Comcast and TiVo Announce 7-Year Strategic Partnership

Comcast agreed to make the TiVo service and advertising capability widely available to its cable customers in the majority of its markets around the country. Under the multiyear non-exclusive agreement, Comcast and TiVo will work together to develop a version of the TiVo service that will be made available on Comcast's current primary DVR platform. New software will be developed by TiVo and will be incorporated into Comcast's existing network platforms. The new service will be marketed with the TiVo brand, and is expected to be available on Comcast's...

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Ditech Introduces its Next Gen Echo Cancellation

Ditech Communications introduced its next generation in voice quality solutions, combining 192 millisecond hybrid echo cancellation and bi-directional acoustic echo cancellation to control the effects of echo across converging networks. The solution is positioned to help mobile carriers provide superior voice quality in increasingly complex network interconnections and as they transition from circuit to packet, protecting both the caller and call recipient from the annoying effects of echo regardless of the network infrastructure in the call path.The...

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Motorola Scales its Multimedia Messaging Service Center

Motorola has expanded the capacity of its Multimedia Messaging Service Center (MMSC) to support more than 40 million subscribers. The MMSC enhancements also enable video messaging and picture messaging interoperability.Motorola's MMSC allows for transfer of multimedia information from various MMS-enabled handsets or devices across CDMA, GSM, EDGE, UMTS and IP networks to provide full interoperability between multiple e-mail users on the Internet, and inter-carrier multimedia messaging. Motorola said MMS is evolving beyond person-to-person (P2P)...

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SEC Charges Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio and Eight Others with Massive Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Joseph P. Nacchio, former co-chairman and chief executive officer of Qwest Communications International Inc., and eight other former Qwest officers and employees with fraud and other violations of the federal securities laws. In three separate but related civil actions, the Commission alleges that, between 1999 and 2002, the Qwest defendants engaged in a multi-faceted fraudulent scheme designed to mislead the investing public about the company's revenue and growth."The disclosure fraud at Qwest...

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Verizon's CEO Lobbies for MCI Merger Approval

Verizon's acquisition of MCI is "the next logical step" in a changing telecommunications industry and will enable the combined company to compete for large-business, government and critical national security customers, Ivan Seidenberg, the chairman and CEO of Verizon, told the Senate Judiciary Committee.Seidenberg argued that Verizon with MCI assures that a strong competitor remains in the marketplace, thereby enhancing competition rather than eliminating it. Seidenberg assured lawmakers that Verizon's MCI acquisition "does not alter the dynamics...

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Sonus Reports Quarterly Revenue of $45 Million

Sonus Networks reported Q4 revenue of $45.1 million compared with $46.4 million in the same period last year, a decrease of 3%. Net income for Q4 was $6.3 million or $0.02 per diluted share, compared with net income for Q4 of fiscal 2003 of $6.9 million, or $0.03 per diluted share. Revenues for fiscal year 2004 were $170.7 million compared with $93.2 million for fiscal year 2003, an increase of 83%. Net income for fiscal year 2004 was $24.5 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, compared with a net loss for fiscal year 2003 of $15.1 million, or $0.07...

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Ericsson WCDMA Selected for US Navy Satellite Project

Ericsson has signed an agreement with General Dynamics to supply WCDMA wireless equipment and telecom services in support of the U.S. Navy contract awarded to Lockheed Martin to build the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS). The multi-year agreement could be worth as much as US$200 million to Ericsson. MUOS is the U.S. Department of Defense's next-generation narrowband satellite communications system that will provide simultaneous voice, video and data communication for U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps troops. Ericsson will supply wideband...

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Alvarion Enhances its Wireless Access Platform in 5 GHz

Alvarion has enhanced its BreezeACCESS VL platform to enable increased capacity, an option for narrower channels for more effective network planning, and improved interference resistance. These improvements are part of both VL hardware and firmware upgrades. Networks built in North America will benefit from a 30% increase in capacity, while European networks can get up to a 50% increase. Also provided is a new channel spacing option of 10MHz, in addition to the 20MHz currently offered, to enable greater flexibility in network planning. Notably...

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Nortel Offers Packet Voice Core for Mobile Networks

Nortel introduced significant product enhancements to its wireless packet voice core portfolio for GSM and UMTS operators. The rollout builds on the next generation of Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 4 standards, commonly known as R4. Packetizing the voice core would provide a more efficient use of transmission capacity and reduce the amount of network equipment required to support wireless backhaul. Unlike traditional circuit-switched Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs), R4 technology makes use of Call Servers and Media Gateways...

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Nortel Outlines CDMA 1xEV-DO Revision A Strategy

Nortel outlined plans to offer CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (evolution data optimized) Revision A (DO Rev A) technology to CDMA operators. The company also disclosed that it is planning live market trials with Verizon Wireless beginning in 2006. Nortel currently supplies EV-DO to 11 out of the 17 operators that have commercially launched across the globe. The DO Rev A technology delivers peak data rate bursts up to 3.1 Mbps (on the forward link and up to 1.8 Mbps on the reverse link. DO Rev A operates in the 1.25 MHz channel and is optimized for packet data...

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Svenska Chooses Ericsson for 3G

Svenska UMTS-Nat AB, a joint venture between Tele2 and TeliaSonera, has awarded Ericsson a new three-year frame agreement for the delivery of core and radio access network. Under the agreement, Ericsson will continue to secure multi-vendor network integration between the shared 3G network and the respective 2G networks of Tele2 and TeliaSonera.The shared network includes Ericsson's mobile softswitch, which provides network intelligence through an efficient and flexible layered architecture design. Ericsson is also providing the advanced multi-vendor...

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Investment Firms Complete Acquisition of Telcordia

Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus completed their acquisition of Telcordia Technologies from Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The two firms are co-equal partners in the deal; further terms of the transaction were not disclosed.Telcordia, based in Piscataway, N.J., is a leading global provider of telecommunications software and services. The company's solutions handle the complex tasks required to develop, maintain, monitor and fix today's carrier networks. http://www.telcordia.comIn November 2004, Science Applications...

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Chief of FCC's Wireless Bureau Joins Washington Law Firm

John Muleta, chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, is leaving the Commission to become a partner in the Washington office of Venable LLP, a leading law firm. Muleta, who previously served as Deputy Bureau Chief in the Common Carrier Bureau and also Chief of the Enforcement Division during a four-year stint at the Commission in the mid-1990s, has led the Wireless Bureau since January 2003. He has also held senior management positions with several major telecom businesses over a 20-year career in the sector. He will now become co-chair...

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Motorola Receives Expansion Order for CDMA 1X System from KDDI

Motorola was awarded a US$150 million expansion order to deploy its CDMA2000 1X Radio Access Network (RAN) system for KDDI of Japan. The Motorola RAN system is scheduled for deployment beginning in fiscal 2006, primarily for services in the 2 GHz band, where KDDI has already begun to roll out services. The order represents the first stage in a broader plan for Motorola to provide equipment and services for KDDI's continued deployment of CDMA2000 1X.In April 2002, KDDI began nation-wide deployment of CDMA2000 1X, a 3G cellular service, on Motorola's...

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Cingular Wireless Now Has 50 Million Customers

Cingular Wireless has surpassed the 50 million customer milestone -- three million more than in October 2004 (AT&T Wireless + Cingular) -- this represents about 30% of all U.S. wireless subscribers."Attaining 50 million customers is a key indicator that our merger with AT&T Wireless is working and working robustly," said Stan Sigman, Cingular's president and chief executive officer. http://www.cingular....

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Alcatel to upgrade Sea-Me-We 3 Cable

Alcatel was awarded a multi-million dollar turnkey contract for a 10 Gbps upgrade of the 38,000 kilometer Sea-Me-We 3 submarine cable network. Alcatel will upgrade submarine sections linking the UK to India via France, Portugal, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti in Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Alcatel will also upgrade all terrestrial stations along the network. The upgrade is scheduled for completion by the end of 2005. http://www.alcatel.com http://www.smw3.com/Sea-Me-We 3 includes 39 landing points in 33 countries and 4 continents from...

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Ebbers Convicted of WorldCom Fraud

Bernard J. Ebbers, the former chief executive officer of WorldCom, was convicted on all nine counts of orchestrating the fraud that led to the bankruptcy of his company. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 85 years in prison. During the six week trial, Ebbers had taken the witness stand in his own defense, trying to pin the blame for the fraud on his subordinate Scott Sullivan, the company's chief financial officer. Five former WorldCom executives, including Sullivan, have already pleaded guilty in the ca...

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