IEEE Confirms 802.11n Wi-Fi Draft Specification

The IEEE Task Group "N" voted to confirm the proposal for the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard. The draft will now proceed through the IEEE ratification process.



The proposed IEEE 802.11n standard supports speeds of up to 600 Mbps and will enable wireless systems to deliver greater range.

http://www.enhancedwirelessconsortium.orgIn October 2005, a group of 27 Wi-Fi companies formed an Enhanced Wireless Consortium to accelerate the IEEE 802.11n standard development process. The EWC specification comprises a number of technical elements, including:

• Mixed-mode interoperability with 802.11a/b/g networks -- provides enhanced performance while maintaining communication with legacy devices;



• PHY transmission rates up to 600Mbps -- supports applications requiring high data rates (such as transmitting multiple HDTV streams), and reduces battery drain by minimizing the time required to send and receive data streams;



• Enhanced efficiency MAC with frame aggregation -- brings actual throughput closer to the raw PHY rate, providing end users with at least 100 Mbps application level bandwidth;



• Use of 2.4GHz and/or 5GHz unlicensed bands -- matches the frequency plan of existing 802.11 devices;



• 20MHz and/or 40MHz channel support -- uses more of the wireless spectrum when available to enhance performance;



• Spatial multiplexing modes for simultaneous transmission using 1 to 4 antennas -- increases robustness of wireless connections to support very high data rates;



• Enhanced range via multiple antennas and advanced coding -- provides for a wider coverage area with consistent wireless speeds.

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LGC Wireless Optimizes Multi-Carrier Cellular Coverage for Atlanta Airport

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which ranks as the worlds busiest passenger air terminal, has installed LGC Wireless' InterReach Unison system to deliver cellular and public safety wireless coverage throughout the airport's 5.8 million square foot facility.



The multi-operator system has been funded by the airport itself, and will provide coverage in its terminal as well as in the underground transportation mall, where a train system links the airport's concourses. The InterReach Unison system will support traffic for all major cellular network carriers as well as the airport's own public safety organizations. The legacy wireless extension systems (supplied by Cingular, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon) did not cover the entire airport.



LGC's InterReach Unison system is a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that uses active Ethernet-based technology and standard fiber and copper transport cabling. The Atlanta airport deployment uses 36 main hubs, 96 expansion hubs, and more than 700 individual antennas.

http://www.lgcwireless.com

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Sprint Nextel Plans 4G Rollout in 2008

Sprint Nextel plans to leverage its extensive 2.5 GHz Broadband Radio Service (BRS) spectrum holdings with a major rollout of 4G services in 2008, said Len Lauer, COO of Sprint Nextel, speaking at WCA conference in San Jose. Its market strategy will be to deploy the network quickly in top 100 U.S. markets, giving it as much as a two-year lead over its major wireless competitors. Sprint Nextel is currently evaluating a number of different wireless technologies and network architectures, including multicarrier DO (MCDO), f-OFDM, WiMAX, HSPA, TD-CDMA and 3G LTE. Discussions and trials are underway with a number potential suppliers.



Lauer outlined a number of key requirements for the new network. Ideally, it would like be an architecture that is also deployed globally, especially in Europe. The company does not want to become a wireless island. Technologies must be part of a larger ecosystem. Base stations and client devices must be delivered at competitive price. And the network must be able of offer new services, content, experiences that provide a true mobile alternative to home DSL and cable connections. Sprint Nextel initially is looking for 2 to 3 Mbps per user.



In the meantime, Sprint Nextel is gaining momentum with its EVDO network, which currently delivers downlink speeds of 400-700 kbps and is available in over 200 markets across the country. An upgrade to the EVDO network is planned for 2007/8. Lauer also demonstrated the company's currently mobile TV application. As the subscriber numbers for this multimedia service climb, Sprint Nextel may be in the position of needing more capacity before its 4G rollout is ready. The company is evaluating QUALCOMM's MediaFLO and DVB solutions to handle such a contingency.



As for the joint venture with the cable operators, Lauer said Sprint Nextel already is the largest supplier of VoIP services to MSOs. The first new services from the joint venture are expected to debut in mid-year.

http://www.sprint.com

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NTT Communications and Telefonica Wholesale Interconnect

NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) and Telefonica International
Wholesale Services (Telefonica Wholesale) agreed to interconnect their
international data networks. The agreement will enable both companies to increase their coverage through a seamless international network covering almost all the Asia Pacific Region, the United States, Latin America and Europe.

http://www.ntt.comhttp://www.telefonica.es

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France Telecom Reaches 200,000 IPTV Subscribers, Launches "Le Bouquet" MPEG4

France Telecom now has over 200,000 subscribers for its MaLigne TV, a premium IPTV service that was first launched in December 2003. As of 30-Sep-2005, there were 142,000 MaLigne TV customers in France, compared to 116,000 at the end of June.



Starting February 1, France Telecom is expanding the offering with the launch of "Le Bouquet TV", featuring free access to a range of general and specialized channels as well as all the free channels available with Digital Terrestrial Television.



Le Bouquet TV will use an MPEG4-standard decoder.



MaLigne TV is already providing access to some 200 channels.



France Telecom will also begin carrying exclusive channels for major events. For the Turin Winter Games, it will have seven dedicated channels.



France Telecom is also launching "Mon Magneto", another DSL-based video service that lets customers manage live recordings directly on their decoder's hard drive (PVR).



http://www.francetelecom.com

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Agere Hits 100 Million Unit Milestone for GSM Chipsets

Agere Systems has shipped in excess of 100 million Global System for Mobile (GSM)-based wireless chipsets for mobile phones. The company began supplying solutions for GPRS mobile phones in limited quantities in 2000, achieving its highest shipment levels over the last two years.

http://www.agere.com/

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WiMAX Forum Announces First Certified Products

The WiMAX Forum announced the first fixed wireless broadband network products to achieve the designation of WiMAX Forum Certified. These include:

• Aperto Networks' PacketMAX 5000 base station



• Redline Communications' RedMAX AN-100U base station



• SEQUANS Communications' SQN2010 SoC base station solution



• Wavesat's miniMAX customer premise equipment (CPE) solution.

To date, the WiMAX Forum's certification laboratory, Cetecom Spain, has confirmed 26 additional reservations from manufacturers for testing slots for both subscriber and base station equipment certification. In order to handle this additional capacity, Cetecom already has set up multiple test lines for testing and certification for these products -- a process that will continue over the next two months.



The first round of WiMAX Forum Certified products were developed according to the WiMAX Forum-defined certification profile for 3.5 GHz systems, which is based on the IEEE 802.16-2004 and ETSI HiperMAN standards. Each hardware system was required to pass stringent and extensive test procedures, consisting of protocol conformance, radio conformance and interoperability testing in order to attain the WiMAX Forum Certification seal.

http://www.wimaxforum.org

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Earthlink Signs Motorola and Tropos for Wi-Fi in 5 Cities

Earthlink signed a contract with Motorola for it to provide wireless equipment, design, installation and system integration for the initial five major cities where EarthLink will deploy municipal Wi-Fi Internet access networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Motorola will provide its MOTOwi4 portfolio of products, including its Canopy high-speed backhaul and Wi-Fi mesh network equipment supplied to Motorola by Tropos Networks.



Motorola will also install and provide system integration and support services for the networks operated by EarthLink.



The Tropos MetroMesh equipment on city light poles that will enable wireless data connectivity between consumers and the Internet.

http://www.EarthLink.nethttp://www.connectwithcanopy.com

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ITV Expands Web Video with Narrowstep

ITV, the UK's top, and Europe's second largest commercial broadcaster, has extended its contract with Narrowstep to broadcast its new local broadband TV service.



ITV first signed Narrowstep in October 2005 to test TelVOS, its Television Operating System, in order to offer Brighton and Hastings their local news, weather, community activities, travel and other ITV entertainment. With the expansion of the trial, Narrowstep has increased its services to ITV by creating a further four channels on the site with the inclusion of Teachers' TV, Brighton Property, Regional news and weather and the Upload Channel for advertising for local businesses and individuals which will be revenue generating.



In the short time since the start of the trial, over 10,000 individuals per week in the Brighton and Hastings area have been using the service. Many of the viewers watch for more than one hour at a time.www.itvlocal.tvhttp://www.narrowstep.com

	Unicast vs. Multicast:  The Challenge for Cablecos
The world of television is becoming a confusing place. Technology that has remained stable and consistent for over four decades is suddenly being usurped.  On the one hand, there is an increasingly rapid shift to HD underway. On the other, IPTV is arriving to shake things up. It is therefore not surprising that the world of programming is undergoing a revolution.

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Broadcom Launches "Intensi-fi" Silicon for 802.11n

Broadcom announced the availability of its new "Intensi-fi" WLAN chipsets designed to comply with the IEEE 802.11n draft specification. The chipsets incorporate all mandatory elements of the IEEE 802.11n draft specification and are software upgradable once the standard is finalized. Broadcom said it is working closely with other industry leaders to demonstrate real-world interoperability among brands as draft-802.11n products become available.



http://www.broadcom.com

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Nielsen//NetRatings: iTunes Reaches 14% of Active Internet Universe,

Traffic to Apple's iTunes Web site and use of the iTunes application has skyrocketed 241% over the past year, from 6.1 million unique visitors in December 2004 to 20.7 million in December 2005, reaching nearly 14 percent of the active Internet population, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.



Teens are disproportionately represented among iTunes users; 12 to 17 year olds are nearly twice as likely to visit the iTunes Web site and use the application as the average Internet user. iTunes users are also more likely to be male; the site's traffic is 54 percent male and 46 percent female.



"The rapid growth of iTunes is an important phenomenon in the online media marketplace," said Jon Gibs, director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Consumers have clearly indicated that they are eager to control their own music libraries, one song at a time," he continued.

http://www.netratings.com

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Meru Ships its Radio Switch for High Density WLANs

Meru Networks began shipping its new Radio Switch Family, a gigabit-class, wireless LAN infrastructure switch built for high-density data and wireless VoIP applications in pervasive, enterprise WLANs.



Meru's Radio Switch family includes the four-radio RS-4000, the eight-radio RS-8000, the twelve-radio RS-12000 and a patent-pending, built-in omni-directional antenna. The system delivers up to 648 Mbps of WLAN bandwidth utilizing 802.11 standard radios, and is capable of scaling up to 1.2 Gbps of bandwidth across its coverage zone.



The Radio Switch layers up to 12 channels in a single coverage area -- a feature that is enabled by Meru's cellular-like architecture and Air Traffic Control technology. All three products are modular and can support radio additions and upgrades, including future 802.11n upgrades.
http://www.merunetworks.com

Wireless LANs Need to Evolve toward Cellular Wireless Architecture

Recent IEEE 802.11 task groups have worked to improve the speed of wireless networking and increase the sophistication of the 802.11 base itself. Unfortunately, 802.11 is still hamstrung by a fundamental problem. Given the ever-increasing need to have real predictability in networks that will soon top out at over 600Mbps and rival the capacity of wired networking, it is clear that 802.11 needs to embrace a cellular wireless networking architecture and associated technologies.

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Nortel Hires GE's Dennis Carey

Nortel announced the appointment of Dennis Carey as executive vice president, Corporate Operations. Building on a 25-year career with GE, Carey brings to Nortel an extensive background in general management, business development, corporate operations, strategy, finance, information systems, mergers and acquisitions, auditing, supply chain management and Six Sigma. He also has served as vice president and general manager for Corporate Productivity and M&A for AT&T, and more recently as executive vice president for Business Development, Strategy and Corporate Operations for The Home Depot. In his most recent assignment, Carey was executive vice president, president and CEO, Integrated Electronic Systems for Motorola. http://www.nortel.com

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Scientific-Atlanta Sees Rise in Higher-End STBs and Modems

Scientific-Atlanta reported quarterly sales of $495.2 million. Net income $53.4 million, or $0.34 per share, compared with $58.7 million, or $0.38 per share, in the same period last year. Gross margin in the second quarter was 36.1 percent of sales, down one percentage point from last year. Some highlights:

• There was a year-to-year increase in sales of subscriber products driven by higher volumes of Explorer digital set-tops and WebSTAR cable modems and a continued mix shift toward higher-end set-top and modem products.
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• Selling prices for almost all set-top models continued to decline in the quarter.
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• The company sold 1.152 million set-tops during the quarter. Sales of transmission products were $122.4 million, up 7%from last year but down 5% sequentially.
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• Digital video recorder (DVR) shipments set a new record of 556,000 units this quarter, increasing 24% from last year's second quarter and 20% sequentially. Two hundred sixty thousand digital video recorders, or a little under half of the total, were high-definition units. Shipments of all high-definition set-tops, including DVR and non-DVR models, were 386 thousand units, an increase of 27% from last year and 7% sequentially.
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• Scientific-Atlanta sold a record 981 thousand modems, an increase of 113 percent from last year and an increase of two percent sequentially. Forty percent of unit shipments, or 391 thousand, were voice modems. Voice modem shipments increased by 234 percent from last year but declined eight percent sequentially. The sequential decline was related to a product issue that was resolved during the quarter just ended. More than two-thirds of the voice modems were shipped to customers outside the United States.



• The company hopes to close its merger with Cisco this quarter.

http://www.scientificatlanta.com

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