Comcast Sees Surge in On-Demand Content Delivery

Comcast has seen rapid changes in consumer viewership patterns as video on-demand (VOD) has become available across 90% of its cable footprint. In a keynote address at the UBS Global Media Conference, Comcast executives John Alchin and Dave Watson said that as on-demand viewership continues to soar, new partnerships become possible with advertisers and content producers to better monetize the viewership.Comcast reported a record 126 million on-demand program views in November, pushing its total VOD views past the 1.1 billion views to date. This...

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Israel's MiRS Deploys IMS with Tekelec/Convergin

MiRS Communications, an Israeli provider of integrated wirelessservices with 333,000 subscribers, selected a core convergence switching solution from Tekelec. The solution enables MiRS' transition to an IMS architecture and enables next-generation capabilities, including fixed mobile convergence (FMC) and hosted SIP services. Tekelec's IMS architecture drives switching for both MiRS' entire mobile device line and SIP-based clients, and it supports the execution of common network applications. Financial terms were not disclosed.The Tekelec next-generation...

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Octasic Gains ISO 9001:2000 Certification

Octasic Semiconductor has been assessed and certified as meeting the quality management system requirements of the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) 9001:2000. Octasic is a fabless semiconductor company offering processors that are optimized to perform key voice functions such as carrier-grade echo cancellation, packetization, and compression. http://www.octasic....

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BT Offers Consumer VoIP Promotions

During the Holiday season, BT will be offering free calls to any landline in 30 different countries for users of its PC-based BT Communicator application. The company said international calls made with the PC to regular landlines are already cheaper with BT Communicator than with rivals such as Skype. Meanwhile, the price of Broadband Talk, which allows customers to use a normal phone, rather than the PC, has been slashed by up to 50 per cent to just £2 per month for evening and weekend calls or £7 a month for anytime calls and with BTs top two...

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BT Signs IPTV Content Deals with BBC, Paramount, Warner

BT announced key content partnerships for its forthcoming IPTV service with BBC Worldwide, Paramount and Warner Music Group.Starting next Autumn, BT aims to provide customers with a vast range of on-demand film, music and television programming as well as a compelling interactive and communications service. Significantly, BT's service will combine access to digital terrestrial channels, an extensive video on demand library and a range of interactive services. Ian Livingston, BT Retail CEO, said: "A partnership between the country's leading communications...

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Ciena Reports Seventh Quarter of Revenue Growth

Ciena reported Q4 revenue was $118.2 million, representing a 7% sequential increase from fiscal third quarter revenue of $110.5 million and an increase of 44% over revenue of $82.0 million for the same period a year ago. For the twelve months ending October 31, 2005, Ciena's unaudited revenue was $427.3 million, representing an increase of 43% over revenue of $298.7 million for the same year-ago period.For Q4, there was a GAAP net loss of $252.9 million, or a net loss of $0.44 per share. This loss compares to a GAAP net loss of $495.1 million,...

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Digital Fountain's Forward Error Correction Standardized for DVB-H

Digital Fountain's patented DF Raptor technology has been made part of the global standard to support content delivery services over DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) wireless networks. The adoption of DF Raptor technology for DVB-H follows its standardization earlier this year as part of the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service) specification for GSM-based 3G cellular networks. Because...

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Picolight First to Ship 4G 1310nm VCSEL Transceivers

Picolight is the first to ship 1310 nanometer (nm) vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) transceivers in a 4 Gbps triple-rate (1, 2 and 4G bps) Small Form Factor Pluggable (SFP) configuration that meets the needs of one of the fastest growing segments of the data center market. Picolight said the new device meets the extended reach capability and low power consumption needs to satisfy a broad range of short-to-medium distance applications, including 4Gbps Fibre Channel at 10km for storage area networks (SANs). Similar to 850nm VCSEL transceivers,...

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TCS Deploys Acme Packet

TeleCommunication Systems (TCS), a provider of wireless communications, is using Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers (SBCs) to securely deliver its VoIP E9-1-1 location information routing and delivery solution. The Acme Packet solution securely connects managed VoIP providers to TCS' Internet Protocol (IP) network using numerous features from Acme Packet Net-SAFE. Access control, topology hiding and DoS protection against both signaling and media attacks and overloads are some of the specific features used to protect TCS' E9-1-1...

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T-Systems and Convergys Sign Six-Year Billing Deal

T-Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Deutsche Telekom Group, awarded a six-year contract to Convergys for its Infinys billing services. The agreement includes licensing Infinys billing and rating software, purchase of professional services, and the ability for T-Systems to re-sell Infinys in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).The agreement calls for Infinys billing and rating software to replace certain legacy billing applications in business units of the Deutsche Telekom Group. T-Systems currently manages and operates the legacy billing...

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HNS Selects Sea Launch for SPACEWAY 3

Hughes Network System (HNS) awarded a launch services contract to Sea Launch for the launch of the SPACEWAY 3 satellite projected for early 2007. The SPACEWAY 3 satellite will operate in the globally assigned Ka-band spectrum at 95 degrees West Longitude and will support a range of new high-speed communications services for IP data and multimedia applications to North American enterprise, consumer, and government customers. SPACEWAY 3 is a Boeing 702 spacecraft and will have the ability to switch and route traffic on board, enabling single-hop...

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QUALCOMM Raises Q1 2006

QUALCOMM anticipates its fiscal quarter revenues pro forma to be at the high end of prior estimate of approximately $1.67 to $1.77 billion. The company now anticipates first fiscal quarter pro forma diluted earnings per share to be approximately $0.38 to $0.39, compared to $0.28 in the year ago quarter. This estimate is based on the shipment of approximately 47 million Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chips during the quarter compared to approximately 39 million in the year ago quarter and approximately 40 million in the prior quarter. QUALCOMM previously...

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BellSouth Expands VoIP Applications Portfolio with Cisco

BellSouth has expanded support of advanced enterprise VoIP applications to include rich media conferencing and has achieved the Rich Media Communications (RMC) Advanced Technology Provider (ATP) status from Cisco Systems. The designation indicates the ability to provide the core knowledge and skills required to successfully deploy Cisco RMC solutions designed for high-end mid market and enterprise customers.Cisco RMC ATP builds upon a foundation of Cisco MeetingPlace, which is a part of the Cisco IP Communications system. Cisco MeetingPlace is...

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ECMA and WiMedia Alliance Develop UWB Standards

The Ecma General Assembly, a non-profit industry association of technology developers, vendors and users, approved its first ultra-wideband (UWB) standards. Ecma submits its work for approval as ISO, IEC, ISO/IEC and ETSI standards.PHY and MAC -- ECMA-368 specifies the Physical (PHY) and the Media Access Control (MAC) layers for a decentralized, complex system with controls for high QoS and fast device discovery. The radio employs the unlicensed 3.1 to 10.6 GHz UWB spectrum. The standard mandates that devices support at least 53.3, 106.7 and 200...

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AT&T Cites Enterprise Gains Following Merger

AT&T has won more than 3,900 deals among large business customers worldwide, resulting in approximately $300 million in annualized revenue, since the SBC/AT&T merger closed last month. The company said the response from existing and new customers to the new AT&T Inc. has been very positive. The company already has announced the senior sales leadership team across business markets globally, and expects sales account teams in the enterprise market will be fully integrated and in place the first week of January 2006. http://www.att....

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Virgin Mobile Rejects ntl's Acquisition Bid

The Board of Directors of Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) voted to reject the acquisition bid by ntl, saying the offer undervalued the company. http://www.virginmobile.com/mobi...

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