MoCA Completes Plugfest For 270 Mbps Home Nets over Coax

The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) completed a plugfest in which eight member companies tested eight products to verify that they interoperate and perform at levels consistent with specifications. The Plugfest featured an 8-node MoCA network using all companies' products simultaneously sharing three HD videos, eight SD videos, and interactive gaming for a total of more than 90 Mbps of full motion digital entertainment.


Companies taking part in the Plugfest included Actiontec Electronics,
Entropic Communications, Linksys, Motorola, Mototech, Panasonic, 2Wire, and Westell Technologies, which tested various home networking products including, residential gateways, Ethernet/coax bridges, reference designs, and chipsets.


Comcast and Verizon attended the Plugfest as observer proctors.


A MoCA network can transport video, voice and data to TVs, set-tops, DVRs, game boxes, WiFi repeaters and PCs at physical speeds of up to 270 Mbps homes and has been field tested across America in real world situations to deliver over a net usable 100 Mbps at greater than
97% of coax outlets.
http://www.mocalliance.org

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Linux Phone Standards Forum Aims for Next-Gen Mobiles

A new Linux Phone Standards Forum (LiPS) has been founded to promote mass market adoption of Linux telephony terminals through standardization, interoperability testing and market education. The founding members include Cellon, France Telecom, FTM Labs, Huawei, Jaluna, Mizi, Open Plug and PalmSource.


LiPS will support device manufacturers and operators in bringing to market Linux-based devices at lower cost (due to lower deployment costs through standardization), while facilitating the programming and development process for software and silicon vendors.


The Forum said plans to work with other organizations such as the OMTP and OMA to identify requirements of distinct device categories including smartphones, feature phones, fixed-line, or converged devices. For each of these categories, or profiles, LiPS will define standard API's that support relevant applications and services as well as a certification process for technology providers.


In keeping with the open source philosophy, LiPS will cooperate with other dedicated Linux groups that address aspects of Linux telephony outside the scope of the Forum's work. Through collaboration and sharing of resources and ideas with these additional industry bodies, LiPS will ensure convergence of standards, meaning earlier availability of findings and more interoperability within the Linux community.
http://www.lipsforum.org

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Cisco Debuts "Linksys One" Hosted Convergence Suite for Small Business

Cisco Systems' Linksys division introduced a new line of small business products designed for hosted communication services.


The new "Linksys One" brand is a solution hosted by Service Providers and sold, installed, and serviced by Value Added Resellers (VARs). This solution includes integrated data and voice products coupled with communication services from a Service Provider including security, monitoring, management and QoS for VoIP.


The Linksys One Product Suite includes the following:

• Linksys One 16-Port Services Router (SRV3000): The cornerstone of the Linksys One Services Platform and vision is the Services Router.



• Linksys One Color Manager IP Phone (PHM12000): This SIP-based Color IP Telephone offers both the cost-saving advantages of VoIP and the voice quality and features of a small business key phone system.



• Linksys One Analog VoIP Gateway (VGA2000): The Linksys One Voice Gateway increases the flexibility of the system, allowing businesses to integrate their existing analog phones and fax machines. Access to
  PSTN networks is enabled locally and also provides a failover system
  in case of service outages or emergency 911 calls.

All Linksys One products are designed to be plug and play. They feature a network discovery process and automated configuration to provide new networks, additions to the system, and new technologies with only limited-touch deployment.


Linksys announced its first service providers supporting this rollout:

• MCI (nationwide US coverage)



• airBand Communications (regional US coverage).



• NeoNova Network Services (regional US coverage)



• IP Systems Pty Ltd (Australia)

Linksys One will become the seventh Cisco Advanced Technology under the name Hosted Small Business Systems (Hosted SBS). The other six advanced technologies are home networking, enterprise IP communication, optical networking, security, storage area networking and wireless.


In the US, Linksys One solutions are scheduled to be available regionally in Q1 of 2006, with full national deployment next summer. Asia Pacific rollouts of Linksys One will begin in Australia in Q2, 2006. Linksys One will be available in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and other parts of the world in the latter half of 2006. In the interim, Linksys is actively recruiting VARs.
http://www.linksysone.com/

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Hanaro's Fiber Access Reaches 3,200 Apartment Complexes in Korea

South Korea's Hanarotelecom reported progress in its rollout of 100 Mbps fiber-optic LAN services, which now encompasses 3,200 apartment complexes and 1.90 million households (about 40% of the complex coverage). The company reported net adds of about 320,000 subscribers for its Optical LAN service since the beginning of the year.


The company stated that it posted revenues of KRW 361.7 billion and EBITDA of KRW 129.0 billion, and as a result of increased revenues and reduced marketing expenditure, achieved a turnaround by posting operating profit of KRW 15.0 billion.
http://www.hanaro.com/eng/ir/

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Canada's Shaw Tops One Million VoIP Calls / Day

Nine months after launching Digital Phone service in its first market, Canada's Shaw Communications is now handling more than 1,000,000 calls per day in its network.


Currently, more than 50% of Digital Phone customers are taking a new phone number when they activate Shaw Digital Phone service. All customers choosing a new number can have their Shaw Digital Phone service installed the next day. Shaw Digital Phone is currently available in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Victoria.

http://www.shaw.ca

• In January 2005. Shaw Cablesystems, one of the largest Canadian multi-system cable operators, confirmed the deployment of a multimedia network from Nortel, including the Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5200. The SIP-based platform could be used to deliver a variety of multimedia services, including desktop video calling, voice call management, instant messaging, collaboration tools, and personalization services. Shaw plans to offer these services in conjunction with its high-speed Internet service and is expected to be the first cable operator in Canada to offer SIP-based multimedia services.

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Telefónica Raises Financial Guidance

The Telefónica Group reported a sharp acceleration in the growth of revenues (+24.2% year on year) and the profitability of operations (OIBDA +20% year-on-year and OI +24.5% year-on-year) for the first nine months of 2005. Q3 was characterized by the strong commercial activity primarily in high growth businesses (mobile and broadband). Some highlights:

• Significant year-over-year growth of 37.8% in the customer base to 147.7 million total accesses, of which 89 million corresponded to mobile telephony customers and 4.4 million related to retail ADSL lines in Spain, Latin America and the Czech Republic.



• Free cash flow rose 13.4% to EURs 7.61 billion.



• In Q3, net profit jumped 53.3%, while revenues, OIBDA and OI advanced 32.3%, 27.8% and 29.1%, respectively.



• CAPEX increased 38.3% to EURs 3.33 billion, driven primarily by investment in broadband, both in Spain and Latin America, and by investment to expand mobile network capacity in Spain, Brazil and Mexico.



• Telefónica de España also revised its revenue guidance upwards from its initial range of +0.5% to +2% to an estimate of over 4%.

http://www.telefonica.es

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Siemens Sells Shares in Juniper

Siemens sold its remaining 22.8 million shares in Juniper Networks for $544.1 million. Siemens' equity stake was originally obtained in 2002 when Juniper acquired Unisphere Networks, which was a division of Siemens.
http://www.siemens.com

• In December 2004, Siemens sold approximately 13 million shares of its holdings in Juniper Networks' common stock. Siemens remaining ownership in Juniper Networks common stock is below 5% of the total outstanding shares.
• In 2002, Juniper Networks acquired Unisphere Networks, a division of Siemens, for $375 million in cash and 36.5 million JNPR shares. At the time the deal closed, Siemens held slightly less than 10% of the outstanding shares in Juniper. Unisphere developed the ERX edge router.

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