CWA Members Vote Strike Authorization at Qwest

Members of the Communications Workers of America working at Qwest Communications voted overwhelmingly to give CWA leaders authorization to call a strike if a fair contract cannot be reached. The current contract covering 25,000 CWA- represented workers at Qwest will expire at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 14."CWA wants to reach a fair agreement with Qwest, but management must recognize that our members have made substantial sacrifices to help keep Qwest in business over a very rocky period," said Annie Hill, CWA District 7 Vice President. "Our members want...

Read More

WebEx Partners With NTT Communications in Japan

WebEx Communications has entered into an agreement with NTT Communications to launch a contact center solution for small and medium size businesses (SMB) in the Japanese market. The new Customer Connect solution bundles several enterprise-level contact center functions into a hosted solution. It combines NTT Com IP audio, automatic call distribution capabilities and the WebEx Support Center application. The service is offered as a turnkey, hosted contact center solution for SMBs. It features NTT Com IP Centrex for voice conferencing, automatic...

Read More

BellSouth Debuts Pre-WiMax Service

BellSouth has begun offering its FastAccess Internet Service powered by wireless broadband technology in Athens, Georgia. Pricing will range from $24.95 to $39.95 per month, depending on the speed selected and if the customer has BellSouth wireline service.BellSouth said it plans to offer the wireless broadband in select Florida cities later this year. http://www.bellsouth....

Read More

NEC and Harris Settle Patent Infringement Claims

NEC reached a settlement with Harris in its lawsuit regarding infringement of its Digital Microwave Radio ("DMR") patent. Harris has agreed to take a royalty-bearing, non-exclusive license under NEC's Digital Microwave Radio ("DMR") patents. NEC has dismissed all other claims. The patent infringement lawsuits were filed in September 2004. Financial terms were not disclosed.In addition with the settlement, Harris agreed to purchase from NEC, and NEC agreed to sell to Harris, certain PBX patents possessed by NEC. Also, the parties agreed to a patent...

Read More

Belgium's Mobistar Expands from Mobile to DSL

Mobistar, the second largest mobile operator in Belgium, has decided to make a strategic shift from a purely mobile operator to a fully convergent ISP with wireline facilities. Mobistar will deploy the Alcatel 7301 Advanced Services Access Manager DSLAM, managed by the Alcatel 5523 ADSL Work Station (AWS) and the Alcatel 5530 Network Analyzer. Mobistar is part of France Telecom's Orange Group. http://www.alcatel.com http://www.mobistar.beAs of 30 June 2005, Mobistar had 2,867,522 active customers , 205,186 more than a year before, representing...

Read More

Russia's VimpelCom Selects Alcatel Mobile NGN

VimpelCom, a leading international carrier operating under the "Beeline" brand in Russia and Kazakhstan, will deploy Alcatel's mobile Next Generation Network (NGN) solution in the Urals. Specifically, VimpelCom will deploy the Alcatel 5020 Spatial Atrium Softswitch, a multi-standard mobile call server for controlling distributed media gateways and managing call/session control for voice and data services. The project is scheduled for completion in Q3 2005. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.alcatel.comIn September 2004, Alcatel...

Read More

Motorola Seeks Enforcement via Telsim's International Roaming

Motorola is seeking to collect the international roaming and interconnect revenues of Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon (Telsim), the second largest mobile operator in Turkey, as a means of enforcing its approximately $2.5 billion arbitration claim against the company.On June 13, 2005, a panel of arbitrators from the Zurich Chamber of Commerce issued a final award ("the Final Award") in the arbitration pending between Telsim and Motorola Credit Corporation ("MCC") concerning the amounts due by Telsim to MCC under the financing arrangements between...

Read More

Alltel Cites Wireless for Gains in Profitability

Alltel reported quarterly revenues of $2.3 billion, an 11% increase from a year ago. Net income (GAAP) was $402 million, a 53% increase. Net income from current businesses was $284 million, an 8% increase from a year ago.Wireless revenue was $1.5 billion, a 16 percent increase from a year ago. Segment income was $307 million, a 17 percent increase.Average revenue per wireless customer was $50.55, a 6 percent increase year-over-year and the highest ARPU in 5 years, driven by improvements in data revenue and quality customer growth. Post-pay churn...

Read More

European Commission Adopts R&D Plan

The European Commission announced plans to invest € 1 billion to launch 276 new research projects in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Over 1,300 proposals were submitted in response to the 4th Information Society Technology Call for Proposals under the EU's Sixth Research Framework Programme. 462 proposals met the quality criteria, of which 276 were retained.The selected projects aim in particular to achieve industrial and societal breakthroughs in fields that are of strategic importance to Europe, and where it has...

Read More

America Online Acquires Xdrive for Online Storage

America Online has acquired Xdrive, a privately-held provider of online storage and backup services. Financial terms were not disclosed. Xdrive manages an online, centralized storage platform that gives subscribers access to, and protection of, all their digital files. Xdrive, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California, will operate as a stand alone, wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL under the Digital Services business unit and continue to be based in southern California. The company has 34 employees.The Xdrive unit, the Xdrive...

Read More