05/19/05 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Vonage Rolls out its Broadband Telephone Service in UK

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Service Providers

Following a five month market trial, Vonage announced its official UK roll-out. Vonage's telephone adapter will be initially available in 136 Staples stores across the UK, with further expansion and additional high-street retailers coming on board throughout 2005. The company will also launch an advertising campaign.

Vonage is charging £9.99 per month for unlimited UK & Ireland local and national calls and unlimited Vonage-to-Vonage calls. Customers can choose their number from more than 120 UK dialing codes. There's also the option of choosing an additional virtual number in Canada, the US or the UK, giving them a local presence in another location.

According to the company's website, Vonage provides access to public emergency call services to all customers in the UK. When dialing either 999 or 112, the call is routed from the Vonage network to national emergency operators who will handle the call. The emergency operator will ask for specific information to correctly transfer the call.
http://www.vonage.com

Australia's WiZZ Deploys Cisco Aironet

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Wi-Fi

WiZZ Communications, a wholesale service provider, has deployed Cisco Systems' Aironet equipment to deliver QoS-enabled, managed wireless connectivity for its clients such as retail service providers and Internet service providers (ISPs). Through the deployment of Cisco Aironet 1300 and Aironet 1400 series wireless bridges across the Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne metropolitan areas, Wizz can provide data rates of up to 100 Mbps over the 802.11 standards-based wireless spectrum to sites that are out of reach of traditional optical or DSL. The network also employs Cisco 7200 Series routers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.cisco.com

Siemens to Provide Satellite Tracking for London Busses

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Satellite

Siemens was awarded a EUR 175 million contract to track and monitor London's 8,000 buses using satellite navigation technology. The project, which is described as the largest of its type in the world, will provide real-time information to passengers so they can see more accurate predicted arrival time at 2,000 bus shelters around the city. Buses run by London's 30 private operating companies will be fitted with the technology over the next four years.
http://www.siemens.com

NTT Com Signs Wi-Fi Roaming Deals with BT, Telecom Italia

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Wi-Fi

NTT Communications signed Wi-Fi roaming deals with BT and Telecom Italia.

NTT Com already has roaming arrangements with KT (Korea), T-Mobile USA (USA), Telstra (Australia), StarHub (Singapore) and Maxis (Malaysia).

NTT Com customers will now be able to use their Wi-Fi subscriptions for a consistent, global wireless broadband experience to access information, communications and entertainment at more than 35,000 Wi-Fi hotspot locations across Asia--Pacific, North America and Europe, including 1,500 within Japan.
http://www.ntt.com

Nortel and IBM to Develop New Class of Telecom Blade Servers

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Last Mille

Nortel and IBM announced a strategic alliance to support customized products across a range of market segments. The companies will establish a Nortel-IBM Joint Development Center in Research Triangle Park, NC to collaborate on the design and development of new products and services.

Initially, the companies plan to develop a new class of blade servers combining IBM's Server Technology and Nortel's carrier-grade communications expertise. Nortel also expects to utilize IBM engineering and technical services for a number of projects, all aimed at broadening its broadband, VoIP, multimedia services and applications and wireless broadband offerings.

"This agreement with IBM is a critical component of our strategy to partner for growth," said Bill Owens, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nortel. "Working with IBM, as one of their key partners, is a bold step forward in our efforts to transform our business by reaching an entirely new level of R&D collaboration while reducing our R&D costs, introducing products at a faster pace and serving a broad range of customers more rapidly."http://www.nortel.com
http://www.ibm.com

Belgium's Telenet Deploys Cirpack Switches

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Packet Systems

Telenet, the largest provider of broadband cable services in Belgium, has deployed Cirpack's Class-5 switch solution to deliver voice over broadband services to business customers in Belgium and Luxembourg. The service allows small and medium-sized businesses to connect their ISDN PBX to a secured DSL line. Cirpack's MultiNode delivers a complete set of ISDN services over the DSL line. The companies noted that almost all enterprises in Belgium and Luxembourg have an ISDN PBX and said that broadband local loops are very efficient alternatives to deliver carrier-grade voice services.
http://www.cirpack.com
http://www.telenet.be

In April, Thomson acquired Cirpack, a privately-held developer of class-5 softswitching solutions based near Paris. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Cirpack claims 45 telco and ISP customers in 15 countries. The customer list includes Free, a subsidiary of the Iliad Group and the second largest French ISP, which is using a joint solution from IBM and Cirpack to deliver a consumer VoIP service over unbundled DSL lines. The residential VoIP is provided as an add-on to the company's ADSL service in the areas where Free has deployed its own DSL infrastructure.

Cirpack's softswitch platform can host a range of high-density network interfaces (IP, ATM, TDM) and supports multiple local signaling protocol variants simultaneously (ISDN, SS7, VoIP, VoATM). It can be configured to manage voice transit services (Class-4) as well as subscriber services (Class- 5). The company partners with IBM Global Services.

Netcentrex Enhances its Softswitching with Video, SIP, and Triple Play Integration

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Packet Systems

Netcentrex has enhanced its "MyCall" Residential Services with new capabilities for video telephony, enhanced triple play and fixed-mobile convergence. MyCall version 3 provides interworking of video services between fixed or mobile video terminals, such as fixed video phones, 3G mobile video phones, and PC-based video clients. It could also be used to extend voice and video applications over 3G and broadband networks. In addition to the previously available H.323 video, the latest release adds the capability of implementing video services using SIP. Video applications such as Video Mail and Video Conferencing have also been added and are available as an upgrade to existing MyCall platforms.

NetCentrex said new functionality in MyCall v3 allows the owner of a MyCall solution to share the platform among different Application Service Providers (ASPs), each of them delivering its own service bundles to its subscribers. The ASPs can also provide services on different access technologies (DSL, Cable, Fiber, WiFi etc.), in different countries and different languages.

MyCall uses open APIs for integration into a triple play solution to enable an end-to-end solution for MPEG2, MPEG4 or future High Definition TV, or mobile IPTV & VOD, and an integrated User Portal which can manage TV programs, VOD purchasing, video game features, IP telephony services and voice or video mail messages. Following the previous integration with Envivio, MyCall now also ensures integration with Thales Broadcast and Multimedia Smartvision TV middleware, for the delivery of a centralized TV self-care portal, caller ID presentation on TV and call rejection from the TV interface.

NetCentrex claims an installed base of more than 1.5 Million subscribers/ Its customer list includes FastWeb, which is using MyCall to deliver residential IP Telephony, video telephony, and triple play services.
http://www.netcentrex.com

JDS Uniphase to Sell Ottawa Facility

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Financial

JDS Uniphase agreed to sell its 912,000 square foot Ottawa facility located at 3000 Merivale Road in Ottawa, Canada to construction and management company Minto Developments Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"The Subsystems Product Group at our Ottawa facility develops our
company's most highly integrated communications products," said Kevin Kennedy, president and chief executive officer of JDS Uniphase. "The sale of the property is a positive step in our transformation strategy for right-sizing the assets of our company."

The team will be relocated in the Ottawa area.
http://www.jdsu.com