) business process outsourcing (BPO) and transformation contract to Accenture for human resource (HR) administration services. The contract significantly expands the geographic reach of services that Accenture has been providing to BT under a previous five-year contract.



Accenture currently provides HR services to BT's 87,000 employees and 180,000 pensioners in the United Kingdom. Under the new contract, Accenture will provide services to those BT employees and pensioners, as well as to another 10,000 BT employees in 37 countries around the world who were not covered in the previous contract.
http://www.btplc.com

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Deutsche Telekom Launches Security Initiative

Deutsche Telekom is launching an initiative aimed at making all of its services more secure, said Kai-Uwe Ricke, Deutsche Telekom's Chairman, at a press event in Bonn. Among the actions promised are the following items: all T-Online e-mail boxes will be equipped with free and individual virus and spam protection; and T-Mobile will introduce a solution to protect cell phones and mobile computers from viruses.
http://www.telekom.de

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Flarion Announces FLASH-OFDM Flexband

Flarion Technologies unveiled its "Flexband" architecture for the delivery of wireless, high-capacity, on-demand video, voice and data services. FLASH-OFDM Flexband is a mobile broadband packet-switched technology for mobile operators with either 1.25MHz or 5MHz licensed spectrum.



Flexband leverages Flarion's BeaconTone technology, which maximizing data capacity and throughput for each individual subscriber. BeaconTone technology enables subscriber devices to continuously monitor in-band interference and instantaneously select the most optimal carrier to deliver maximum bandwidth and performance. The combination of Flexband and BeaconTone technology improves the subscriber experience, network efficiency and operator capacity for high-bandwidth services.



Flarion said a FLASH-OFDM Flexband network would provide the industry's highest subscriber capacity for both voice and data. In a fully supported 5MHz multi-carrier system voice calls increase to 186 per sector and data rates increase to 15.9Mbps peak and 6Mbps sustainable. Flexband delivers the industry's highest data capacity, supporting over 600 subscribers consuming 1GByte of data per month.



Flarion estimates that its Flexband enables delivery costs are as low as $10 for 1GByte of data per subscriber per month. A single 1.25MHz Flexband carrier sector will be able to deliver peak downlink data rates of 5.3Mbps, 1.8Mbps uplink, 2.5Mbps sustainable sector throughput and consistent high-speed data performance of up to 800Kbps at the cell edge.



The company said Flexband has already been in field tests with mobile operators and results have validated the performance and capacity, doubling the average subscriber experience.
http://www.flarion.com

• In October 2004, Siemens Communications agreed to integrate Flarion Technologies' FLASH-OFDM technology into its portfolio of mobile broadband solutions. The companies have also signed a memorandum of understanding under which Flarion will develop basic 450 MHz-band equipment according to Siemens specifications.

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Global Crossing Launches International Wireless Services Exchange

Global Crossing announced the launch of a "Wireless Services Exchange", an extranet solution that provides mobile network operators with a mechanism for the international delivery of multiple services over a single direct interconnect.


Wireless Services Exchange will be launched in multiple phases, with an initial introduction in the first half of 2005 delivering international mobile-to-mobile routing with caller line identity (CLI) and point-to-point video with differentiated billing. The second release, to be launched later in 2005, will include global roaming exchange services (GRX), short messaging services (SMS) and multimedia messaging services (MMS).


Global Crossing said its Wireless Services Exchange would help mobile network operators to ensures the consistent, high-quality delivery voice and video applications, while supporting the imminent convergence with IP data services, with guaranteed feature performance such as caller line identity.


Wireless Services Exchange enables the convergence of both voice and video traffic over the same connection. The service also has the capability to offer differentiated billing for point-to-point video. This means mobile network operators do not have the cost of providing separate circuits for just video traffic, as Global Crossing's underlying VoIP network supports the required signaling quality and creates identifiable video call records for billing purposes.


The data services will be delivered via this converged circuit and the same interconnection as voice prior to the mobile operators' network convergence. These data services will include GRX, inter-carrier messaging, content delivery and video gateways for other services.
http://www.globalcrossing.com

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Bell Canada Reaches 1.8 million DSL. 1.5 Million Satellite Video Customers

Bell Canada reported continued subscriber growth in wireless, video and DSL for Q4 and full year 2004. For the year, the company added nearly one million new subscribers for its digital services. Some highlights:

• Bell Canada reported 2004 revenue of $19.2 billion, up 2.4% and EBITDA of $7.6 billion, an increase of 2.1% over the full year 2003. For the fourth quarter of 2004, the company reported revenue of $5.0 billion, up 3.5%, and EBITDA of $1.8 billion, down 0.9% when compared to the same period last year.



• Despite challenges presented by the migration to a new billing platform, Bell Canada's wireless subscriber base grew by 513,000 subscribers in 2004, matching the growth recorded in 2003. The company added 217,000 subscribers in the quarter, exceeding last year's fourth quarter level of net activations by 15%. Wireless churn for the full year was 1.3%, reflecting a 0.1% point improvement compared to full year 2003. Churn for the fourth quarter was 1.4%, unchanged from the same period last year.



• Bell reached a significant milestone at the end of 2004, signing on its 1.5 millionth video customer. For the full year, 116,000 new video customers were added, an increase of 40% over 2003. Bell added 43,000 new video customers in the fourth quarter, 23% better than the growth achieved in the fourth quarter in 2003.



• Bell ended the year having signed access agreements with 335 multi- dwelling unit (MDU) buildings for its VDSL service, ahead of its target for the year of 300 buildings. More than half of new VDSL customers are also signing up for Sympatico High Speed service.



• Bell ended 2004 with 1.8 million DSL customers, an increase of 24% over the previous year. On a full year basis, 350,000 new customers were added slightly less than in 2003. During the fourth quarter, 91,000 new customers were added, slightly above last year.



• Growth of value added services (VAS) sold to Sympatico DSL customers increased significantly during the full year and the fourth quarter. The year ended with a total of 624,000 subscriptions, more than double year end 2003 and there were 337,000 net VAS additions in the fourth quarter alone. Nearly one out of every four DSL customers takes at least one VAS.



• Adoption of the Bell "Digital Bundle" (a combination of video, wireless and high-speed Internet services) continued to accelerate through 2004 and in the fourth quarter. For the full year, customers purchased 368,000 new bundles. In the fourth quarter, customers purchased 118,000 new bundles and 49% of these customers added at least one new service.



• Telesat's Anik F2 satellite began commercial operation and became the world's first satellite to commercialize the Ka band. This frequency band delivers two-way broadband services enabling high-speed satellite service to consumers and businesses in Canada and the United States. Telesat also has two satellites pending launch. The Anik F1-R has been constructed and is now in testing phase with launch planned for this summer and commercial service to begin in the fall. Anik F3 is currently under construction for a planned launch in the latter half of 2006.

http://www.bce.ca

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Cortina Acquires Azanda Network Devices

Cortina Systems has acquired Azanda Network Devices. Financial terms were not disclosed. Cortina will offer its customers Azanda's traffic management and ATM SAR (Segmentation And Reassembly) products. Azanda's support and development team, which has moved into Cortina's new Sunnyvale headquarters and has been integrated into Cortina's team, will continue to support existing and future customers.



Cortina's multiple product lines support SONET/SDH, POS/GFP, as well as RPR and Ethernet and are tailored to Routing, Transport and Enterprise applications. Azanda, by contrast, has concentrated on ATM-to-IP protocol conversion, a particularly complex engineering problem.



In combining the two approaches, Cortina said it will now be able to offer a total solution to its customers.
http://www.cortina-systems.com

• In April 2004, Cortina Systems, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, raised $20 million in new venture funding for its analog and digital integrated circuits for the networking and communications equipment. Cortina's technology enables very high-speed analog and digital capabilities to be combined on the same CMOS device while meeting stringent SONET jitter requirements. The company is currently shipping chips that support multiple protocols, which include RPR and Ethernet MACs, SONET/SDH/Ethernet framers, and high speed SERDES, running at multiple rates from OC3 to OC192 and GE to 10GE.



• Cortina Systems is headed by Amir Nayyerhabibi, who previously was co-founder and Vice President of Engineering at StratumOne Communications, which was acquired by Cisco in 1999. He also managed the development of 12416 and 12410 Cisco GSR Router programs.



• In December 2003, Azanda Network Devices, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, closed $10 million in a Series C funding round for its advanced traffic management silicon. All of Azanda's current major investors participated in the funding round, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Highland Capital Partners, Newbury Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, GS PEP Technology Fund, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and Wall Street Technology Partners LP, a New York-based technology fund managed by Dresdner Kleinwort Capital (DrKC). Total announced funding in the company at that point was around $53 million since its founding in 2000.

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Verizon Activates FTTP in Washington D.C. Suburbs

Verizon began offering its FiOS FTTP residential service in several suburban areas in Maryland and Virginia, including Chevy Chase View, Falls Church, Garrett Park, Glenmont, Kensington and Wheaton. The company is offering three classes of service with downstream (download) speeds of up to 5, 15 and 30 Mbps.



The new Maryland network will also cover parts of Bethesda, Burtonsville, Cabin John, Cloverly, Colesville, Fairland, Forest Glen, Four Corners, Glenn Echo, Oakmont, Pooks Hill, Silver Spring, Spencerville and White Oak in Montgomery County.



The new Virginia network will cover parts of Annandale, Falls Church, Herndon, Leesburg, McLean, Oakton and Springfield, as well as other parts of Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties. The company will launch FiOS Internet service in these areas as it becomes available.
http://www.verizon.net/fios

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iBasis Reports 16% Sequential Rise in VoIP Minutes of Use

Minutes of use on The iBasis Network in Q4 2004 rose to 1.5 billion, a 57% increase over the 955 million minutes carried in the fourth quarter 2003, and a 16% increase over the 1.3 billion minutes in the third quarter 2004. For the full year 2004, iBasis completed 4.9 billion minutes of international VoIP calls, which is more than 16% of all international VoIP minutes, according to forecasts from Telegeography 2005.



Average revenue per minute declined to 5.0 cents per minute in the fourth quarter 2004, down from 5.5 cents per minute in the third quarter 2004. This decline is predominantly due to a shift in traffic mix, which also resulted in reducing our cost per minute to 4.3 cents, down from 4.7 cents per minute in Q3 2004. Average revenue per minute is based on our reported net revenue divided by minutes of traffic.



iBasis noted that it doubled the volume of traffic it carried to mobile phones in 2004.



Financially, iBasis reported Q4 revenue of $75.1 million, compared to $53.2 million for the fourth quarter 2003. Net loss was $1.2 million or $(0.02) per share compared to a net loss for the fourth quarter 2003 of $2.6 million or $(0.06) per share.



"The fourth quarter was another record quarter with increased minutes, revenue, and margin, and lower expenses," said Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis.
http://www.ibasis.net

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ECI Telecom Reports Sixth Consecutive Quarter of Revenue Growth

ECI Telecom reported Q4 2004 revenue of $140 million, a 36% increase from $103 million in the fourth quarter of 2003 and $128 million in the third quarter of 2004. Net profit for the quarter reached $8.9 million, or $0.08 per share on a fully diluted basis, compared with a net loss of $13.6 million, or $0.13 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2003 and net profit of $6 million, or $0.05 per share, in the third quarter of 2004. This quarter represents the sixth consecutive quarter of increased revenues for the company. Some highlights:

• Revenues for the Broadband Access Division increased to $60 million in the quarter, up 28% from a year ago and a 10% rise from last quarter. Operating income for the Division reached $9.7 million, compared to $3.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2003 and $6.4 million in the third quarter of 2004.



• Revenues for the Optical Networks Division jumped 48% from a year ago and reached $72 million for the quarter, compared to $49 million in the fourth quarter of 2003 and $69 million in the third quarter. The Division continued to improve its profitability, reaching an operating profit of $2.8 million for the quarter, compared with an $8.7 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2003 and an operating profit of $2.2 million in the third quarter.

Commenting on the results, Doron Inbar, President and CEO said, "We are very pleased with our 2004 results. We had said at the beginning of the year that 2004 would be our year of return to profitability. We have now delivered on that promise: after four years of losses, ECI is now reporting profitability for the entire year. Not only have we reached this target, but we believe that we are now firmly on a path of sustained growth in both revenues and profits, which we believe we can carry into 2005. Bookings in both of our core divisions continued to rise in the fourth quarter and backlog at year-end reached its highest level in recent years. We believe that our core focal areas, Broadband Access and Metro Optical Networks, particularly in Europe and in Emerging Markets, continue to represent strong growth opportunities.
http://www.ecitele.com

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T-Systems Signs Deal with New Edge Networks

T-Systems North America has selected New Edge Networks' nationwide broadband access solutions and services to expand its global IP VPN solution. New Edge Networks will provide T-Systems North America, a division of Deutsche Telekom, with nationwide Frame Relay over DSL and xDSL broadband access services, enabling broadband access into T-Systems' global network platform.



New Edge Networks' core and extended DSL coverage spans about 9,000 telephone company central office locations that are equipped for DSL service across the U.S.
http://www.newedgenetworks.com
http://www.t-systemsus.com

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India's RailTel Selects Juniper for Nationwide IP/MPLS

India's RailTel Corporation selected Juniper Networks' M-series multiservice edge routing platform to help transform its nationwide TDM-based railway network into one of the country's largest IP/MPLS networks. RailTel operates a vast optical network currently comprised of 25,000 kilometers of cabling. RailTel plans to grow this infrastructure to 40,000 kilometers in the next three to four years. RailTel points of presence (POPs) will be available at every railway station (totaling approximately 4,000 POPs by 2008), providing secure Internet connections to railway customers. The current project with Juniper calls for the installation of M-series platforms in 38 cities in India. RailTel will be able to use the new network to offer a wide variety of value-added services including Layer 3 IP VPNs, Layer 2 virtual leased line services, VPLS and managed IP VPN services with QoS. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.juniper.nethttp://www.railtelindia.com

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Veraz Launches Wireless Network Compression Solution

Veraz Networks launched a new Wireless Network Compression solution that allows wireless carriers to benefit from VoIP when they are required to transport calls over leased lines. The solution, based on Veraz's I-Gate 4000 PRO media gateways, provides voice compression as high as 12 to 1 over VoIP trunks. In addition to the high quality compression and echo cancellation, the Wireless Network Compression solution features silence suppression with superior Voice Activity Detection (VAD) and Comfort Noise Generation (CNG), and intelligent packet loss concealment (PLC) with low-delay and non-blocking.



Veraz said wireless operators are able to lower their operational costs by using compressed VoIP to transport calls when they are required to lease circuits. This is often the case when interconnecting sites across regulated borders. In India, as well as many other countries, wireless operators are required to interconnect their Mobile Switching Centers over expensive leased circuits.



"For mobile operators, our solution actually enables them to significantly lower the toll that they currently pay, and thus provide much more competitive rates to their customers," said Amit Chawla, Executive VP, Global Marketing at Veraz Networks.
http://www.veraznetworks.com

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Enterasys Gear Deployed by USAF

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base in Florida have completed a large-scale deployment of Enterasys Networks' gear as part of the Air Force's Combat Information Transport System (CITS). The CITS program, which is managed out of Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts, is responsible for Air Force-wide communications upgrades.



The bid process for the network infrastructure for the CITS program began in 2002, with a network design from General Dynamics. Overall, the Air Force purchased $3 million of Enterasys technology beginning in late 2002, culminating with the dedication of the new network in November 2004.



Enterasys technology is deployed at the edge of the networks, with 38 Matrix E-Series switches and other technology deployed at Cape Canaveral, and more than 40 Matrix switches and related products at Patrick AFB.
http://www.enterasys.com

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Circadiant Systems Appoints My Chung as CEO

Circadiant Systems, a supplier of optical testing equipment, named My Chung as president and CEO. John French, co-founder and previous CEO, was named Executive Vice President.



Chung previously served as Executive Director and Group President of Spirent Communications. Prior to joining Spirent, My spent 11 years at TTC (now Acterna) and, before that, Chung held various sales, systems engineering and account management positions within divisions of Hewlett-Packard which have become Agilent Technologies.
http://www.circadiant.com

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