Tekelec Acquires iptelorg GmbH for SIP Routing

Tekelec has acquired iptelorg GmbH, a developer of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) routing software, for approximately $7 million in cash, plus $4 million of Tekelec shares, which are subject to repurchase for a nominal amount if certain of the former iptelorg shareholders terminate their employment with Tekelec within four years. Tekelec said the acquisition would extend its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) capabilities.


iptelorg, which is based in based in Germany and the Czech Republic, offers a SIP Express Router is used in commercial deployments, anchoring offerings from T-Online International AG and EarthLink, among others. Tekelec said the technology is optimized for integrated communications solutions such as the Tekelec EAGLE 5 Signaling Applications System platform.


"The fact that IMS networks are very signaling intensive plays to our strength. Integrating SIP-signaling applications with our SS7 applications provides a perfect complement to our portfolio, supporting customers with legacy and next-gen environments alike. We help operators evolve their networks at the pace and scale that make sense for their businesses," said Fred Lax, Tekelec CEO.
http://www.tekelec.com/news/prdetail.asp?prnum=543http://www.iptelorg.com/

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Tekelec Reports Revenue of $133M, Acquires Remaining Santera Interest

Tekelec reported Q2 revenue of $133.0 million, compared to $95.6 million in the second quarter of 2004. Net income (GAAP) was $5.6 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2005, compared to a net loss of $304,000, or $0.00 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2004.

Tekelec also announced plans to purchase the minority interest in Santera for cash in the amount of $75.6 million. The transaction is expected to close in early October 2005.

• Network Signaling Group revenue increased to $81.5 million, up 20%, compared to $68.0 million in Q2 '04, and increased 10% sequentially, marking the highest quarterly signaling revenue in the history of the company. Bell Canada has selected Tekelec's Eagle 5 Signaling Application System and integrated network monitoring platform to address its evolving signaling requirements as it enhances its core infrastructure. Bell Canada is replacing legacy signaling and monitoring equipment with Tekelec solutions.



• Switching Solutions Group revenue increased to $33.3 million, up 158%, compared to $12.9 million in Q2 '04, and increased 34% sequentially, as we added 19 new switching customers during the quarter. Celcom, Malaysia's largest mobile operator, will be deploying the T8000 wireless media gateway as part of an IP-based next-gen switching solution.



• Communications Software Solutions Group revenue increased to $7.1 million, up 65%, compared to $4.3 million in Q2 ‘04, but declined 26% sequentially, or $2.4 million. As part of a bundled Tekelec solution, Bell Canada is also deploying Tekelec's network-wide monitoring solution. This implementation will feed the critical business intelligence data required for the applications that run the carrier's customer care, call center operations and customer settlements processes. Also, DTAC Thailand, a leading Thai mobile operator, has selected Tekelec's Integrated Application Solution for roaming management.

Tekelec President and CEO Fred Lax commented, "Tekelec's results were strong in the second quarter, with orders up 27% year-over-year and up 29% sequentially, and revenue increasing 39% year-over-year and up 11% sequentially. For the eleventh consecutive quarter, strong order volumes provided us with a book-to-bill ratio greater than one."http://www.tekelec.com

• In June 2003, Tekelec acquired the majority interest in Santera Systems, a start-up that developed an integrated voice and data switching platform for delivering Class 4/5 services, PRI offload, packet/cell switching and voice over broadband services.

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Alcatel Opens NOC in Hong Kong

Alcatel will establish a Network Operation and Integration Centre in Hong Kong and Hutchison Global Communications will become its first client.


Alcatel will use the new Centre to offer a full range of essential network operation and integration support services such as performance and fault monitoring, service management, network and customer services. Customers in Hong Kong will benefit from OPEX reduction, improved operational efficiency, better market focus to meet business challenge and better time-to-market for new technology-based products.


To accelerate the growth potentials of its integration services business in Hong Kong, Alcatel has signed an agreement with Hutchison Global Communications (HGC) in which HGC agrees to transfer to Alcatel certain of its engineering and operation functions, which support HGC's telecommunications network in Hong Kong. It is intended that more than 300 network engineering and operation personnel will be transferred to Alcatel from HGC by mid September 2005. http://www.alcatel.com

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China's Hubei Telecom Selects Alcatel IP Service Routing

Hubei Telecom, a subsidiary of China Telecom, has selected the Alcatel IP service routing solution to expand and optimize its metropolitan area network for delivery of high-quality IP-based data services in Hubei province. Hubei Telecom will deploy the Alcatel 7750 Service Router (SR) in the province's three major cities, Wuhan, Yichang and Huanggang. These cities are seeing a growing demand from consumer and business markets for advanced user-centric broadband services. Upon completion of the project in August, Hubei Telecom will be able to deliver multiple services from a single network infrastructure, including a bundled triple play offering (advanced voice, high-speed Internet and IPTV), high speed Internet access for residential users as well as Layer 2 and 3 virtual private network (VPN) services for enterprises. The contract was won through Alcatel Shanghai Bell. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.alcatel.com

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Alcatel and Amdocs Align on IPTV

Alcatel and Amdocs agreed to collaborate to address the requirements of communications service providers planning to deploy IPTV and other next generation broadband IP services. Through this arrangement, the two companies will work to deliver a joint end-to-end solution that supports triple play bundles of voice, data and video services. The companies will integrate the Amdocs IP Convergence Solution for IPTV with Alcatel's broad suite of IPTV offerings.


Alcatel and Amdocs have already begun development of an Interoperability lab that will simulate real-world production environments and foster the creation of a joint end-to-end offering. The environment will house diverse components of the combined solution that will span from the customer premise to the BSS layer. This includes the infrastructure, full broadband access network, switching, routing, transport and applications.
http://www.alcatel.com
http://www.amdocs.com/

• In May 2005, SBC Communications awarded a multi-million dollar, multi-year contract to Amdocs to provide its customer lifecycle management solutions for Project Lightspeed. The Amdocs IP Convergence solution is based on the Amdocs billing, customer relationship management (CRM), ordering and payment mediation products, combined with Amdocs consulting and systems integration services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
  
  
• In October 2004, SBC announced a five-year, approximately $1.7 billion primary supplier agreement with Alcatel to provide network equipment and video system integration services for Project Lightspeed. Alcatel's network equipment includes core network access, aggregation and switching equipment platforms that will provide the Internet Protocol, packet-based network technologies that connect the customers to the video hub offices. SBC has also named Scientific-Atlanta and Microsoft as key IPTV suppliers.

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Chelsio Cuts 10GbE Adapter Price to $795

Chelsio Communications announced its second generation 10GbE TOE adapter with copper CX4 interfacesand priced at $795 in volume.


Chelsio's T210 10GbE TOE adapters offload the CPU-intensive network protocol stack, returning CPU cycles to the application. The adapters have been independently verified to deliver 7.9 Gbps throughput while using only 50% of a single server CPU, double the performance and up to seven times more efficient than competing 10GbE NICs without TOE.


Further benchmarks have shown that for iSCSI applications, Chelsio's adapters deliver four times the performance, at 1/4th the CPU utilization relative to basic NICs.


Chelsio also noted that Sandia National Laboratories, in a paper presented on July 27th at the Cluster Symposium 2005, reported that 10GbE with TCP offload greatly improved system performance in a study where they measured aggregate bandwidth using the TerraGRID parallel filesystem. Sandia tested the system performance using both Infiniband and 10GbE with TOE as the interconnect technologies. The benchmarks, collected using a cluster interconnected with Chelsio T210 10GbE TOE adapters and a Fujitsu XG600 switch, confirmed earlier results by Ohio State University and Los Alamos National Laboratory teams.
http://www.chelsio.com

• The 10GBASE-CX4 802.3ak standard, ratified by the IEEE in February 2004, provides a low-cost alternative to fiber-based 10GbE in data center and cluster applications. This standard enables the use of four-pair Infiniband electrical cabling instead of fiber for short reach, rack-to-rack connections up to 15 meters.

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Bell Canada Posts Double-digit Growth in Wireless, DSL and Video

Bell Canada reported couble-digit year over year subscriber growth in wireless, Internet and video, driving Q2 revenue to $5.0 billion, up 4.2% from the same period last year. Operating income for the quarter was $1.1 billion, unchanged from the previous year, and earnings per share (EPS) were $0.61 cents, up $0.01 from the previous year. Some highlights:

• Wireless: growth accelerated with the addition of 146,000 new subscribers to Bell's customer base during the second quarter, up 54% over the second quarter of 2004. This is the company's strongest second quarter of net additions on record. Total subscribers reached the 5.1 million mark, an increase of 11% when compared to June 30, 2004.
  
  
  Wireless revenues for the second quarter reached $771 million, an improvement of $73 million, or 10%, over the second quarter of 2004.



• Video: Bell Canada's ExpressVu service posted its strongest second quarter on record as net additions jumped 163% over the same quarter in 2004 to 63,000. By June 30, 2005, total subscribers reached the 1.6 million mark, up 12% compared to June 30, 2004. Churn remained low at 0.9%, and slightly improved over the previous year. The company also completed its "Smart Card" replacement program to its entire customer base, making its satellite platform free from piracy.
  
  
  Video revenues increased by 12% year-over-year driven by the higher customer base and an improvement in ARPU of $1. EBITDA remained positive despite a marked increase in new additions. EBITDA performance was driven by a reduction of nearly 20% in the average unit cost of acquiring new customers. Bell recently purchased the residential assets of Cable VDN, a local cable company selling residential TV and high-speed Internet services in Montreal.



• DSL:ditions were 92,000 in the second quarter of 2005, an increase of 42% over the same period in 2004. The total high-speed subscriber base exceeded the 2 million mark, up by 24% over the second quarter of last year. The popularity of Bell's 128 kbps DSL service, which is both attracting new customers and converting dial-up customers to DSL, contributed to the growth this quarter.
  
  VAS subscriber growth, such as MSN Premium, Security Services and Home Networking, grew by 99,000 in the second quarter of 2005, to reach a total of 865,000 - double the number a year ago.
  
  Sympatico.MSN continued to be the country's most popular online destination with 15.8 million unique visitors to the site monthly. Portal revenues increased by 131% and VAS revenues increased by 61%, year over year.



• Business Services: Business segment revenues were $1.5 billion in the second quarter or 4% higher compared to the second quarter of 2004, demonstrating continued growth in this segment. Year to date revenues were approximately $3 billion compared to $2.9 billion for the same period in 2004, an increase of 3.5%
  
  
  Bell Canada's Enterprise Group continues to gain momentum in its conversion to an IP and VAS provider, including managing the strong demand for its IP VPN service and its growing ability to provide new services from standardized platforms. Enterprise added 27,000 IP-enabled voice lines on customer premises equipment during the quarter for a total of 185,000. At the end of the second quarter 73% of traffic on Bell's core network was IP.

http://www.bce.ca

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FCC Approves Sprint/Nextel Merger

The FCC voted to approve the merger between Sprint and Nextel. This completes all required regulatory approvals for the merger, and the companies expect to close the merger shortly.


The FCC action enables the transfer of control of all licenses and authorizations held directly and indirectly by Nextel to Sprint. These licenses and authorizations include: Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) licenses in the 800 and 900 MHz bands, licenses in the 1.9 GHz band that resulted from the 800 MHz rebanding proceeding, Broadband Radio Service (BRS) licenses in the 2.1 and 2.5 GHz bands, and leases of Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band.


The FCC noted that while the number of large nationwide mobile carriers will be reduced from five to four as a result of the transaction, the FCC determined that carrier conduct will remain sufficiently competitive to ensure that market performance will not be impaired, and, given the expected benefits, the public interest will be enhanced on balance.

With regard to the effect of the merged entity's accumulation of BRS/EBS spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band, the FCC concludes that, because this spectrum is in an early state of transition to a new band plan and new uses by licensees, neither public interest harms nor benefits are likely to result in the near term from the merger.


As a condition to its approval to the merger, the FCC is requiring that Sprint Nextel fulfill its voluntary commitment to meet certain milestones for offering service in 2.5 GHz band, unless circumstances beyond its control prevent the merged entity from reaching those milestones. In addition to other specific implementation requirements agreed to by Sprint Nextel, the first milestone requires Sprint Nextel to offer service using BRS/EBS spectrum to at least 15 million Americans within four years of the effective date of the order consenting to the merger, and the second milestone requires the company to serve an additional 15 million Americans within six years.


Sprint is currently the third largest provider of commercial mobile telephone service based on subscribership, while Nextel is the fifth largest.
http://www.fcc.govhttp://www.sprint.com

• In December 2004, Sprint and Nextel Communications confirmed their plans to merge into a larger wireless and integrated communications service provider. The two companies currently serve more than 35 million wireless subscribers and 5 million additional subscribers through affiliates and partners. The new company would look to leverage a strong spectrum position to deliver nationwide mobile data and push-to-talk services. The company is also aiming to deliver new broadband wireless services for consumers.



• Significantly, Nextel operates a nationwide network based on Motorola's Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) technology, combines a digital wireless phone, two-way radio with "push-to-talk" feature, alphanumeric pager and "always connected" internet microbrowswer capabilities. iDEN leverages TDM, which uses Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) to reference a synchronized time, and then divides the channel into time slots.
  
  
  Nextel had been planning to deploy Motorola's WiDEN technology in its nationwide digital iDEN voice and packet data network. Motorola's WiDEN higher speed data technology is designed to quadruple data speeds. Nextel has also been testing a wireless broadband service in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C. market using Flarion Technologies' FLASH-OFDM technology. The combined company would continue to invest in its iDEN network until all voice traffic can be supported on the CDMA network. Nextel's push-to-talk (PTT) service would continue to run on the iDEN network until PTT could be supported on CDMA EVDO (Rev A) in about 2008.

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MCI Accelerates Roll-Out of Wholesale VoIP

MCI announced the immediate availability of its wholesale VoIP product suite, which includes Carrier IP Termination and SIP Gateway Service. The rollout was initially planned for later this year, but MCI said it accelerated its product development to meet the growing demand for VoIP enablement services.


The Carrier IP Termination product is aimed at customers who have already purchased media gateway equipment and desire to obtain the cost advantages of originating IP traffic and terminating that traffic over a fully integrated global network. The Carrier IP Termination service is available throughout the U.S. , and the SIP Gateway Service is available to more than 54% of U.S. business and residential customers.
To further enhance the availability of its VoIP wholesale offerings, MCI is committed to investing millions of dollars in capital expenditures throughout 2005.
http://www.mci.com/

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Motorola Forecasts Consumer Demand for Unlicensed Mobile Access

Motorola is forecasting strong consumer demand for Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA)-enabled services across Europe. UMA is seamless, fixed-mobile network convergence that leverages the Internet to make mobile calls cheaper, while ensuring that there is always good signal coverage in the home. UMA services aim to deliver standard mobile phone features (voicemail, SMS, picture messages, IM, WAP, etc.) but with the advantage of reduced call charges for any calls made when you are in your home. The service will require the use of a new "dual-network" handset.



A survey commissioned by Motorola and conducted by BrainJuicer, which targeted 1,000 consumers in each of six leading European markets -- Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom - concludes that a UMA-enabled service would be positively received.


The results showed that the cost of any potential UMA converged service has a major impact on a consumer's possible adoption of the service. If mobile calls in the home were priced the same as fixed line calls then over 50% of respondents said they would be likely to sign up to a UMA service within 12 months.


Of the respondents who would probably buy the service, a third would make most or all of their calls at home on their mobile.


A significant number of respondents also stated that the need to install broadband or switch suppliers would not be a barrier to adopting UMA services. Overall, only 17% would definitely or probably not switch mobile supplier, just 22% would be unwilling to switch fixed line operator while only a quarter would want to avoid changing their broadband provider.


The research shows there are no major barriers to the adoption of UMA in these six key territories and that respondents across all countries show a good comprehension of the technology and fundamentally find it credible.
http://www.motorola.com

• In May 2005, Motorola announced trials of its UMA solution with seven major European operators, including TeliaSonera Denmark. The trials are designed to demonstrate smooth deployment for operators planning to introduce seamless mobility across cellular and broadband IP networks, which can benefit operators by growing their share of subscriber spend, minimising subscriber churn and enhancing the overall subscriber experience.



• In June 2005, Motorola brought style to its vision of seamless mobility by announcing the launch of the RAZR for Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA). Joining the Motorola V560, the RAZR for UMA is the second handset for BT Fusion, Europe's first fully-converged fixed-mobile solution.



• In July 2005, Motorola added to its growing portfolio of fixed-mobile convergence devices announcing the A910, a UMA device designed to deliver a seamless mobile office experience for today's on-the-go professional.

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Extreme Networks Sees Revenue Rise 5% Sequentially

Extreme Networks reported quarterly revenue of $96.1 million, up 5 percent from $91.9 million in the previousl quarter, and up 4 percent from $92.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Gross margins for the quarter improved to 53.0 percent of sales, up sequentially from 51.4 percent. Net income for the quarter was $0.1 million, or $0.00 per fully diluted share. Included in the results for the fourth quarter was approximately $2.8 million in litigation expenses related to the recently concluded trial with Lucent Technologies.


For its fiscal year ended July 3, 2005, the company recorded revenues of $383.3 million, up 9 percent from fiscal year 2004.


"We are pleased to have achieved both growth and profitability for the year," said Gordon L. Stitt, president and CEO of Extreme Networks. "The market is embracing our open converged network solutions, and this success has enabled us to grow sales while improving our margins and increasing profitability."http://www.extremenetworks.com

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Verizon Completes Leap Wireless Spectrum Acquisition

Verizon Wireless completed the purchase of certain spectrum licenses and operating assets from Leap Wireless International, for $102.5 million. Verizon Wireless has acquired 23 spectrum licenses covering a population of eight million people in 20 markets in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and upstate New York. The deal was first announced in March 2005.
http://www.verizon.com

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FCC Postpones Open Meeting until Friday

The FCC decided to postpone its Open Meeting, originally scheduled for Thursday, to Friday, 05-August-2005.


Major items on the agenda include:

• Anticompetitive conduct and circuit disruption by foreign carriers on U.S.-international routes.



• Competition in the Market for the Delivery of Video Programming



• Service Rules for Advanced Wireless Services in the 1.7 GHz and 2.1 GHz Bands

Various media reports also speculated that the FCC might also vote on new unbundling rules for DSL, given the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Brand X case. The court case vindicated rhe FCC's declaratory ruling on 15-March-2002 that classified cable modem service as an "information service" rather than a "cable service", meaning that cable operators are no required to open their networks to other ISPs.
http://www.fcc.gov

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Marconi Appoints new CEO for North America

Marconi named Joseph Ferrara as Chief Executive Officer of its North American organization, succeeding Geoffrey Doy, who will remain with Marconi as Chairman of its North America division. Ferrara will manage both the Data Networks group, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, and the Wireless group, based in Dallas, TX. The Data Networks group counts the U.S. Federal Government as its largest customer, and the Wireless group provides radio frequency software and services to more than 200 customers globally. Prior to joining Marconi in 2000, Ferrara held senior-level positions in marketing and operations at Startec Global Communications and MCI.
http://www.marconi.com

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Marconi Reports Quarterly Revenue of £285 million

Marconi reported group quarterly revenue £285 million, compared to Q1 revenue of £289 million. Some highlights from Marconi's quarterly report:

• Strong quarter for sales in APAC region, driven by increased Optical sales to Telstra



• Reduced Optical and Access sales in Europe



• Stability in BT and Data Networks revenues



• Adjusted Gross Margin of 30.2% (Q1 FY05: 32.2%; Q4 FY05: 31.8%)



• Optical & Access Networks margin were impacted by lower Optical sales and continued pricing pressure



• Quarter-on-quarter stability in Data Networks and Network Services



• Adjusted Loss from Operations of £6 million (Q1 FY05: loss of £2 million; Q4 FY05: profit of £21 million)



• Improved profitability delivered in US Data Networks



• Book to bill of 1.14 in equipment, driven by UK access orders

Mike Parton, Chief Executive, said "We achieved solid results in the quarter despite a very competitive marketplace. We have seen new wins for our next-generation products with customers such as Cable and Wireless and Vodafone. Our order book is healthy. We are reaffirming our guidance for the year."http://www.marconi.com

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Nokia Releases N-Gage QD Silver Edition

Nokia is releasing an N-Gage QD Silver Edition to the European, Middle Eastern and African markets.
Nokia's N-Gage platform enables 3D multiplayer gameplay over Bluetooth and GPRS.

The new N-Gage QD Silver Edition game deck has all the smartphone functionalities and connectivity features as the original N-Gage QD game deck has, including calendar, contacts, e-mail, web browsing, Bluetooth and GPRS.
http://www.nokia.com

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