FT Acquires 80% of Spain's Amena for EUR 6.4 Billion

France Telecom's Orange subsidiary agreed to acquire an 80% equity stake in Auna Operadora de Telecommunicaciones S.A., the third largest mobile operator in Spain (trade name Amena), for EUR 6.4 billion. France Telecom, which currently ranks as the second largest DSL operator in Spain (the Wanadoo brand), said the acquisition would position it as a first tier competitor in Spain. Amena currently has 9.7 million mobile customers, representing a 24% market share. France Telecom serves 526,000 ADSL lines in Spain, representing 16% market share....

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Cisco to Acquire Sheer for Network Virtualization Tools

Cisco Systems agreed to acquire privately held Sheer Networks, a developer of intelligent network and service management products for service providers and large enterprises, approximately $97 million in cash and assumed options for Sheer Networks. In addition, the acquisition price may be increased by as much as $25 million depending on the degree to which certain development and product milestones are met after close.Sheer's network virtualization technology can adapt to network changes easily, scale to large networks, and help extend new technologies...

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Meru Offers WLAN VoIP Call Balancing and Admission Control

Meru Networks introduced a new plug-in software module for its Wireless LAN System that enables the deployment of large, pervasive wireless VoIP networks. The Meru WLAN System can now protect existing calls on the network and guarantee optimal service quality without any dependence on proprietary extensions to the client or proprietary signaling from the IP-PBX. It also can provide dynamic error correction for voice calls.The new Voice Service Module delivers three key features, that when used with the Meru WLAN System's Virtual Cell capability,...

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Tellabs Grows Revenues to $463 million

Tellabs reported quarterly revenue of $463 million and earnings of $41 million or 9 cents per share on a GAAP basis. "Strong customer demand across multiple product lines fueled Tellabs' best revenue quarter since 2001," said Krish A. Prabhu, Tellabs president and chief executive officer. "Our solid progress with the AFC and Vinci integrations is reflected in our improved margins and lower operating expenses."Some highlights:Transport -- Revenue from transport systems totaled $159 million, down 4% from $165 million in the second quarter of 2004...

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Agere Reports Revenues of $433 million

Agere Systems reported quarterly revenue of $433 million, at the high end of the guidance range provided by the company in April, up from $417 million in the preceding quarter. The company reported GAAP gross profit of $185 million or 43% of revenue, GAAP operating income of $3 million or 1% of revenue and GAAP net income of $120 million or $0.66 per share. Agere also announced plans to complete the closure of its Orlando wafer fabrication facility by Sept. 30, 2005. At present, 545 employees work in the facility."Our results this quarter are a...

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FLO Forum Established to Promote Forward Link Only Technology

The FLO Forum, a new non-profit industry association, has been established by key players in the wireless industry in order to promote the development of products and services related to the delivery of advanced multimedia services to wireless devices around the world using "FLO" (Forward Link Only) technology. The FLO technology was designed specifically for a terrestrial mobile multimedia environment, making its performance characteristics ideally suited for use in cellular handset operation. Founding members include Amoi, BBEF, Harris, Huawei,...

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Caspian Hires UTStarcom Exec

Caspian named Dave Robison as senior vice president of worldwide sales and support. Prior to Caspian, Robison served as vice president of international sales and marketing for UTStarcomm, and before that, as vice president of sales for Zhone Technologies and Ascend Communications. http://www.caspian....

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Meru Wins Landmark Enterprise Wireless VoIP Deal in Japan

Osaka Gas, one of Japan's largest national utilities, has selected Meru Networks' WLAN System for a pervasive wireless VoIP network that will serve the organization's 50 offices, including its headquarters.Using Meru's WLAN System and NTT DoCoMo's dual-mode Cellular/Wi-Fi service and handsets, Osaka Gas will provide converged, wireless data and voice services to employees across the organization. With the combined Meru and NTT DoCoMo solution, Osaka Gas employees can have one-number access, with voice calls running over the corporate wireless LAN...

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Motorola and Cisco Partner on Wi-Fi / Cellular Integration

Motorola and Cisco Systems announced a partnership to deliver a seamless enterprise mobility solution that will include WLAN IP telephony and cellular phone technologies. The companies said that by blending key features and benefits of mobile cellular, 802.11 wireless and enterprise fixed networks, the their solution will provide "a single mobile communications device that bridges the physical and virtual-office environments to enable anytime, anywhere communications for mobile business professionals."Plans include dual-mode cellular and Wi-Fi...

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Motorola and Yahoo! to Offer Consumer Devices

Motorola and Yahoo! intend to collaborate to provide consumers with easy access to Yahoo!'s core products and services on millions of Motorola Linux-based mobile devices, broadband-enabled products for the connected home, and through Motorola's forthcoming iRadio solution, starting in 2006. The companies said they would make these services available to key operators worldwide to increase consumer adoption of mobile data services. The products will also be offered directly to consumers. The first such devices are expected in 2006."Many of our...

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Sirenza Releases Power Amplifier for WiMAX

Sirenza Microdevices introduced a new family of high performance power amplifiers for WiMAX 802.16 applications. Sirenza's new SZA-3044 single chip amplifier is an InGaP HBT covering the 2.7 - 3.8 GHz frequency band. It is targeted at customer premises equipment (CPE), access point and base station applications.http://www.sirenza....

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Nominum Moves its DNS Servers onto IBM's BladeCenter

Nominum will begin offering its carrier grade DNS and DHCP servers on IBM's eServer BladeCenter systems. Nominum is offering three solutions for service providers on the IBM BladeCenter platform:Nominum Foundation Authoritative Name Server, for hosting organizations that require always-on DNS for high volume/low latency networks. This server provides performance for applications such as ENUM for VoIP or IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) networks.Nominum Foundation Caching Name Server, for broadband Internet providers. This solution also offers integrated...

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Cox Announces Management Changes

James O. Robbins, president and CEO of Cox Communications, will retire at the end of this year after leading the company for two decades. He will be succeeded by Patrick J. Esser, 48, who will become president of Cox Communications. Robbins, who will continue serving as a member of the Cox Communications board of directors, will become a member of the Cox Enterprises board of directors in early 2006. Esser joined Cox in 1979 as director of programming for the company's system in Hampton Roads, VA, and in 1981 was part of the original management...

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Verizon to Increase CAPEX Based on Wireless and Fios Growth

Verizon reported quarterly earnings of $2.1 billion, or 75 cents per diluted share, highlighted by a record-breaking quarter at Verizon Wireless, which added a record 1.9 million net customers during Q2. Wireline data revenues were also up 10.9 percent, driven by a net addition of 278,000 wireline broadband connections. Verizon is increasing its CAPEX plans by 15% for 2005 due to the strong growth at Verizon Wireless and increased spending for the deployment of Fios video services.Overall, Verizon's consolidated Q2 revenues were a record $18.6...

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FCC Announces 30-day Extension on VoIP E911 Enforcement

The FCC's Enforcement Bureau announced a 30-day extension of its new rules governing enhanced 911 (E911) capability by VoIP providers. The Bureau has determined that it will not initiate enforcement action, until August 30, 2005, against any provider of interconnected VoIP service regarding the requirement that it obtain affirmative acknowledgement by every existing subscriber on the condition that the provider file a detailed report with the Commission by August 10, 2005.During this brief extension, interconnected VoIP providers will have the...

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Ericsson and BB Mobile Show IMS Handover between 3G and WLAN

Ericsson and BB Mobile, a division of Japan's Softbank Group, announced the first seamless handover of circuit-switched voice and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based video services between 3G mobile and wireless local area networks (WLAN). The live demonstration was carried out over Softbank BB's commercial WLAN network and BB Mobile's WCDMA 3G mobile network operating on the 1.7GHz radio frequency band. BB Mobile/Softbank supplied WiFi expertise through its commercial WLAN network. Ericsson provided the 1.7GHz WCDMA radio network, circuit-switched...

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Motorola and Vonage Offer VoIP Gateway

Vonage introduced a new Motorola VoIP gateway (VT2442) with home networking features. The device powers up to two lines of telephone service and supports features such as call waiting, call forwarding and caller ID. It also includes a fully-featured home network router, offering four Ethernet ports and a firewall. Commercial availability is slated for the Fall.Motorola's VT2442 incorporates Texas Instruments' TNETV1060 VoIP gateway chipset. http://www.vonage.com...

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Conexant Debuts System-on-a-Chip for ONTs

Conexant Systems marked its entry into the fiber access market with its integrated Xenon system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution targeted at optical network terminals (ONTs) on the client-side of broadband passive optical networks (BPONs). The Xenon processor integrates a standard-compliant ITU G.983 BPON MAC/framer and network processor into a single device for bridging and router applications. The single-chip solution is based on a high-performance dual-ARM9 core network processor. Xenon supports downstream data rates of 622 Mbps and upstream rates of...

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