NEC Launches TDM/RPR Hybrid Multiplexer for 40 Gbps

NEC launched its new SpectralWave UN5000, a hybrid multiplexer that provides simultaneous Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) transport, in the Japanese market. The SpectralWave UN5000 was released for overseas telecommunications carriers in August 2006 and has been shipped to Rostelecom in Russia and at AIS in Thailand.NEC's new product can be used to build 40 Gbps core networks. In addition to TDM and RPR, it also features RPR and Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS).http://www.nec.co...

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Alcatel-Lucent Creates Independent Subsidiary for U.S. Government Contracts

Alcatel-Lucent announced the creation of LGS, an independent subsidiary dedicated to serving the U.S. government.LGS, headquartered in Vienna, Va., will be created by joining employees from Lucent's Government Solutions business unit, Alcatel Government Solutions, Inc., and Lucent's Bell Labs Government Communications Lab. LGS will become the sole sales and contracting channel for all classified and unclassified business contracted from U.S. federal agencies and departments, both military and civilian. LGS is currently finalizing its operational...

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Alcatel-Lucent Unveils New Look

Alcatel-Lucent unveiled its new logo and corporate visual identity. The company's new logo is a stylized version of an infinity symbol that looks as if it were drawn by hand. Embedded within the symbol is an A and an L. "Our new logo represents the endless possibilities for the future and our commitment to being a strong and enduring ally for our customers around the world," said Patricia Russo, Chief Executive Officer of Alcatel-Lucent.http:/...

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Yahoo! Posts Video News Clips from BBC

Yahoo! News began posting BBC News video on its site, through a new agreement with ABC News. Initially, about 30 video clips of BBC News will be posted per day.In January 2006, ABC News announced an agreement to become the exclusive representative for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for distribution of BBC News on demand broadband and wireless content in North America. http://www.yahoo....

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Spirent Highlights Participation in MSF GMI 2006 Interoperability Event

During the MultiService Forum's (MSF's) recent GMI 2006 event, which was held in October, Spirent Communications provided experts, test equipment and advanced IMS test methodologies to facilitate the stringent testing requirements of MSF Release 3 implementation at all five carrier sites (BT, KT, NTT, Verizon and Vodafone). This involved 200 next-generation network (NGN) elements tested against carrier defined test scenarios. Spirent's support included test coverage for all portions of the IMS network:IMS Access Network - Spirent provided real-world...

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Garmin Acquires Dynastream for Wireless Monitoring Tech.

Garmin, a developer of GPS navigation, communication and information devices, acquired Dynastream Innovations $36 million in cash.Dynastream, which is located in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, develops personal monitoring technology -- such as foot pods and heart rate monitors for sports and fitness products. The company also specializes in ultra low power and low cost wireless connectivity solutions for a wide range of applications. These products address the needs of a broad spectrum of fitness consumers, from heath and wellness to performance ...

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Belgacom Tops 100,000 IPTV Subscribers

Belgacom passed the 100,000 mark for its IPTV service at the end of September, ahead of its end-of-the-target. Belgacom is using the Surpass Home Entertainment from Siemens, a turnkey end-to-end solution for IPTV delivered over ADSL.The net ARPU (average revenue per user) stood at EUR 11.6 for the first nine months of 2006. This figure showed a rise in the third quarter which can obviously be traced to the introduction of additional services such...

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WiMedia Alliance Finalizes UWB Radio Certification Program

The WiMedia Alliance finalized the Certification Program for its member companies to utilize in testing their products for compliance with the WiMedia UWB Common Radio Platform specification.WiMedia's Certification Program is comprised of two parts, the first of which is a compliance and interoperability process that tests and "registers" Physical Layer implementations (PHYs) based on the WiMedia Alliance's PHY specification. Once a PHY is registered,...

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BT Selects Motorola for Metro Wi-Fi Deployments

BT selected Motorola to supply Mesh Wi-Fi network infrastructure and services for six of "Wireless City" initiatives across the UK. The contract will see Motorola design, deploy and manage city-wide Wi-Fi networks with BT in, for example, Birmingham and Newcastle. Financial terms were not disclosed.Motorola will supply solutions from its MOTOwi4 wireless broadband portfolio, which will be deployed across the cities on existing sites such as lampposts. The Motorola solution allows data to be backhauled wirelessly.BT said Westminster is furthest...

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AT&T Introduces U-verse in Second Market -- Houston

Houston is the second market where AT&T's U-verse services are now commercially available, following a June launch in San Antonio. AT&T U-verse TV offers variety of TV packages with more than 300 channels, including digital music, local, and premium movie and sports programming. Over 25 HD channels are available. Three packages of AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet U-verse Enabled service are offered. The top downlink rate currently supported...

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Sun, Ericsson, Nokia Form Telecommunications Platform Initiative

Sun Microsystems, Ericsson, Nokia announced the formation of a Telecommunications Platform Initiative to develop the requirements for a standardized, integrated telecommunications technology platform. The aim is to simplify technology integration by enabling design, development and supply chain efficiencies, thereby benefiting the network operator.The companies said that by collaborating on a series of publicly available requirements documents for the Operations, Administration and Management Layer (OA&M) and Service Layer environments, the...

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Harley-Davidson Awards $10.5 million Networking Contract to AT&T

AT&T has won a three-year, $10.5 million global networking contract from Harley-Davidson. AT&T will deploy an MPLS-based IP VPN integrating 27 Harley-Davidson locations in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific with a full range of voice, data and business continuity services. The contract renews and expands a long-standing relationship between the two companies.http://www.att....

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Sonus Delivers National Communications System (NCS) Emergency Call Suite for VoIP

Sonus Networks announced a suite of IP-based voice calling solutions to serve National Security/Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) needs as outlined by the National Communications System (NCS), whose Executive Agent is the Department of Homeland Security. The National Communications System aims to ensure a high probability of call completion for government officials during periods of network congestion, including crisis or emergency, attack, recovery...

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AT&T Promises to Invest up to $620 million in Michigan Broadband

AT&T announced plans to invest up to $620 million in Michigan over the next three years to bring next-generation video and broadband services to local consumers.AT&T also announced its intent to hire 2,000 employees across Michigan over the next three years to upgrade its fiber-optic network and install its next-generation video products in consumers' homes. Approximately 1,200 of these high tech jobs are expected to be in place by the end of 2007.The announcement comes as the Michigan Senate Technology and Energy Committee debates a bill...

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Tandberg Offers Video Solutions for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

TANDBERG introduced a visual communication portfolio that seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The company's SharePoint portfolio is comprised of TANDBERG Movi for PC videoconferencing; TANDBERG Management Suite (TMS) for videoconference scheduling and management; and the TANDBERG Content Server for video streaming and archiving. TANDBERG integration is enabled through Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 Features, Web Parts and Web Services. TANDBERG is also releasing the source code that allows customers to further...

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FCC Issues First Set of AWS Spectrum Licenses

The FCC formally granted 550 of the 1,087 licenses won in the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) Auction completed September 18, 2006. These licenses represent $12.2 billion of the $13.7 billion in total net high bids from Auction No. 66. This $12.2 billion in auction revenue will nearly double the approximately $14 billion in total revenue transferred to the U.S. Treasury from all previous FCC auctions combined. http://www.fcc....

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Alcatel and Lucent Complete Merger

Alcatel and Lucent Technologies completed their merger, creating a global communication solutions provider with pro-forma annual revenues of EUR 18.6 billion. The new company, Alcatel-Lucent, will be traded on EURnext Paris and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from December 1st, 2006 under a new common ticker (ALU). Alcatel-Lucent offers an extensive portfolio spanning IPTV, broadband access, carrier IP, IMS and next-generation networks, and 3G...

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Verizon Sell Interest in Verizon Dominicana to America Movil

Verizon Communications closed on the sale of its interest in Verizon Dominicana, which provides telecommunications services to more than 2.7 million wireless, wireline and broadband customers in the Dominican Republic, to America Movil, S.A. de C.V. The transaction was announced in April 2006, when Verizon also announced the execution of definitive agreements to sell its interests in Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico, Inc. (Puerto Rico Telephone) and Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), to America Movil and a company owned...

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IBM Integrates Force10 Network's Switch/routers

IBM is integrating Force10 Networks' TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers and the S-Series family of data center switches into its System Cluster 1350 to deliver the 10 Gigabit Ethernet density and scalability computing clients require for high performance workloads. The recently upgraded Cluster 1350 combines Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet densities of the Force10 TeraScale E-Series and S-Series and IBM's extensive experience with clustered UNIX and LINUX computers in an integrated solution.Earlier this month, IBM announced that it is...

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ECI Telecom Enhances its Multi-Layer NMS

ECI Telecom announced a new feature set for its carrier-class network management system (NMS), enabling operators to view and administer their entire infrastructure of converged Optical, Ethernet and SONET/SDH networks.LightSoft V3 support of a Northbound interface allows for performance monitoring, provisioning, maintenance and integration into standard market-leading operation support systems (OSS). In addition, the highly-scalable LightSoft V3 supports fifty concurrent users, while the system works in high availability clusters and manages thousands...

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ECI Telecom Launches Carrier Ethernet Cards for XDM MSPP

ECI Telecom (introduced a family of Carrier Ethernet line cards for its XDM Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP) product line. The new carrier-class Ethernet capabilities provide operators with quality-assured Ethernet services from access to core. The new cards deliver carrier Ethernet services that address Layer 1 through eventually MPLS. ECI said it is leveraging its success with NG SDH/SONET, allowing operators to rapidly introduce revenue generating carrier-class Ethernet services. http://www.ecitele....

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Motorola Launches Motofone for Global Market

Motorola unveiled its highly anticipated MOTOFONE at an event held in New Delhi, India. The company described MOTOFONE as the first of a new breed of handsets designed to disrupt today's communications landscape by cutting across price tiers, product segments and international markets.MOTOFONE, which will be available in both GSM and CDMA versions, new interface built with icons and voice versus text, as well as voice prompts specifically tailored...

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Nokia and Yahoo! Extend Partnership

Nokia and Yahoo! extended their partnership to offer Yahoo! branded services including Yahoo! Mail and Messenger on Nokia's wide range of mobile phones operating on the Series 40 platform. Series 40 is the software user interface that powers Nokia's broadest range of mobile devices. Yahoo! services will initially be available on the newly announced Nokia 6300, the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic and the Nokia 5200. Moving forward these services and the ability...

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Broadcom to Acquire LVL7 Systems for Networking Software

Broadcom agreed to acquire LVL7 Systems, Inc., a privately-held developer of networking software for OEMs and ODMs, for approximately $62 million in cash. LVL7 Systems' FASTPATH software offers the features and protocols needed to build a variety of Layer 2 / 3 / 4+ Ethernet infrastructure systems. Target applications include desktop and workgroup switches; server blade switches; WLAN switches; and switch/router systems.Broadcom said LVL7's FASTPATH...

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Oregon's BendBroadband Turns to Level3 for VoIP

BendBroadband, an Oregon-based cable operator, will use the Level 3's VoIP Enhanced Local service to provide small and medium-sized businesses with a new, cost-effective solution for local and long-distance calling. BendBroadband Business Phone will include enhanced voicemail, E-911 service and popular calling features such as caller ID, call waiting and 3-way calling.http://www.level3.c...

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Marvell Debuts Application Processors for Smartphones, Handhelds

Marvell introduced a new generation of application processors designed for feature handsets, smartphones, GPS navigation systems, wireless handhelds and other consumer electronic devices. The Marvell PXA3xx family of application processors (internally named Monahans), which are based n third generation of Intel XScale technology, delivers improved performance and extended battery life, enabling advanced video and audio capabilities. Wireless Intel...

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TiVo Reports 4.4 million Subscriptions, Signs Cablevision Mexico

TiVo reported financial results for its quarter ended October 31, 2006, saying overall TiVo-Owned subscriptions were up 24% year-over-year to 1.6 million. As expected, TiVo reported a net decline in the number of DIRECTV TiVo subscriptions during the period as DIRECTV deployed fewer TiVo boxes. Cumulative total subscriptions as of October 31, 2006, were up slightly from last quarter to 4.4 million, and up 11% over the year-ago subscription totals.Service...

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Wal-Mart Offers Physical DVD + Digital Download Bundle

Wal-Mart announced its first step into the video download market, offering a unique bundle combining a video download option with purchase of the physical DVD. The first such bundle, which is available now at Wal-Mart stores across the U.S., includes the physical "Superman Returns" DVD along with a sticker containing the code needed to download the digital version of the film from the company's website. Customers can choose from three video download format options -- - $1.97 for portable devices, $2.97 for PCs/laptops, and $3.97 for both portable...

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BitTorrent Signs with 20th Century Fox, Other Studios

BitTorrent announced a series of distribution deals with leading content producers, including 20th Century Fox, G4, Kadokawa Pictures USA, Lionsgate, MTV Networks, Palm Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Starz Media. The deals provide BitTorrent with a growing library of digital media content. The videos, which can be downloaded and viewed on a PC, laptop and other portable devices, include new film releases day-and-date with the DVD release, popular...

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IBM to Acquire Vallent for Network Performance Monitoring Software

IBM agreed to acquire Vallent Corporation, a supplier of network performance monitoring and service management software for wireless service providers, for an undisclosed sum. Vallent's software helps service providers manage the performance of their network infrastructure through monitoring and reporting problem areas such as dropped calls and traffic bottlenecks. IBM said that adding Vallent's expertise to its Tivoli Software's Netcool portfolio creates a broad set of service assurance capabilities spanning fault, network performance and service...

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Veraz Increases Capacity between Switch Centers for Mobile Operators

Veraz Networks announced that its voice compression technology can increase the capacity of existing TDM transmission links between existing mobile switching centers (MSCs) by compressing up to 10 E1s onto a single E1, while preserving high voice quality. By enabling compressed VoIP over TDM using an IP media gateway, Veraz allows mobile operators to accommodate increased traffic on their existing TDM transmission links while avoiding the expenses of building a transmission network or leasing additional TDM transmission capacity. http://www....

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NTT Com Asia Deploys Juniper's SSL VPN appliances

NTT Com Asia has deployed the Juniper Networks Secure Access 6000 SSL VPN appliances with the Instant Virtual Systems feature set to provide managed remote access services for the Hong Kong market. The Secure Access 6000 appliances deployed at NTT Com Asia operate with Juniper Network's Advanced Feature Set, which includes advanced role and resource usage definition and management to allow organizations to administer different security policies for different departments. Juniper said the Instant Virtual Systems (IVS) feature of the SA 6000 enables...

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3Com to Acquire Huawei's Stake in JV for $882 Million

3Com agreed to acquire Huawei Technologies' 49% Huawei-3Com (H3C) for $882 million, which represents an implied equity value of $1.8 billion. Under the existing shareholders' agreement, the parties have agreed that the selling shareholder in the bid process would, under certain circumstances, be subject to a non-compete provision for 18 months after the closing. H3C said its mission, vision and strategy will remain unchanged after the transaction.http://www.3com.comhttp://www.huawei-3com.comNovember...

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Orange Business Services Partners with Nortel on SIP Services

Orange Business Services' newly launched suite of SIP multimedia services is based on Nortel's technology. The new "Business Together" service, which will first become available for corporate French customers this month, is the result of a strategic partnership formed between France Telecom and Nortel in 2004.img align="right" border="0" src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11402824/CND/v13n104-ft3.jpg"> "Business Together" from Orange Business Services...

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YouTube and Verizon Wireless Ink Agreement

Starting in early December, selected YouTube clips will be available to users of Verizon Wireless's V CAST mobile service. YouTube will deliver a sampling of the most popular videos. In addition, video enthusiasts also will be able to record and share their favorite moments with their mobile phones."Delivering YouTube content gives V CAST customers a mobile connection to video content that has revolutionized how people are being entertained today,"...

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BT Activates First Customers on 21CN

BT switched over the first customer lines to its 21st Century Network (21CN). As planned, BT has started to move customers in the village of Wick, near Cardiff, to the next generation infrastructure. BT described the event as a landmark in its history. To reach this milestone, BT has re-built around ten percent of the UK's core national communications infrastructure, installed 21CN equipment at over 100 sites across the UK, and laid more than 2,300...

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Alcatel Demos Mobile TV in S-Band Handsets

Alcatel demonstrated Europe's first broadcast of live TV channels on mobile handsets in S-band. The demonstration used the new DVB-SH standard (Satellite services for Handhelds), which is currently being drafted by the DVB Project. To perform this demonstration, Alcatel was assisted by UK broadcasters Sky, ITV and BBC.DVB-SH is a new technology targeting the S-band. DVB-SH is a related standard to DVB-H. With DVB-SH technology, Mobile TV signals can be broadcast from satellites as well as from terrestrial transmitters directly to...

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CloudShield Expands into APAC

CloudShield Technologies, which provides IP service control and infrastructure security solutions, opened a new office in Sydney, Australia to serve the Asia Pacific region. CloudShield is also announcing the appointment of Greg Kershaw as managing director of CloudShield Asia Pacific.http://www.cloudshield....

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Taiwan's Chunghwa Purchases Additional 300,000 Widevine Security Clients

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom has purchased an additional 300,000 Virtual SmartCard clients from Widevine Technologies to secure premium linear broadcast and video-on-demand delivery across a wide range of consumer electronics devices. This is in addition to the 500,000 clients Chunghwa purchased in 2005 for planned subscriber growth.Chunghwa's interactive TV service, Multimedia on Demand (MOD), is one of the largest IPTV deployments in the world. The MOD service offers a wide range of video-on-demand, near VOD (NVOD), karaoke-on-demand and linear...

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Narad and Tropos Partner on Mesh Backhaul over HFC

Narad Networks, which supplies switched broadband access solutions, and Tropos Networks, which delivers metro-scale Wi-Fi mesh network systems, competed interoperability testing of a combined solution for backhauling mesh Wi-Fi traffic within the metro area. Tests using Narad's switched Ethernet-over-coax solution and the Tropos 5210HFC MetroMesh router demonstrated aggregate performance exceeding 20 Mbps of symmetric capacity with low end-to-end latency.The companies said metro Wi-Fi networks are a logical way to extend the functionality of the...

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Portugal's TV Cabo Deploys Arris CMTS

TV Cabo, Portugal's largest Pay-TV operator with over 1.4 million customers, has selected the ARRIS C4 CMTS for its network upgrade. The operator will be introducing cable VoIP service and ultra high-speed access.http://www.arrisi....

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Juniper Offers "Liquid LSPs" and MPLS Point-to-multipoint (P2MP) Broadcast Video Capabilities

Juniper Networks announced a series of product enhancements aimed at improving video transport throughout an IP network core. The new features include several enhancements to MPLS-based point-to-multipoint (P2MP) broadcast video distribution and new capabilities for the company's SDX-300 Service Deployment System.Juniper is also introducing "Liquid LSPs", a solution that leverages the SDX-300's open APIs to ensure efficient network handling of video-on-demand content. Using an open API, third-party video serving platforms communicate with the SDX-300...

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AT&T Adds HD Programming to U-verse in San Antonio

AT&T has added High Definition (HD) programming and other new features to its U-verse service currently available in San Antonio, Texas. The lineup includes more than 25 HD channels, which is more than the local cable providers. New HD customers can receive two months of free HD programming ($10 per month thereafter).Other new capabilities include:Web-remote access to digital video recorder (DVR), which allows customers to schedule recordings...

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EC Asks UK Regulator to Reconsider Mobile Termination Rates

The European Commission has asked Ofcom, the UK telecom watchdog, not to include inflated 3G auction costs in termination rates for mobile phone operators. In the Commission's view, Ofcom's proposed tariffs keep termination values higher than necessary due to 3G spectrum cost valuations which risk overestimating the costs. The Commission therefore asks the UK watchdog to reconsider the valuations. It said Ofcom's approach would be detrimental to fair competition in the UK's mobile market and lead to higher consumer prices for consumers.http://...

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Cisco Partners with Russia's Sitronics

Cisco announced a regional partnership with Sitronics JSC, a leading technology company in Russia & CIS, to offer advanced communication solutions in countries that are undergoing major economic and social transformation, including Russia, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE); and Middle East and Africa (MEA).Initially focused on migrating existing public switched telephone network (PSTN) infrastructure to an IP network platform, the modernization solution offered will be built around Sitronics' IP-NGN soft-switching and OSS portfolio, and Cisco's...

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T-Mobile USA Selects Ericsson and Nokia

Both Ericsson and Nokia announced major contracts to supply gear for T-Mobile USA's 3G network deployment. Neither company disclosed financial terms. Ericsson said it was selected for its turnkey network rollout and to serve as the prime radio provider for WCDMA 3G services in certain markets, including New York City which is scheduled to be operational in 2007.Nokia said it will supply its Flexi WCDMA Base Station optimized for T-Mobile's newly acquired AWS spectrum bands. T-Mobile will be the first U.S. operator to deploy the fully HSPA capable...

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Ericsson Appoints New Management Team

Ericsson appointed the following new group management team: Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chief Executive Officer and PresidentKarl-Henrik Sundström, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial OfficerKurt Jofs, Executive Vice President and General Manager, business unit NetworksBert Nordberg, Executive Vice President, group function Sales and MarketingBjörn Olsson, Executive Vice President and deputy General Manager, business unit NetworksHans Vestberg, Executive Vice President and General Manager, business unit Global ServicesJan Wäreby, Senior Vice President,...

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MIT Lincoln Lab and Naval Research Lab Deploy CIENA's 40G DWDM

MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) selected CIENA to upgrade the Boston South Network (BoSSNET) - an applications and network test bed for researching high bandwidth (10s of Gbps per wavelength), long reach (approx. 1,000 km) all-optical transmissions - using the company's standards-based, all-optical DWDM technology.Specifically, BoSSNET will be upgraded with Ciena's CoreStream Agility Optical Transport System, which is capable of routing wavelength services up to speeds of 40 Gbps for long-haul and ultra long-haul...

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Data Connection and MetaSwitch Post Near 24% Revenue Growth

Data Connection, and its MetaSwitch division, reported record annual revenue of $87 million and earnings of $13.7 million. The company's fastest-growing division, MetaSwitch, now generates 53% of revenue. Data Connection, which is a privately-held company headquartered in London, said the past fiscal year marked one of the highest annual growth rates since the company was founded in 1981. Some highlights:MetaSwitch, the next generation softswitch division, now boasts more than 300 deployments with incumbent and competitive service providers in...

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Tektronix Launches Performance Monitoring/Testing for IMS

Tektronix has enhanced the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) performance monitoring capabilities of its Unified Assurance suite with additional IMS technical capabilities and protocol support. Tektronix' network diagnostics portfolio includes IMS load test and a fully-configurable IMS functional test platform. Tektronix also supports Berlin-based Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) and its Open IMS Playground Laboratory, the leading IMS open test lab in Europe, with its IMS diagnostics solutions.The Unified Assurance product...

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Terawave and K-micro Partner on GPON PHY

Terawave Communications and K-micro (Kawasaki Microelectronics) introduced a jointly developed physical layer ("PHY") ASIC built specifically for gigabit passive optical networking (GPON) optical line terminals (OLTs). The companies said their ASIC enables extremely low GPON physical layer overhead by providing fast phase locking to incoming bursts along with the associated hardware hooks to synchronize upstream traffic within a few bits at 1244 Mbps.K-micro has integrated its burst mode clock and data recovery (BM-CDR) technology into this new...

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AT&T Adds NBC Universal Content to U-verse

AT&T reached a deal to deliver NBC Universal linear, high-definition (HD) and on-demand programming as part of the AT&T U-verse TV channel lineup. The agreement covers the analog and digital signals of the NBC and Telemundo owned-and-operated broadcast stations, as well as NBCU's cable properties, including CNBC, CNBC World, MSNBC, Telemundo, mun2, Telemundo Puerto Rico, Bravo, the SCI FI Channel, Sleuth, ShopNBC, USA Network, Universal HD and the Olympics on Cable. The deal also includes VOD rights for Universal Pictures' movies.http...

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Verizon Wireless Launches LG's enV Phone

Verizon Wireless announced exclusive availability LG's new enV phone, featuring its V CAST and V CAST Music service, VZ Navigator, an integrated QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth capabilities, dual speakers and a 2.0 megapixel camera. The phone offers EV-DO (where available) and 1xRTT data connectivity.http://www.verizonwireless....

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EarthLink Announces Another Muni WiFi Project

The City of Alexandria, Virginia has selected EarthLink to build, own and operate a municipal wireless network. The approximately 16-square-mile Wi-Fi mesh network will provide affordable, high-speed Internet access for the residents of and visitors to the City of Alexandria.http://www.earthlink.netEarthLink has previously been awarded muni-Wi-Fi contracts in Philadelphia; Anaheim, California; Milpitas, California; and New Orlea...

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NeuStar Acquires Followap for Mobile IM Capabilities

NeuStar has acquired Followap, a UK-based provider of mobile instant messaging (IM) products in Europe and Asia, for approximately $139 million in cash. Followap delivers interoperability between operators and Internet portals in five different functional areas: instant messaging, presence, multimedia gateways, inter-carrier messaging hubs, and services for handset clients. Followap has a customer base of 17 mobile network operators (MNOs) that...

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China Mobile Selects Alcatel for Nationwide IP Network

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator, selected Alcatel for a full-scale, nationwide IP network deployment project. Financial terms were not disclosed. The contract was won through Alcatel Shanghai Bell.img align="right" border="0" src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11402824/CND//chinamobile.gif">The project entails the deployment of the Alcatel 7750 Service Router and Alcatel 5620 Service Aware Manager in 13 densely-populated provinces...

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Nokia Launches Peer-to-Peer Traffic Control for Mobile Operators

Nokia introduced a Peer-to-peer Traffic Control solution for mobile operators. The centralized solution is implemented as a software upgrade to the Nokia Flexi Intelligent Service Node (ISN) and will be commercially available during the first half of 2007.The Nokia Peer-to-peer Traffic Control solution can identify data traffic according to the type of service, for example file sharing. Nokia said mobile operators can use this capability to treat traffic in a way that best optimizes the use of network resources according to its business strategy.The...

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COLT Appoints new CEO -- Rakesh Bhasin

COLT Telecom Group has appointed Rakesh Bhasin as its new President and Chief Executive, succeeding Jean-Yves Charlier. Mr. Bhasin will also be joining the COLT Board and Mr. Charlier will be stepping down from the Board. Bhasin currently is a Group Managing Director of Fidelity. Since February of 2001, he has served as President and Chief Executive of KVH Co., Ltd, a Fidelity Asia-focused telecom and network solutions provider headquartered in Tokyo. Prior to joining KVH in 2001, he served in various senior positions within AT&T, including...

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SAMSUNG Launches HSDPA + DVB-H Mobile Phone for Italy

SAMSUNG introduced an HSDPA + DVB-H mobile phone for Telecom Italia. Samsung's newest model, the P930, offers a horizontal-flip LCD screen for optimal mobile TV watching and supports Picture in Picture (PIP) functionality, enabling the viewer to watch two TV channels simultaneously. It offers a 2 megapixel camera and a VGA camera for video telephony. It also supports a microSD external memory slot for better storage. Samsung said it is supporting...

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BT Acquires Assets of Telexis Brasil

BT has acquired the assets of Telexis Brasil, Fiat's Brazilian telecommunications business, for an undisclosed sum. Telexis provides services to both Fiat Group and external customers. The company achieved revenues of around US$2 million in 2005 and had gross assets of approximately US$640,000.BT said the deal is a significant planned step in the delivery of a global contract worth EUR 450 million over five years to supply telecommunications services to Fiat, as over EUR 30m of this value is contributed from Brazil. http://www.btplc.comIn February...

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Alvarion Sells Cellular Mobile Unit to LGC Wireless

Alvarion completed the sale of its Cellular Mobile business unit ("CMU") to LGC Wireless, a privately-held supplier of wireless networking solutions for dense urban areas as well as inside public and private structures, for approximately $15 million in notes and the assumption of certain liabilities. The notes are due at the end of 2007 and 2008. One of the notes, in the principal amount of $7 million, is convertible into shares of common stock of LGC.Alvarion's CMU business generated revenues of approximately $21 million in the first 3 quarters...

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Alcatel and Datang Agree on TD-SCDMA

Alcatel and Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to drive TD-SCDMA development. Specifically, the MOU reinforces the cooperation that currently exists between the two companies in the areas of sales, marketing, industrialization, research and development of TD-SCDMA products and technologies for the domestic China market. Alcatel will assist the Datang Group abroad. Finally, the MOU includes joint development of LTE (Long Term Evolution) products and technologies. TD-SCDMA is one of three 3G standards...

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Polkomtel Launches HSDPA with Nokia

Polkomtel, one of three mobile telephony operators in Poland, launched its commercial High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network in the Warsaw area, offering speeds of up to five times faster than its current WCDMA service. Polkomtel and Nokia have worked together since 1996. Nokia supplies the HSDPA under extension of the existing frame agreement for GSM/EDGE and WCDMA 3G, signed in 2005. http://www.nokia....

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Nokia Supports Orange France in Launching HSDPA

Orange France has launched the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) services in Toulouse and Bordeaux. Nokia supplied the WCDMA 3G and HSDPA infrastructure, along with radio optimization services. Financial terms were not disclosed.Nokia noted that it has 63 customers to date for WCDMA 3G.http://www.nokia....

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Belgium's Proximus Selects Ericsson for Mobile TV

The Belgian operator Proximus has awarded Ericsson a contract for an end-to-end mobile TV solution, including Ericsson's Channel Selector. The contract also covers implementation, systems integration and system support. The launch of the solution is planned in the course of 2007. Financial terms were not disclosed.Ericsson said its channel selector capability makes mobile TV channel surfing much more convenient - changing from one channel to another needs just one click on the mobile handset.http://www.ericsson....

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Cisco to Establish Global R&D Centre in Ireland

Cisco plans to open a Research & Development Centre in Galway, Ireland. The facility will initially employ 50 skilled graduates and is projected to grow to 200 positions over the next three years for people at degree level and above.Cisco, through its international sales and finance subsidiaries, has existing Irish operations based in Dublin, which employ 66 people in sales and support operations, which focuses on the domestic market, and a finance (captive leasing) and treasury operation.http://www.cisco....

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Tellas Deploys Itatel's Softswitch

Tellas, a major wireline competitor in Greece, has selected Italtel's softswitch technology for its Next Generation Network (NGN) and for the deployment of a Metro Ethernet Network. Financial terms were not disclosed. The NGN solution will guarantee full interworking with Tellas existing legacy infrastructure for voice services and enable the delivery over an IP network of new enhanced telephony and rich content services for residential and business...

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Nortel Selected for Nationwide Optical Backbone in Iraq

Iraq Telecommunications & Post Corporation (ITPC) has awarded a US$20 million contract to Nortel to build a nationwide optical backbone in Iraq. Nortel was selected by ITPC as the prime contractor for the project following a public tender.Under the contract, Nortel will supply a national optical backbone network that covers a distance of 5,000 kilometers and includes 35 major cities. The network will be constructed using Nortel's next generation DWDM solution including Common Photonic Layer (CPL), Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500 terminals...

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New SMC WiFi Phone Cradle Charger Integrates AP

SMC Networks announced the availability of products to complement its WiFi phones: two cradles that keep phones charged and ready; one of which has an integrated wireless access point. The functionality of the SMCDPCR-AP serves double-duty: as a charger/cradle, it keeps the phone charged and ready; and the 10/100Mb Ethernet port on the back of the device turns it into an 802.11g access point, so that users have a close-by and optimal signal for VoIP...

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ECI Telecom Wins Support Services Contract from ntl

ntl, the UK's largest cable operator, awarded a three-year, $5.5 million contract to ECI Telecom for ongoing support services. As part of the new agreement with ntl, ECI will provide maintenance and support services for its national network, thus enabling ntl to continue to offer exceptional service to its customers.http://www.ecitele....

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Qwest Provides Fiber Connectivity for DIRECTV

Qwest Communications announced a three-year contract to be a major provider of networking services to DIRECTV. The Qwest advanced networking services will help DIRECTV deliver local HD television content to customers. Specifically, Qwest will provide metro optical wavelength services, or QWave, to upgrade DIRECTV's network infrastructure. With this upgrade, DIRECTV will be able to distribute and transport HDTV content. Qwest said the agreement is a direct result of the recent acquisition of OnFiber.http://www.qwest....

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Natural Convergence Raises $10 Million in Funding

Natural Convergence, a start-up based in Ottawa, secured US$10 million in series C financing for its VoIP application software for service providers.Natural Convergence's "silhouette" application replaces traditional key systems, combining familiar functionality with cost and performance advantages. Its go-to-market channel strategy is optimized to the buying habits of small businesses - from value-added resellers, through service providers and original equipment manufacturers.The funding round was led by Wesley Clover and BDC Venture Capital,...

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AT&T and Yahoo! Mark Fifth Anniversary of Alliance

AT&T and Yahoo! marked the fifth anniversary of their broadband alliance. "Our partnership with AT&T has given Yahoo! the opportunity to create truly innovative Internet experiences, not just for the PC but also on consumer televisions," said Steve Boom, senior vice president of Broadband and Mobile, Yahoo! Inc.http://www.att.comhttp://www.yahoo....

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Alcatel Files Patent Infringement Suit against Microsoft

Alcatel USA has filed two complaints against Microsoft with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging violation of its intellectual property rights. The dispute involves six patents, one of which concerns Deterministic User Authentication on a network and another of which concerns peer-to-peer application communication. According to the filing, Alcatel provided Microsoft with notice of infringement before filing its legal claim.http://www.alcatel.comhttp://www.txed.uscourts.gov/Alcatel and Microsoft have been partners...

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LSI Logic Acquires Metta Technology from India

LSI Logic has acquired Metta Technology, a developer of multimedia system-on-chip technology and related software for consumer electronics products, for approximately $7 million in cash. Metta Technology is based in Pune, India and has approximately 60 employees."Through the acquisition of Metta Technology, we are increasing our focus on delivering the advanced, feature-rich solutions required by next generation digital video and edutainment products," said Umesh Padval, executive vice president, Consumer Products Group, LSI Logic. "http://ww...

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Bay Area's IP Networks Deploys Atrica's Carrier Ethernet Systems

IP Networks, which has leveraged strategic relationships with multiple electric/gas utilities in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, has integrated Atrica's family of Carrier Ethernet Systems into its all-optical network, primarily at enterprise locations. Following more than two years of deployment, the Atrica platform will now play a deeper role in the carrier's core network. Specifically, IP Networks has deployed the following components of Atrica's...

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Siemens Integrates HiPath Wireless Manager with Microsoft's Network Access Protection

Siemens Communications has integrated its HiPath Wireless Manager with Microsoft's Network Access Protection (NAP) platform, enabling companies to monitor and enforce security policy and access control for mobile users who connect through a wireless network.Network Access Protection is a policy enforcement technology built into the Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn" operating systems that allows customers to better protect network assets...

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Humax, Conexant and Conax Offer Secure STB for Sweden's ComHem

Humax, a leading international manufacturer of digital set-top boxes (STBs), has selected Conexant Systems' HDTV STB system solution for a new receiver that will be deployed by ComHem, a triple-play provider in Sweden. Conexant collaborated with Conax AS, a leading supplier of conditional access solutions for digital TV, to secure the design-win and deliver an integrated solution that improves the security of HDTV pay-television programming.http://www.conexant....

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Newport Media Raises $30 Million for Mobile TV Silicon

Newport Media, a start-up based in Lake Forest, California, closed a $30 million Series C financing round for its work in developing silicon solutions for digital audio and mobile TV applications.Newport Media is developing highly integrated, system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions designed to support all major mobile TV standards. The company said its Sundance H solution enables wireless handsets and mobile digital TV players with increased viewing time while simultaneously improving key performance metrics like sensitivity, channel switching time and...

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MetaSwitch Power Fujitsu's Managed VoIP Service

Metaswitch's carrier switching platform is playing a central role in Fujitsu Services' new Managed VoIP offering, which was launched in May 2006 for medium and large companies in the UK. Fujitsu's service recently received the International Engineering Consortium's InfoVision Honor in recognition of being the UK's first commercially available managed voice solution for large organizations.http://www.metaswitch....

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NXP Semiconductors and Sony to Develop Secure Chips for Mobile Transactions

NXP Semiconductors, formerly Philips Semiconductors, and Sony have agreed to establish a joint venture (JV) that will drive global adoption of contactless smart card applications in mobile phones. The anticipated JV will plan, develop, produce and market a secure chip that will include both MIFARE and FeliCa operating systems and applications, as well as other contactless card operating systems and applications. The companies said that by combining this secure chip with an NFC chip a universal contactless IC platform can be created for mobile phones....

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Cisco Unveils SAN Fabric Switch

Cisco introduced a Multilayer Fabric Switch that provides enterprise-class capabilities such as virtual Storage Area Networks (VSANs), advanced security and high availability. The Cisco MDS 9124 Multilayer Fabric Switch provides up to 24 4-Gbps Fibre Channel ports in a compact 1 one rack unit form factor with line-rate performance on each port. Customers can select eight, 16 or 24 ports and can add ports as needed.Cisco said has garnered broad support from storage vendors that participate in its original storage manufacturer (OSM) and solution...

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Cingular Selects Alcatel's IP/MPLS Transport for HSDPA RAN

Cingular Wireless is using Alcatel's multiservice transport solution for High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) in its radio access network. This includes the Alcatel 7670 Routing Switch Platform (RSP) and the Alcatel 1671 Service Connect (SC) multiservice cross-connect. Financial terms were not disclosed."We will be moving in lock-step with Cingular's aggressive development of the first HSDPA 3G network in the US," said Hubert de Pesquidoux, president of Alcatel's North American activities.http://www.alcatel....

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Limelight Supports Current.TV

Limelight Networks is supplying content delivery services for www.current.tv, the online counterpart to the Current television network, which co-founded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt. Roughly one-third on the on-air content comes from viewer created content.http://www.llnw.comhttp://www.current...

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AT&T to Open Region Headquarters in Dubai

T&T is opening a regional headquarters for the Middle East in Dubai. In 2005 AT&T announced the deployment of its network infrastructure in the region, initially in Qatar in cooperation with Qtel and further deployments in the region are planned including in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.http://www.att....

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Cingular Wireless Launches Mobile Navigation Service

Cingular Wireless introduced a wireless navigation system with 3D maps and "fuzzy search" on the Nokia E62 device. The TeleNav GPS Navigator service provides turn-by-turn directions while driving on the device's large, high-resolution screen, which measures 320 x 240 pixels. In addition to the Nokia E62 device, the TeleNav GPS Navigator service is available to Cingular business customers on the GPS-enabled HP iPAQ hw6920 Series Mobile Communicator,...

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Juniper and NEC Develop Joint IMS-FMC Solutions

Juniper Networks and NEC Corporation of Japan announced a partnership to develop IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) solutions for the service provider market. The IMS-FMC solutions will combine NEC's advanced products and solutions for fixed and mobile networks with Juniper Networks carrier-class IP core and edge routers and security products. Both companies agreed to use and enhance existing standards based interfaces and conform to architectural standards defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)...

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Alcatel Upgrades its Multi-service Cross-connect

Alcatel released an upgrade of its multi-service cross-connect offering to 240 Gbps capacity -- three times the capacity of the previous release -- in a single matrix, while optimizing the multi-service aggregation capabilities of this platform. The capacity upgrade can be performed in-service.The Alcatel 1671 SC provides broadband (including broadband test access and support), narrowband and wideband grooming, as well as supports data services. Alcatel said the combination of multiple grooming capabilities allows service providers to realize...

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Boost Mobile and loopt Launch Social Mapping for Mobiles

Boost Mobile, a division of Sprint Nextel, and loopt, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, launched a location-based social mapping service that enables young mobile phone users to share their location, status messages, photos and other on-the-go experiences with friends from their Boost Mobile phone. Boost offers premium Pay-As-You-Go wireless phones and services to the youth market using the Sprint Nextel network.The new Boost loopt service...

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SMC Ships Single Chip 28-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

SMC Networks began shipping a Layer 2, fully-managed 28-port Gigabit Ethernet switch with two 10 Gigabit uplinks at an MSRP of $1299.99. The switch provides 24 RJ-45 plus four SFP ports in an efficient single chip switching solution. Management features include Spanning Tree, VLANs and link aggregation (LACP) which also supports trunking the 10G ports.http://www.smc....

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Sipera Adds Cisco Exec as VP Engineering

Sipera Systems, a start-up based in Richardson, Texas, named Ravi Varanasi as Vice President of Engineering. Prior to Sipera, Varanasi led development efforts for Cisco Systems, focused on security technology, enterprise networking and core engineering. He was a founding member for Cisco industry initiatives including Network Admission Control (NAC), Cisco Pervasive Security (CPS), and Application Security. Sipera Systems also named Greg Flowers as Vice President of Finance. He previously was a vice president of GTESS Corporation.Sipera Systems...

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Mavenir Systems Hires former CEO of Spatial Wireless

Mavenir Systems, a start-up based in Richardson, Texas, announced today the appointment of Pardeep Kohli as President and CEO. Kohli previously served as co-founder, president and CEO of Spatial Wireless, which was acquired by Alcatel. Mavenir Systems is developing a next generation service delivery platform designed "to transcend the barriers dividing networks." The company promises an innovative approach to delivering multimedia capabilities...

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Versatel Selects Huawei for IP/DWDM

Versatel has selected Huawei Technologies to supply key elements of a new nationwide network across Germany. The deployment includes Huawei's DWDM equipment and its Quidway NetEngine series of high end routers. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.huawei.comhttp://www.versatel...

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Cablevision Plans No Price Increase in 2007

Cablevision Systems' pricing for its cable TV services in New York will remain virtually unchanged in 2007, up 1.1 percent on average over current rates. Standard pricing for Cablevision's Optimum Online high-speed Internet service and Optimum Voice digital voice- over-cable service will not increase in 2007, the fourth consecutive year without a price increase for these top-rated services, which continue to lead the nation in consumer acceptance.The company noted cable television programming increases in 2006, including the addition of the new...

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Alcatel/Lucent Merger Expected to Close on November 30

President Bush accepted the recommendation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to not suspend or prohibit the proposed merger of Lucent Technologies and Alcatel. The companies are bound by conditions of a National Security Agreement and Special Security Agreement with U.S. government agencies. The White House said in a statement that the decision took into account all relevant national security factors, including, but not limited to (1) the scope of Lucent's operations and its work with state, local and federal...

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