Italtel Partners with Accenture on NGN Solutions

Italtel and Accenture agreed to jointly develop next-generation solutions for telecommunications service providers in Europe and South America. The two companies will integrate Italtel's products, which support the IMS standard, with Accenture Communications Solutions to help service providers bring next-generation services to market more quickly. Accenture offers a suite of business solutions that provide telecommunications service providers with ready-to-use, pre-packaged components that include a robust common integration framework and are aligned...

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Brazil's Telemar Tests Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC)

Telemar, which operates the largest fixed network in South America, with around 15 million subscribers and a mobile network with about 8 million subscribers, will begin trials of Nokia's Fixed Mobile Convergence solutions. The Nokia Fixed Mobile Convergence solutions can leverage Telemar's current fixed network to create a converged packet based domain for fixed and mobile services. The trial employs a comprehensive Nokia end-to-end solution for...

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Covad to Acquire NextWeb, Enter WiMAX Market

Covad Communications will acquire NextWeb, a provider of fixed-wireless in California, for approximately $24.7 million. NextWeb, based in Fremont, California, utilizes licensed and unlicensed wireless technology. NextWeb currently provides service to nearly 3,000 business customers in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County (CA), Santa Barbara and Las Vegas.Covad said it is currently conducting pre-WiMAX technical trials focused on the small business/enterprise market in the San Francisco Bay Area. Covad is achieving pre-WiMAX...

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France Telecom Offer EUR 2 Billion Bond to Finance Amena Acquisition

France Telecom has closed a EUR2 billion bond offering that will be used for the acquisition of 80% of the Spanish mobile operator Amena. http://www.francetelecom.com 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....

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BT IP Converge Offers WAN, LAN and IP Telephony

BT announced a converged network service to help enterprises implement a core Wide Area Network (WAN) service, and then have the option of adding additional elements and services such as Local Area Network (LAN) and IP Telephony (IPT).BT IP Converge is an end-to-end managed service aimed at enterprises without a large internal IT department, as well as companies that wish to focus resource on more core IT issues.For a mid-sized company with multiple sites, IP Converge also delivers a secure network for both voice and data at a lower cost than equivalent...

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Freescale Combines Bluetooth and Ultra-Wideband Wireless

Freescale Semiconductor demonstrated high data rate Ultra-Wideband (UWB) silicon operating under existing Bluetooth software stacks. The demonstration, held at WiCon Americas this week, leverages partners Open Interface and Frontline Test Equipment to stream UWB signals using Bluetooth protocols and track the protocols via an analyzer.Freescale said the combined functionality enables direct sequence-UWB (DS-UWB) to meet the higher-speed demands of streaming high quality video applications. Developers could also tap into the strong ecosystem created...

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CyOptics Adds $3 Million in New Funding

CyOptics, a supplier of optical chips and components, raised an additional $3 million as part of its Series F funding round. Birchmere Ventures joined prior investors JVP, Sprout Group, TowerBrook Capital Partners, and EURfund, which collectively invested $16.5 million in the April first closing. The round also included $7.5 million in debt financing from Comerica Bank. This round financed the acquisition and integration of TriQuint Semiconductor's Optoelectronics Division. http://www.cyoptics....

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Boingo Signs Wi-Fi Roaming Deal with BT and Japan Telecom

Boingo Wireless announced a roaming agreements with BT Openzone, the London-based Wi-Fi Internet service provider division of BT, and Japan Telecom.The BT Openzone agreement adds 1,588 Wi-Fi hot spots in the UK and in key airports around the world to the global Boingo Roaming System. The Japan Telecom agreement provides access to 820 Japanese hot spot locations that are part of Japan Telecom's BB MOBILEPOINT Wi-Fi network. BB MOBILEPOINT, which was launched on Oct. 3rd, is a joint network brand of SoftbankBB's Yahoo!BB Mobile and Japan Telecom's...

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Siemens and 3Com Form Strategic Alliance

3Com and Siemens Communications announced a new global strategic alliance and master reseller agreement to integrate and sell - via Siemens' direct sales organization and indirect channels - a range of cost-competitive data networking and enterprise security products, and a full suite of complementary services. The agreement includes edge-to-core switches and routers, Siemens' portfolio of identity and access management solutions, and 3Com's network security platform, the TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention System (IPS).Under an existing agreement...

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GlowPoint and WebEx Partner on Video and Web Collaboration

Glowpoint, an IP-based video communications service provider, and WebEx Communications, an on-demand collaborative applications provider, agreed to create a comprehensive video communications and data collaboration solution.As part of the alliance, GlowPoint will be integrating WebEx web meeting capabilities into Sony's "Instant Video Everywhere," or IVE Mobile video communication service. Sony is integrating these capabilities into some of its notebooks.The IVE (pronounced "ivy") service, powered by GlowPoint, enables enhanced video communications...

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LG Integrates Hard Drives into HD Plasma TVs

LG Electronics has begun integrating 160-gigabyte Seagate hard drives into plasma High-Definition televisions (HDTVs), enabling a built-in high-definition digital video recorder (HD-DVR). The new Digital Cable Ready plasma HDTVs can store up to 14 hours of digital high-definition programming or 62 hours of digital standard-definition programming. The new widescreen plasma-DVRs incorporate an automatic time-shift feature, which continuously records in one-hour intervals. Other features include slow motion rewind and forward capabilities and instant...

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MFORMA Secures $30 Million for its Mobile Content

MFORMA, a start-up with operation in the U.S. the U.K., China and Korea, raised $30 million in a third round venture funding for its mobile content distribution service.MFORMA is a leading global publisher and distributor of mobile entertainment, including BREW, Java, SMS, MMS, and WAP games. Its customers include more than 100 of the world's leading wireless carriers. The company was founded in 2001 and now has over 700 employees. http://www.mforma.comIn September 2005, MFORMA promoted Jonathan Sacks to the position of president and chief executive...

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TANDBERG Supplies HD Encoding for Undersea Expedition

TANDBERG Television supplied advanced encoding systems for VISIONS '05, a research expedition to the underwater volcanoes of the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific Ocean led by University of Washington. Using TANDBERG Television's HD encoder and decoder, the high definition video was compressed and transmitted live from the research vessel over IP satellite to the University of Washington, where it was streamed over the Internet to research facilities across the United States. The seafloor locations are located about 200 miles offshore...

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AT&T Wins Contract with Raymond James Financial

Raymond James Financial, a Florida-based financial services firm managing assets valued at $147 billion, awarded a multimillion-dollar networking contract to AT&T. Contract terms were not disclosed.The two-year contract provides up to 2,100 participating Raymond James affiliate offices around the globe access to a full portfolio of AT&T data, voice and Internet access services. The agreement offers Raymond James additional services. Raymond James will also deploy AT&T's Internet Protect to monitor the network for potential cyber security...

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US Cable Group Deploys ARRIS' CMTS

US Cable Group, which serves 140,000 customers in nine states, has selected ARRIS' Cadant C4 Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), outfitted with the new dense 2 Downstream x 12 Upstream Cable Access Modules (CAMs) to deploy High-Speed Data service in its markets. Additionally, US Cable is testing ARRIS Touchstone 402G Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adapters (E-MTAs). Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.arrisi.c...

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Verizon Signs MTV Networks and BET for FiOS

Verizon announced distribution deals with MTV Networks and BET for its new FiOS TV service. Through the agreement, FiOS will carry all MTV Networks and BET program services, including the MTV Networks recently launched services LOGO, MTV Desi and several other program services in the MTV World group, as well as its recently announced high definition channel, MHD. MTVN and BET programming will be available to all FiOS TV subscribers.Verizon will also deliver MTV Networks' video on demand content as part of the FiOS "Free-on-Demand" VOD platform....

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