Alcatel Selected for "Be's" 24 Mbps Network in UK

Be, a new broadband service provider in the UK, awarded a multi-million EUR contract to Alcatel for access equipment. Be is leveraging Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) to launch Triple Play services.


Alcatel said Be would become the first operator in the UK to deploy its Alcatel 7302 Intelligent Services Access Manager, which supports ADSL2plus for rates up to 24 Mbps. Be will also deploy the Alcatel 7450 Ethernet Service Switch, the Alcatel 7750 Service Router, and the Alcatel 5620 Service Aware Manager to provide scalable Ethernet aggregation and IP service routing.
http://www.alcatel.com
http://www.BeThere.co.uk

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Juniper Invests in Nominum for IP Address Management

Nominum, a start-up developing IP address infrastructure solutions, announced funding from Juniper Networks. The investment will be used to further expand worldwide sales and business operations in support of its Nominum Foundation product family of IP address management solutions. Nominum's technology is aimed at making it easier for organizations to deploy and manage large scale IP networks and applications such as VoIP. The company is based in Redwood City, California.
http://www.nominum.com

	Avoiding Roadblocks on the Path to Convergence by Chris Risley
A mixed voice/data Network means voice customers can now be disrupted by disturbances in the data network. In the last two years those disturbances have become larger and less predictable. And whereas in the old days carriers worried about things like sunspots and downed lines, carriers must now worry about things like DoS attacks and unanticipated spikes in Internet traffic. In this sense, VoIP might as well stand for “very odd Internet patterns.�? And it is this new barrier to adoption that carriers must remove before the true economic benefits of convergence can be realized.

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UTStarcom Announces $100 Million in Contracts with China Telecom

UTStarcom announced infrastructure contracts valued at approximately $100 million with China Telecom Corporation (CTC). These contracts will expand the operator's existing IP-based PAS (Personal Access System) (iPAS) networks in China's Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Shanghai, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Yunnan provinces.


In addition, UTStarcom announced that it had signed contracts valued at approximately $85.2 million with China Telecom for new PAS handsets.
http://www.utstar.com

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CenterPoint Energy and IBM Examine BPL

CenterPoint Energy, an electric transmission and distribution company, and IBM are working to explore broadband over power line (BPL) technology. CenterPoint Energy has opened a BPL technology center at one of its facilities in Houston to examine uses of BPL technology for consumers as well as utility companies. In addition, CenterPoint Energy has launched a limited pilot program designed to demonstrate the capabilities of BPL in the home to up to 50 Houston-area consumers. At the conclusion of the pilot, IBM will help CenterPoint Energy assess customer satisfaction and the lessons learned.
http://www.centerpointenergy.com/http://www.ibm.com

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QUALCOMM Files Patent Suits Against Broadcom

Responding to Broadcom's legal challenges last week, QUALCOMM filed suit against Broadcom in federal court in San Diego for infringement of seven QUALCOMM patents. QUALCOMM's lawsuit asserts infringement of patents that are "essential" to the manufacture or use of equipment that complies with the GSM, GPRS and EDGE cellular standards and to certain interoperability standards for Wi-Fi.
http://www.qualcomm.com/

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Verizon Adds E911 for VoIP Users in NYC

Verizon began supporting E911 capability for its VoiceWing Broadband Phone Service in New York City. VoiceWing customers in the city who have properly registered their service address with VoiceWing will have their 911 calls delivered over a dedicated network to the Enhanced 911 system. The system automatically provides emergency response operators with the VoiceWing callers' telephone numbers, names and service addresses.


As previously announced, Verizon is also enabling other VoIP providers in New York City to offer E911 service to their customers. The New York City solution allows VoIP companies and their vendors to route VoIP customer calls to the NYC public safety answering points using the established E911 system, which currently supports wireline and wireless carriers.


The E911 service is not currently available to VoiceWing customers in all locations nationwide.
http://www.verizon.com/news

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AT&T Rolls Out VoIP E-9-1-1 Service

AT&T has begun introducing Enhanced 9-1-1 service (E-911) to its &T CallVantage VoIP subscribers. The E-911 service delivers a caller's name, telephone number and service address directly to the console of the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) in the event of an emergency. However, AT&T said that exceptions would include those subscribers who have selected "out-of-area" telephone numbers as their primary VoIP lines. For example, if a New Jersey resident chose a telephone number in another part of the state, or in another state, he or she would not qualify for E-911 service and would remain on AT&T's 911 Alternative Emergency Dialing service until the company is prepared to implement an "out-of-area" E-911 solution.


AT&T said its deployment will be largely completed later this Summer.
http://www.callvantage.com

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Sprint to Acquire US Unwired

Sprint agreed to acquire US Unwired for approximately $1.3 billion. Under the deal, more than 500,000 PCS wireless users will become direct subscribers of Sprint. The deal also ends litigation by US Unwired to block the proposed Sprint/Nextel merger. http://www.sprint.com

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Microsoft Installs Genesys Enterprise Telephony with Office LCS

Microsoft has deployed Genesys Enterprise Telephony Software (GETS) alongside Office Live Communications Server 2005 and the Microsoft Office Communicator client for its own internal communications. The deployment provides new desktop telephony control capabilities for Microsoft users, allowing them to collaborate with colleagues, access availability and presence information, and seamlessly control phone functionality via the computer. Microsoft deployed the technology across 40,000 desktops at its Redmond campus in early May and reports that there are already 20,000 active users.


GETS enhances information workers' desktop real-time collaboration experience by enabling users to call contacts directly from within the right-click presence menu that is displayed in several familiar Microsoft Office applications, such as Outlook, Excel, Word and SharePoint. GETS also provides the telephony presence info that is displayed within Communicator.


Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories is a division of Alcatel.
http://www.alcatel.com

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Telmex Deploys Optical Multi-Service Node

Telmex, Mexico's incumbent operator, is deploying Alcatel's Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems to deliver Ethernet virtual private networking services, such as virtual private LAN services (VPLS), LAN extension and virtual leased lines (VLL). Financial terms were not disclosed. Alcatel already supplies DSL and DWDM equipment to Telmex.
http://www.alcatel.com

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Japan's Yahoo! BB Connects with iBasis VoIP

SOFTBANK BB has connected with iBasis to enable the 4.5 million subscribers to its Yahoo! BB voice service to call fixed and mobile phones around the world. iBasis' global VoIP network will enable BB phone users to call PSTN and mobile phones directly at competitive rates. http://www.ibasis.nethttp://www.softbankbb.co.jp/

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Alcatel Joins Service Availability Forum

Alcatel has joined the Service Availability Forum (SA Forum), an industry group that promotes the development of open interface specifications to enable the use of commercial off-the-shelf building blocks in the creation of high availability network infrastructure products, systems and services. Alcatel supports the SA Forum's goal of industry-wide specification adoption by designing mobile infrastructure middleware platforms that deliver six 9s of availability.
http://www.saforum.org

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China Unicom Deploys Sylantro/Alcatel NGN

Sylantro Systems has teamed with Alcatel to deliver an integrated NGN solution to China United Telecommunications Corporation Ltd. (China Unicom). The solution combines Sylantro's application feature servers with Alcatel's 5020 Call Session Controller, enabling China Unicom to provide advanced broadband services for the Shanghai Metropolitan area and customers in 8 provinces. The project was conducted through Alcatel Shanghai Bell. Financial terms were not disclosed.


China Unicom's next-generation network is based upon the Alcatel 5020 Softswitch, which has extended the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) model beyond mobile communications to the fixed IP network -- allowing user-centric services with multimedia applications such as video phones. The Sylantro application feature servers are deployed using IMS architecture and are used to deliver business voice services with capabilities such as find me/follow me, single-number service and click-to-call with customized, localized browser-based portals.

http://www.sylantro.com
http://www.alcatel.com

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Cisco Offers "Clean Access" Security Policy Enforcement

Cisco Systems introduced a "Clean Access Commercial" security policy enforcement and remediation solution specifically designed for businesses with 250-750 users.


Cisco Clean Access Commercial is a Network Admission Control (NAC) solution that automatically detects, isolates and cleans infected or vulnerable wired and wireless devices that attempt to access a network. The solution, which is an extension of the Cisco Clean Access family of NAC appliances, consists of a suite of network security tools that recognizes users, devices and their role in the network. This recognition occurs at the point of authentication, before malicious activity can cause network damage. Customers can choose to deploy NAC functionality either through the NAC industry-collaborative framework or through the Cisco Clean Access product family. Pricing begins at $6,000 USD.
http://www.cisco.com

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NETGEAR Uses Intoto's Software for Wireless Secure Router with VoIP

NETGEAR is using Intoto's iGateway RGS Plus software platform for a new Wireless Router with Pone Adapter (model WGR826V) aimed at residential and SMB customers of AT&T's CallVantage service. Intoto's software provides the VoIP, firewall, NAT and IP routing functionality as certified by AT&T for its CallVantage VoIP services in the NETGEAR product. The VoIP terminal adapter (TA) is fully interoperable with AT&T's softswitch, session border controller, media server, secure provisioning server and media server infrastructure of AT&T's CallVantage service. http://www.intoto.com

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Samsung Electronics Begins Export of WCDMA System Hardware

Samsung Electronics has begun exporting system hardware for wideband CDMA. It first announced customer is Taiwanese 3G mobile communications operator, Vibo, which plans to launch 3G services later this year.
http://www.samsung.com

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Spanlink Raises $12 Million for VoIP-enabled CRM

Spanlink Communications, a start-up based in Minneapolis, completed a $12 million round of Series A financing for its customer interaction solutions that leverage VoIP. Spanlink software products enhance VoIP networks to make customer interactions more strategic and system management more efficient. Customers include W.W. Grainger, the State of Minnesota, Humana Military Healthcare Services, the gem (Northern Ireland) and TCF Bank.


The new funding came from BlueStream Ventures and Split Rock Partners.
http://www.spanlink.com

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AccessLine Communications Builds Executive Team

AccessLine Communications, a provider of hosted and managed voice services, named David Crowley as vice president of business development and Kerry Rea as vice president of finance. Crowley was previously director of data solutions at Global Crossing Telecommunications, where he drove sales and market opportunities for Fortune 500 companies. He also served as a data sales manager at AT&T.


After a stint as vice president of finance at Electric Lightwave, Rea served as an independent consultant for companies such as Freightliner LLC, TriQuint Semiconductor and Warn Industries. http://www.accessline.com

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Cogent Expands its Footprint and Adds Transatlantic Capacity

Cogent Communications has added several new On-Net markets in North America and Europe where it can offer IP Ethernet service via direct connections to its optical network. Markets include Baltimore, Cleveland, Portland and St. Louis in the U.S.; and Copenhagen (Denmark), Nuremberg (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Vigo (Spain) and Porto (Portugal) in Europe. Cogent services include Internet transit (10 - multiple 1,000 Mbps) and Layer 2 Point-to-Point connectivity (100 to multiple 1,000 Mbps).


In addition, Cogent also announced a major expansion and diversification of its transatlantic capacity resulting from three completely independent transatlantic routes from three different suppliers. Cogent's transatlantic capacity now includes an OC-192 between New York and Madrid, an OC-192 between Boston and London, and OC-48 between Washington, D.C. and Frankfurt.
http://www.cogentco.com

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Sprint Extends Strategic Relationship with Cisco

Cisco Systems and Sprint announced a three-year extension of their strategic alliance, which was first established in December 2001.


In addition, Sprint is the first carrier to achieve Cisco IP VPN Multiservice QoS Certified status. Sprint is also the first global provider to also deploy an IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) built end-to-end with Cisco equipment.


The companies said the deployment of a Cisco IP NGN enables Sprint to deliver its current portfolio of services more efficiently and effectively, while the IP VPN Multiservice QoS Certification demonstrates that Sprint has the means to deliver real-time, application-intensive business and residential services.


Cisco's certification comes as Sprint continues the deployment of its Data Simplification initiative, delivering corporate applications such as intranets, extranets, highly secure remote access and value-added services over its 100% Cisco-based global IP/MPLS network.
http://www.cisco.com

• Cisco Systems has previously announced IP NGN migrations at BT, Yahoo BB, Comcast, Neuf Telecom (France), Telia Sonera (Sweden), Bharti Televentures (India), Sydkraft Bredband (Sweden), Kabel Deutschland (Germany), SingTel (Singapore), China TieTong (was China Railcom), ONO (Spain), Charter Communications, Cogeco Cable (Canada), China Telecom, Telewest (UK) Energis (UK) and others.

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