Lucent to Manage Pacific Crossing's Undersea Cables

Lucent Technologies won a four-year managed services agreement worth more than $10 million to operate and manage the U.S.-based network facilities of Pacific Crossing Limited (PCL). PCL owns and operates the PC-1 trans-Pacific fiber optic cable between the U.S. and Japan.http://www.lucent.comhttp://www.PC1....

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France Telecom to Launch FTTH Trials in Paris

France Telecom announced plans to launch FTTH trials in six districts in Paris and six cities in the Hauts-de-Seine. The pilot program include High Definition TV, unlimited telephony and very high speed Internet access. Customers participating in the pilot program will also be offered a wide range of innovative services to test. At the end of this first experimental phase, France Telecom will be able to ramp up its pilot programs to cover other regions in France or abroad by 2007.France Telecom said the choice of FTTH illustrates its strategy "to...

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Octasic Enables Colorful Calling Feature

Octasic introduced a "colorful calling" feature for its OCT6100 voice quality processor that enables callers to select desired background music, sound effects or even karaoke and seamlessly replace the actual background sound in their phone conversation.With the explosive popularity of features like ringback tones, which first gained popularity in Asia and is now catching on worldwide, callers are looking for new ways to further personalize or add a little ‘color' to their calling experience -- in both mobile and fixed calls. This latest service...

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Teknovus and KDDI Seek to Scale EPON to 10 Gbps

Teknovus, a developer of Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) chipsets, and KDDI, one of Japan's leading telecom carriers, unveiled a Next Generation Ethernet Passive Optical Network (NGEPON) roadmap seeking to scale downstream rates to 10 Gbps. KDDI is already currently deploying EPON technology capable of 1 Gbps as the access technology for IPTV and Triple Play services.The companies said NGEPON systems will be needed in the future to support hundreds of interactive channels, a rich mix of high-definition content, narrowcasting, and virtual...

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Ubiquity Supplies SIP Application Server to AT&T Services

Ubiquity Software Corporation announced a three-year agreement with AT&T Services. Ubiquity will provide its SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) Application Servers for testing and possible use in delivering new, enhanced broadband services over an integrated VoIP network planned for AT&T customers. Further details were not disclosed.http://www.ubiquitysoftware....

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NEC America Introduces GPON Access Equipment

NEC America introduced its SpectralWave GPON access equipment for the U.S. market, featuring the ability to provide bit rates of up to 2.488 Gbps and support both Ethernet and TDM services on a single fiber. It also provides access networking support for multiple services and operation, administration, maintenance and provisioning (OAM&P) functionality.The NEC SpectralWave GPON solution consists of the AM Series Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and ME Series Optical Network Units (ONU) and Terminals (ONT). It is anticipated that the SpectralWave...

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TeleCIS Secures $10 Million for WiMAX Chipsets

TeleCIS Wireless, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, secured $10 million in Series C funding for its WiMAX fixed, portable and mobile broadband wireless chipset technology.The funding will support the upcoming launch of the company's performance leading WiMAX Fixed/Portable subscriber device chip as well as the development of the second TeleCIS chip, a multi-protocol chipset combining 802.16e WiMAX Mobile and 802.11 WiFi protocols in a single chip. This design will deliver WiMAX Mobile, WiFi, MIMO and smart antenna functionality in a...

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Teknovus Introduces EPON Chip for ONUs

Teknovus announced the availability of its Optical Network Unit (ONU) chip for uses in Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPONs). The new Teknovus TK3713 is fully standards compliant and is designed to interoperate with IEEE 802.3ah compliant ONUs from other suppliers. Single-chip IPTV features include integrated Forward Error Correction (FEC), an ultra-low jitter SerDes, bidirectional encryption, multiple LLIDs per ONU, a line-rate packet-processing engine, and hardware-based SLA enforcement.The TK3713, a 130nm System-on-Chip (SoC), is the first...

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Parks Associates Predicts On-Demand Internet Content to Approach $9 Billion by 2010

U.S. consumer spending for online entertainment, including on-demand gaming, music and video services, will grow by 260% in the next five years, according to Digital Lifestyles: 2006 Outlook, a new study from Parks Associates. Driven by broadband usage and innovations in digital entertainment platforms and content services, revenues will grow from $2.4 billion in 2006 to nearly $9 billion in 2010.Some key points of the study:The number of worldwide consumer broadband subscribers will grow from 184 million in 2005 to more than 360 million in 2010;The...

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Pacific Crossing Emerges from Chapter 11

Pacific Crossing Ltd, Inc., a former subsidiary of Global Crossing and of the former Asia Global Crossing (now Asia Netcom), has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Over $650 million of existing debt was converted into equity and $25 million in secured debt.Pacific Crossing Limited owns and operates the PC-1 cable, a 13,076 route-mile submarine fiber optic cable between the United States and Japan. It also owns and operates cable landing stations in Shima, Japan; Ajigaura, Japan; Grover Beach, California; and Mukilteo, Washington.Pacific...

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Hawaii's Pacific LightNet Migrates from Nortel DMS to Metaswitch

Pacific LightNet (PLNI), which owns and operates Hawaii's largest inter-island fiber-optic network, is replacing its Nortel DMS digital switches with a softswitched network from Metaswitch. The deployment includes the Metaswitch VP3510 Class 4/5 Softswitch and the UC9000 Unified Communications System, a suite of extensible applications built on IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) standards including Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The deployment will be the first implementation of an IMS service delivery architecture in Hawaii.PLNI is also deploying...

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Convergys Reaffirms 2006 EPS Guidance Despite Sprint Nextel Billing Decision

Convergys confirmed that it had been notified by Sprint Nextel of plans to end the Convergys billing relationship over time by migrating subscribers off the legacy Precedent 2000(R) system. In a statement, Convergys said it remains comfortable with 2006 earnings guidance of at least $1.07 per share, despite the Sprint Nextel decision.In 2005 Convergys' Information Management Group (IMG) generated approximately $100 million in revenue from Sprint Nextel at profitability levels comparable to the average of the IMG business. http://www.convergys...

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Agilent Supplies EPON Triple-Play Test Solution to Fiberxon

Agilent Technologies has supplied its N2X multiservices test solution to Fiberxon to validate Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) system performance while delivering real-world triple-play services. The Agilent N2X N5604A Tri-rate Ethernet EPON Test Card and dedicated software was used to verify Fiberxon's EPON system performance, providing dynamic bandwidth, Multi-Point Control Protocol (MPCP) message interchange, Ethernet Operations and Administration and Maintenance (OAM) flows across EPON, as well as end-to-end system performance. Using...

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Sprint Selects Amdocs for Wireless Billing and Customer Care

Sprint awarded an 8-year agreement to Amdocs to provide a single billing and customer care platform for its more than 46.5 million wireless subscribers. Since 2000, Nextel had used Amdocs for its billing and customer care system. Sprint began using Convergys in 1996 for its customer care and billing services.The new Amdocs' platform will provide Sprint Nextel customer care representatives real-time access to account information for all subscribers on both the Nationwide Sprint PCS Network and the National Nextel Network. Sprint Nextel expects to...

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Cox Extends Deployment of BigBand Broadband Provisioning Manager

Cox Communications, the fourth largest U.S. cable operator, awarded a five-year contract to BigBand Networks to extend its use of BigBand's FastFlow BPM (Broadband Provisioning Manager) to provision Cox High Speed Internet (CHSI) and VoIP-based Cox Digital Telephone services and features. Financial terms were not disclosed.BigBand's FastFlow BPM (Broadband Provisioning Manager) uses a distributed framework to support both voice and Internet access over a single server. Its distributed framework is highly scalable, adapting as the number of IP-based...

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Spotwave Raises $10 Million for In-Building Wireless

Spotwave, a start-up based in Ottawa, Canada, closed an expansion round of USD$10 million for its indoor wireless coverage products. Spotwave's intelligent solutions address a range of in-building environments from large enterprise locations to small and home offices. The funding led by the company's existing investors and Motorola Ventures. Existing investors include Newbury Ventures, VenGrowth Private Equity Partners, Primaxis Technology Ventures, Skypoint Capital, VentureLink Fund, The GrowthWorks Canadian Fund, and RBQ Limited. Spotwave management...

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GoogleTalk Joins XMPP Federation

The Google Talk Service has joined the public XMPP network, allowing Google Talk users to chat with users on other XMPP services and vice versa.http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2006/01/xmpp-federation.h...

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NDS Provides Content Protection for Telekom Austria's IPTV

Telekom Austria has selected NDS' Synamedia an VideoGuard content protection system for its IP television offering and Video on Demand (VOD) service.Other IPTV customers for NDS include BBTV in Japan, Sistema in Russia, CYTA in Cyprus, Viasat in Sweden, Auna in Spain and SuperSun in Hong Kong.http://www.nds.c...

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Juniper Exec Joins New Enterprise Associates

Krishna "Kittu" Kolluri has joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) as General Partner. Kolluri previously served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Juniper Networks' Security Products Group. He joined Juniper Networks through the company's acquisition of NetScreen Technologies in April 2004. Prior to this, Mr. Kolluri was General Manager of Secure Access Products at NetScreen, a position he assumed following NetScreen's acquisition of Neoteris in November 2003.http://www.nea....

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Siemens Joins the Multimedia over Coax Alliance

Siemens Home and Office Communications Devices , which supplies DSL customer premises equipment (CPE), has joined the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA-TM). MoCA develops and promotes the standard for the transport of digital entertainment over coax. finhttp://www.siemens.com/gigaset !--webbot bot="Include" U-Include="http://www.convergedigest.com/glossary/moca/moca.htm" TAG="BODY" ...

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Motorola to Acquire Kreatel for Linux-based STBx and Middleware

Motorola agreed to acquire Kreatel Communications, a developer of IPTV set-tops, for an undisclosed sum. Kreatel's Linux-based solution extends into the application and middleware layers, allowing it to be used with a broad set of middleware solutions. Kreatel's customer base includes such major service providers as Telefonica (Spain), TeliaSonera (Sweden), and KPN (The Netherlands). Motorola said Kreatel's flexible set-top platform is a natural...

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Mangrove Names Colin Doherty as CEO

Mangrove Systems named Colin Doherty as its new President and CEO, replacing company founder Jonathan Reeves, who will assume the position of Chairman of the Board. Doherty has more than sixteen years combined experience at NMS Communications and Nortel Networks building their Optical and Carrier businesses in Latin America, North America and Europe.http://www.mangrovesystems.c...

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Sonus VoIP Traffic Hits 17 Billion Minutes/Month

The amount of voice traffic being carried over Sonus Networks' equipment by its customers exceeded 17 billion minutes per month at the end of 2005, a 70% increase compared to December 2004, according to the company. http://www.sonusnet.c...

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Converged Access Closes $8 Million in New Funding

Converged Access, a start-up based in Billerica, Mass., closed an $8 million Series C Round of funding for its intelligent application performance control for converged VoIP, data and video applications.Converged Access offers a QoSWorks traffic management system that provides granular performance guarantees to applications. The system manages long-lived session applications like FTP downloads, database back-ups, and large web page downloads, which can expand their throughput by increasing the window size, taking additional bandwidth capacity....

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