Tuesday, September 20, 2005

EarthLink Deploys Acme Packet's Session Controllers

EarthLink has deployed Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers to support the delivery of its upcoming voice services. These services include EarthLink trueVoice, the next generation of its residential VoIP broadband service. Other services include EarthLink's Vling, now in beta, the next generation of EarthLink's free online calling service that features instant text instant messaging from buddy lists using a personal computer. EarthLink will also roll out EarthLink Line Powered Voice, which will begin market trials in San Francisco, Seattle and Dallas in late 2005.


In support of these voice services, Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers provide security services at all protocol layers, including access control, and network topology hiding. To extend service reach, the adaptive NAT traversal feature allows VoIP calls to cross existing data firewalls at the customer premise from a secure network element managed by EarthLink, an important feature for hosted IP services, such as broadband VoIP. Other features being used by EarthLink include QoS management and accounting. http://www.acmepacket.com

Verizon Readies Commercial Launch of FiOS TV

Texas Governor Rick Perry is expected to join Verizon executives on Thursday for the public launch of its FiOS TV. The service is expected to be available on a limited basis in certain towns where Verizon has deployed its FTTP networl.


In a separate event in New York, Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg issued a call for a national growth agenda that "encourages investment and innovation in modern communications." Seidenberg called for an end to unnecessary barriers to capital investment, starting with video franchise reform. He also called for a tax policy that promotes rather than discourages investment.


Verizon currently is negotiating franchises in hundreds of communities across the country, including more than 40 local franchise authorities in New York.


Verizon has already obtained franchises in Texas, California, Florida and Virginia to offer FiOS TV to nearly a half-million households served by the company's FiOS network, and plans to unveil its first commercial offering soon.


Verizon hopes to offer FiOS TV in New York early next year.


"We're making progress in getting the franchises we need. But we think this could go faster -- and the benefits of video competition could come quicker -- if we could reform the whole franchise process," Seidenberg said.


"We're not talking about doing away with local franchise fees or local content. But we do need a broader, more streamlined solution to this issue if we're going to clear the path for technology investment and innovation in video."


Seidenberg also called for reducing the costs to U.S. businesses so they can compete globally and keep more resources here at home. The amount of property taxes Verizon pays in New York state, $336 million in 2004, outpaces every state in which the company does business, he noted.
http://www.verizon.com/

T-Mobile USA Announces 20-Million Customer Milestone

T-Mobile USA has surpassed 20 million wireless customers, having doubled its customer base during the past 10 quarters. T-Mobile USA reached the 10-million customer mark during the first quarter of 2003. http://www.t-mobile.com

Telefonica Moviles Mexico Converges with Nortel Softswitch/Gateways

Telefonica Moviles Mexico has moved all of its national and international voice and data traffic onto a single multiservice platform. Nortel's Communication Server (CS) 2000, Multiservice Switch (MSS) 7400 series and Media Gateway (MG) 15000 are being used to converge network traffic and increase network capacity, positioning Telefonica Moviles Mexico to significantly reduce the cost of backhauling voice and data traffic from base stations to switching centers.


Nortel noted that its MSS portfolio is now deployed with more than 25 major wireless operators around the world.
http://www.nortel.com

Veoh Launches its P2P IPTV Peercasting Network

Veoh Networks, a start-up based in San Diego, announced the public availability and testing of its Veoh 1.0 P2P IPTV Peercasting Network. Veoh 1.0 allows video content producers to publish full-screen video to the network and lets consumers find the video content they are seeking.


Veoh is using its own "VeohNet" protocol as the basis of its video transport system. Veoh software, installed on consumers' PCs or Macs, creates a virtual television network that is able to distribute TV-quality, full-screen broadcast video to hundreds of millions of users with broadband Internet connections.


The company hopes motion picture studios, television networks, organizations and individuals will publish unlimited amounts of broadcast video content to the network, providing consumers with a wide choice in television programming and control over their viewing experience.
http://www.veoh.com
  • Veoh Networks was founded by Dmitry Shapiro, who is credited with creating P2P security software used by more than one million enterprise users today to manage and regulate applications like BitTorrent and Grokster. Its engineering team is led by Dr. Ted Dunning, who was previously the chief scientist at Musicmatch (now a division of Yahoo! Music), IDAnalytics and Aptex (an HNC company).

Huawei Signs Ubiquity Software for IMS

Huawei Technologies signed a global partnership agreement with Ubiquity Software to incorporate its SIP Application Server ("A/S") as an embedded part of Huawei's IMS portfolio.


Huawei is utilizing Ubiquity's Application Creation Environment to develop and deliver wireless, wireline and converged SIP-based application. The first extended Ubiquity SIP A/S platform based application solution is expected to be generally available to customers later this year. Ubiquity is also enabling Huawei with IMS proof of concept applications such as video See What I See (SWIS), Multiplayer Gaming, Chat Room and Multimedia Conferencing.
http://www.ubiquitysoftware.com

SBC/AT&T Merger Approved in New York

The New York Public Service Commission approved SBC Communications' acquisition of AT&T.


New York becomes the 32nd of 36 states to clear the merger, along with the District of Columbia. Merger review is also under way at the U.S. Department of Justice and the FCC.
http://www.sbc.com

Cisco CRS-1 Selected for China's CERNET

The China Education and Research Network (CERNET), the world's largest education network, will deploy the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System to upgrade its national backbone network. CERNET links more than 1,000 major universities and research institutions with more than 20 million users in China. The network is not only used as an education and resource network but is also an integral part of the Internet backbone in China. The Cisco CRS-1 will be deployed in CERNET's core network nodes in five cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Nanjing. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://newsroom.cisco.com

Path 1 Introduces New Monitoring Applications for IP Video

Path 1 Network Technologies introduced an IP video monitoring application designed for detecting problems with the video streams intrinsic during transport over packet-based networks. The application works with the company's Path 1 Vx8000 IP video gateway to detect and correct errors such as IP network jitter, packet loss, excessive latency, out-of-order packets and other visible disruptions that impair the performance of the video service and adversely affect the viewer experience. Upon pinpointing the origin and type of error, Path 1's IP video gateways can be used to apply Pro-MPEG Code of Practice (COP 3) standards-compliant techniques for forward error correction (FEC) to rectify problems and preserve the quality of the video signal.


Path 1 said it plans to introduce several monitoring and video quality assurance solutions this year. http://www.path1.net

QUALCOMM Boosts Guidance for Q4

QUALCOMM increased its financial guidance for the fourth fiscal quarter and fiscal year ended September 25, 2005.
The company now anticipates fourth fiscal quarter revenues pro forma to be in the range of approximately $1.48 -- $1.58 billion, an increase of approximately 8 -- 15% year-over-year. We now anticipate fourth fiscal quarter pro forma diluted earnings per share to be approximately $0.32 -- $0.33, an increase of approximately 7 -- 10% year-over-year. This estimate is based on the shipment of approximately 40 million MSM phone chips during the quarter compared to 39 million in the year ago quarter.


"3G CDMA market momentum is strong," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chief executive officer of QUALCOMM. "We are seeing strength across many geographies in shipments of 3G CDMA handsets. During the June quarter, both CDMA and WCDMA handset shipments increased sequentially in most regions of the world. The increase of 3 -- 4 million handsets, as compared to our prior guidance, is primarily attributable to greater CDMA2000 handset shipments to North America, Latin America, and the rest of the world. We are very pleased with the degree of traction our CDMA2000 1x EV-DO and WCDMA chipset solutions have received from device manufacturers. Consumers continue upgrading devices to take advantage of the many data services and advanced features that are now available on 3G CDMA networks."http://www.qualcomm.com/

Comcast Boosts Speeds to 8Mbps and 6Mbps in California

Comcast is enhancing its residential Internet speed tiers in southern California to 8Mbps/768kbps and 6Mbps/384kbps. There is no additional charge. This marks the third time since 2003 that Comcast has raised broadband speeds for its customers. http://www.comcast.com

Verizon and The Walt Disney Company Sign Programming Deal

Verizon and The Walt Disney Company announced a long-term, wide-ranging programming agreement for multiple Disney and ESPN networks and services.


Under the agreement, Verizon will carry 12 television services on Verizon FiOS TV's expanded basic, including ABC Family, ABC News Now, Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, Toon Disney and SOAPnet. Verizon will also be granted retransmission consent of ABC's owned and operated television stations as part of the agreement.


Verizon and Disney also agreed to cooperate, consistent with the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, to help curb infringement of Disney's copyrighted works over the Internet while at the same time appropriately safeguarding the privacy of Verizon Internet service subscribers.


Under the agreement, Verizon would forward and track notices to its subscribers allegedly engaged in the unauthorized distribution of Disney's copyrighted works, without identifying the subscribers to Disney, and either provide subscriber identifying information pursuant to lawfully served subpoenas or terminate Verizon Internet service provided to subscribers who have infringed Disney copyrights and received multiple notices.
http://www.verizon.com