Centillium Centers R&D in India

Centillium Communications has broadened the scope of its operations in Bangalore, India to become its principal R&D site for its DSL, VoIP and FTTP system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. Centillium began its operations in India in 2000 with a small technical staff. Today, the company has 155 engineers, senior managers and consultants working in Bangalore.
http://www.centillium.com

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BT Retail Upgrades with Nortel Centrex IP

BT Retail's Customer Contact Center, which employs over 10,000 agents in the UK to support BT's residential and business customers, will upgrade its network with a VoIP solution from Nortel. BT has used Nortel Centrex ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) platforms for the past 10 years. The upgrade program will introduce Centrex IP on existing Nortel platforms, providing an evolution path to the 21st Century Network. In the initial phase, 700 agents will be IP-enabled, with growth plans for more than 2,000 by the end of 2005.


This upgrade will be in addition to the Nortel enterprise VoIP contact center solution announced in December 2004 for 10,000 of BT's back office agents.

http://www.nortel.com

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Zetera Raises $13.5 Million for Storage Innovations

Zetera, a start-up based in Irvine, California, raised $13.5 million in Series "A" financing for new storage technology "that enables storage solution manufacturers to deliver high performance and reliability at unprecedented low cost." The funding was led by Warburg Pincus and included current investor WI Harper.


Zetera's network storage design eliminates the need for costly controllers, gateways and RAID controllers. The company said its The technology uses IP multicast to achieve sharing, spanning and RAID without specialized hardware while scaling linearly without the need for additional controllers/aggregators.


NETGEAR, StorCase, and Bell Microproducts all have announced Zetera-based network storage products, slated to ship in the summer of 2005.


"The digital revolution is creating massive demand for high-speed network storage in the home," said Patrick Lo, chairman and CEO of NETGEAR. "Zetera has assembled the right combination of technology and strategic allies to capitalize on the opportunity."http://www.zetera.com

• Zetera's technical team is headed by Bill Frank, who formerly served as CTO of Western Digital and is the inventor of IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics), a storage element found in billions of disk drives.

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Aperto Supplies WiMAX-Class Equipment in Moscow

Infoseti, one of Russia's premier business-class Internet Service Providers, selected Aperto Networks' WiMAX-class multiservice wireless access systems for a citywide 5. GHz multiservice network across the greater metropolitan area of Moscow. Aperto's channel partner is Avalcom, a leader in the design and construction of data transmission networks across the Russian Federation. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.apertonet.com
http://www.avalcom.ru

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VDN Selects Net Insight for Canadian Media Network

VDN, a Montreal-based multi-service telecommunications company, will deploy Net Insight's Nimbra platform for a Canadian media network. The network will be distributing cable TV as well as providing professional media services.


Net Insight's Nimbra platform that delivers 100% QoS with maximum network utilization for real time video, data and voice services. Net Insight has received this order through its reseller Geartech Technologies Inc. The network will be fully operational in May.
http://www.netinsight.nethttp://www.vtn.ca

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Freescale Ships 90nm Multi-Core Programmable DSPs in Volume

Freescale, the No. 2 supplier of programmable digital signal processors (DSPs), announced volume production of its multi-core programmable DSP on 90 nanometer (nm) process technology.


Freescale's 90nm devices integrate four StarCore DSP cores onto a single die, effectively quadrupling performance. With four cores running at 500MHz and delivering 2GHz combined performance, these multi-core DSPs are targeted at computation-intensive infrastructure applications. Examples include radio network controllers (RNCs), packet telephony media gateways, video multi-conferencing units and high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) support for base stations. The processing power of the Freescale devices also enables the convergence of software-driven applications by offering video, voice, fax and modem capabilities on a single platform.
http://www.freescale.com

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Ericsson Tests WCDMA Uplinks at 1.5 Mbps

Ericsson, in partnership with 3 Scandinavia, successfully tested an enhanced uplink, also know as HSUPA, supporting rates of 1.5 Mbps. HSUPA is currently being standardized in 3GPP release 6.


With the fist evolutionary step of WCDMA, called HSDPA, the focus has been on improving the downlink capacity and bit-rates. HSUPA introduces improvements in the uplink.


"We are taking another important step towards making our mobile broadband promise a reality," said Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO and President of Ericsson. "Last year we took the challenge to do with broadband what we did to telephony some 20 years ago - make it mobile and available to everyone, everywhere. We now continue on an already established track to break the ground for the development of WCDMA with the aim to further increase bit rates and system capacity."


Ericsson WCDMA Enhanced Uplink, or HSUPA, will be introduced on the market in line with terminal availability. Initial terminals and PC-cards will be available on the market during the second half of 2006, with handsets coming early 2007. With the evolution of WCDMA Ericsson stays true to its established tradition of supplying future proof products based on cutting edge technology.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Ericsson Partners with SAGEM on 3G/UMTS Mobile Platforms

SAGEM will introduce new 3G/UMTS products based on the Ericsson dual mode 3G/WCDMA platform. The license agreement covers Ericsson's U100 platform for 3G/WCDMA devices, which is a compact platform with low power consumption and advanced integrated multimedia feature support.


http://www.ericsson.com/press

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MPEG LA to Open Office in Shanghai

MPEG LA, which provides one-stop licensing for numerous technologies including MPEG-2 digital video compression, will open an office in Shanghai, PRC. MPEG LA enables users to acquire worldwide patent rights necessary for a particular technology standard or platform from multiple patent holders in a single transaction as an alternative to negotiating separate licenses.
http://www.mpegla.com

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Idaho's Project Mutual Selects Optical Solutions GPON

Idaho's Project Mutual Telephone Co-op (PMT) has selected Optical Solutions' FiberPath 500 FTTP system to deliver voice, video and data services to the city of Twin Falls. The FiberPath 500 system is GPON standards compliant and offer 1.2 Gbps downstream and 622 Mbps upstream. PMT currently serves over 12,000 customers in the Magic Valley with telephone, high-speed Internet and cable TV services.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.opticalsolutions.com

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Glimmerglass Names CEO

Glimmerglass, which supplies automated fiber management solutions, named Robert Lundy as its new president and CEO. Previously, Lundy successfully built Wavtrace, a broadband wireless access company which was later acquired by Harris Corporation. He was the CEO of Opthos, an all-optical metro-network switching systems provider. Earlier, he led Xtera, an optical transmission company, as president and CEO. He also served as director and general manager of IBM's first wireless business unit that pioneered data over cellular. http://www.glimmerglass.com

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Sun Acquires Tarantella, Accelerates Utility Computing Model

Sun Microsystems agreed to acquire Tarantella, a provider of secure application access software, for approximately $25 million. Tarantella's Secure Global Desktop family of products enables organizations to access and manage information, data and applications across multiple platforms, networks and devices. The software allows customers to web-enable any enterprise application without costly rewrites. Tarantella is based in Santa Cruz, California.


The companies said the combination of their technologies would allow the industry to deliver secure access to data and applications "anywhere on virtually any Java enabled device as a service for just dollars per day."


"With Tarantella technology and Solaris, Sun will create a whole new desktop experience by securely and seamlessly bridging application platform, device type, and location, enabling the delivery of desktop services just as we get cell phone services today," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer, Sun Microsystems.


Sun believes this capability will be a catalyst for accelerating the adoption of a utility computing model for the desktop and is extending an invitation to service providers, OEMs, device manufacturers and others to build on this new business opportunities. For instance, Sun customers, such as Time Warner Cable, Qualcomm and the US Department of Defense, could implement Sun Ray ultra-thin clients with full Microsoft interoperability as well as access to their Mainframe, Linux and other applications.


Sun also noted that more than 1.3 million licenses of Solaris 10 have been distributed since January 31, 2005.
http://www.sun.com

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MathStar Plans IPO

MathStar is planning an initial public offering of its common stock to raise approximately $28 million.


MathStar designs and develops ultra-high performance semiconductors for networking, storage, signal processing, and reprogrammable logic markets. The company is headquartered in Minneapolis Minnesota and has 30 employees. http://www.mathstar.com

• In May 2004, MathStar announced the release of its new Field Programmable Object Array (FPOA), a high-performance chip for use in networking and digital signal processing applications. MathStar's first FPOA devices have 400 1 GHz Silicon Objects, resulting in a device with 400 Giga Operations of performance. The devices are implemented in 130nm technology. The company said its FPOAs provide a strategic alternative to the high-cost of developing ASICs or the performance limitations of conventional FPGA architectures.

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OpenTV Releases Version 2.0 of its IPTV Middleware

OpenTV Corp. released a new version of its IPTV platform for cable, satellite and telecommunications operators. OpenTV Core 2.0 for IPTV supports video on demand (VOD), personal video recording (PVR) and interactive television, games, information services and personal and protected media distribution throughout the connected home. The company said it has over 35 set-top box manufacturer licensees for its middleware.
http://www.opentv.com

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Seattle MSO Deploys BigBand's CUDA CMTS

Wave Broadband, a capable operator in the Seattle-region, is using BigBand Networks' BigBand Cuda CMTS and BigBand FastFlow BPM (broadband provisioning manager) system-wide for its VoIP and high-speed data offerings in western Washington. Wave Broadband already uses BigBand's Broadband Multimedia-Service Router for delivery of HDTV. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.bigbandnet.com/http://www.wavebroadband.com/

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Sony Integrates Cingular EDGE in Vaio Notebook

Sony introduced a VAIO T-Series notebook PC featuring integrated connectivity for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and access to Cingular's nationwide EDGE network, which deliver typical downlink speeds of 70-130 kbps. The notebook uses a combination of hardware and software to automatically links the notebook to the Cingular network when outside the reach of wired networks or hotspots.


Sony customers are given a 30 day trial of Cingular's Wireless WAN Service when they sign up through Sony for a Data Connect plan of $49.99 with a two-year service agreement, or the $79.99 Unlimited Data Connect plan with a one-year service agreement. When customers sign up for the $79.99 Unlimited Data Connect plan with a two-year agreement through Sony, customers receive 60 days of free service.



http://www.sonystyle.com/cingular

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Industry Alliance Focuses on VoIP Security

The Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) issued a report that recommends Congress consider cyber security issues facing VoIP as it looks to revise the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The report warns that the same qualities that make VoIP such a valuable new option for mass-market voice communications also can lead to quality of service and performance issues, including denial of service attacks, Spam over IP Telephony (SPIT), session eavesdropping and voicemail hijacking. The CSIA believes an extra layer of security infrastructure can help resolve some of these issues, but not all of them. Since voice communication is a key enabler of critical government services operated by national security and emergency preparedness providers, a VoIP cyber attack could lead to serious consequences, such as loss of public access to critical emergency services like 911.


The CSIA also warns of the fallout from a major VoIP attack on other areas of national security, emergency preparedness and Internet fraud/criminal activity. VoIP vulnerabilities could also act as entry points for attacks on the rest of the network, including non-VoIP applications, systems and infrastructures. Some potential fallout examples include:

• Crippling impacts on the operations of IT dependent critical infrastructures,
  
  
• Potential for weakening the national response capability as part of a blended cyber and physical attack;



• Loss of revenue for operation stoppages in call centers, order processing and shipping;



• Theft, erasure, or alteration of business and personal information; and



• Violations of privacy and confidentiality regulations, possibly resulting in civil and/or criminal penalties.



• CSIA concludes that cyber security for VoIP is essential for the
  protection of the entire information technology ecosphere and asks that
  Congress consider several recommendations for securing VoIP technologies, including supporting research & development aimed at improving the security and reliability of VoIP as well as defining roles and responsibilities for agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, the FCC and the Department of Defense.

Members of the CSIA include BindView, Check Point Software Technologies, Citadel Security Software, Citrix Systems, Computer Associates, Entrust, Internet Security Systems, iPass, Juniper Networks, McAfee, PGP Corporation, Qualys, RSA Security, Secure Computing Corporation, Symantec and TechGuard Security.
http://www.csialliance.org

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Cisco Reports Quarterly Sales of $6.2 billion

Cisco Systems reported quarterly sales of $6.2 billion, compared with $5.6 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2004, an increase of 10.1 percent, and compared with $6.1 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2005, an increase of 2.1 percent. Net income (GAAP) was $1.4 billion or $0.21 per share, compared with $1.2 billion or $0.17 per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2004, and compared with $1.4 billion or $0.21 per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2005.


Cisco noted sequential growth of over 20% in the service provider market segment. On a year-over-year basis, sales to U.S. service providers grew 40%. IP telephony order increased 15% sequentially and over 35% y/y. Linksys shipped 980,000 VoIP phone adapters during the quarter.


"Today's results are a clear indication that our integrated technology strategy is working--customers are realizing the benefits of an intelligent network architecture," said John Chambers, president and CEO, Cisco Systems.


The sales breakdown by product category was:

• Routers, $1.44 billion, up 13% year-over-year


• Switches, $2.42 billion, up 2%


• Advanced Technologies, $1.13 billion, up 29%


• Other $196 million, down 5%


• Services, $998 million, up 12%

The sales breakdown by geography was:

• U.S. -- 46%


• EMEA -- 32%


• Asia/Pac -- 10%


• Japan -- 6%


• Americas Int. -- 6%

The gross margin was 66.8%, compared with 68.8% a year ago.


Cisco currently holds $16.1 billion in cash and investments.


Approximately $2.0 billion of its own stock was repurchased in the quarter.


Employee headcount stands at 37,050 compared with 34,307 a year ago.


As for guidance, Cisco believes it can sustain annual growth in the 10% to 15% range.
http://www.cisco.com

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Microsoft Unveils Windows Mobile 5.0

Bill Gates unveiled Windows Mobile 5.0, Microsoft's latest platform for mobile devices, including next generation phones, PDAs and media players. Key improvements include:

• Improved device efficiency, yielding as much as 30% more battery life.



• Persistent storage has been added to Windows Mobile 5.0-based Pocket PCs, which will help ensure that users don't lose important data when devices run out of battery power.



• Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, which adds support for technologies such as hard drives and USB 2.0. File formats supported include Windows Media Audio, Windows Media Video and MP3. The updated player also enables synchronization of users' playlists, album art and song ratings. Partners can plug in additional digital rights management (DRM) technologies



• 3G and WiFi, including features for enabling partners to build devices for Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) networks with simultaneous voice and data transfer. Wi-Fi support in Smartphones will allow for a new generation of small, connected devices.



• Greater flexibility for device-makers and mobile operators to customize branded device experiences with extensible menus and new soft keys to build new features, such as push-to-talk (PTT), right into the phone dialer



• Faster access to e-mail. Windows Mobile 5.0 users will have faster access to e-mail and information and an improved experience with MSN Messenger. MSN Messenger now offers seamless instant messaging (IM); and faster, one-key access to Hotmail and MSN inboxes within Outlook.



• ActiveSync 4.0 support, which provides the ability to sync pictures in contacts and wirelessly sync over Bluetooth



• For Windows Mobile 5.0-based Pocket PCs, Word Mobile now supports tables, lists and embedded images



• Security compliant with the FIPS 140-2 standard.

http://www.microsoft.com

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