Alcatel and Samsung Cooperate on Mobile WiMAX

Alcatel and Samsung Electronics agreed to cooperate on interoperability between Alcatel's Mobile WiMAX infrastructure based on the IEEE 802.16e standard (referred to as WiBro in Korea) and Samsung's mobile WiMAX terminals. The interoperability tests will target the second half of 2006 for the introduction of a fully interoperable Mobile WiMAX (referred to as WiBro in Korea) solution. The companies also agreed to collaborate on standardization activities within the WiMAX Forum, IEEE and 3GPP.http://www.alcatel.comhttp://www.samsung....

Read More

UTStarcom Unveils "Continuity" Fixed-Mobile Convergence

UTStarcom introduced its end-to-end "Continuity" solution for the fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), which lets fixed and mobile service providers deliver a unified service over both wireline and wireless networks. End users can interconnect to the fixed-line or cellular network transparently and roam across them seamlessly regardless of their location, communication device, or network access method.UTStarcom's Continuity solution consists of an FMC...

Read More

Kineto Enhances IP-Based UMA Network Controller

Kineto Wireless announced an updated version of its IP-Based UMA Network Controller (IP-UNC) featuring simplified subscriber management and lower overall capital and operational costs. New features include: AAA-based Service Management -- 3GPP, the GSM standards body, went to great lengths to specify a proven method for operators to authenticate UMA subscribers. However, the standard did not specify a method for operators to define, provision, and...

Read More

GlobeCast Selects Irdeto Security for Satellite Content Distribution Service

GlobeCast, a subsidiary of France Telecom and a leading global content management and delivery company, has selected the Irdeto Digital TV content security solution for large operators to secure its satellite TV content distribution service worldwide.GlobeCast has upgraded from Irdeto's M-Crypt control system for small to medium-sized operators to the Irdeto PIsys control system, a more comprehensive and scalable system. Both control systems use the same smart cards and set top boxes, thus allowing for a seamless upgrade with no need to change...

Read More

Tenth Anniversary of the Telecom Act of 1996

February 8th marks the tenth anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the most comprehensive legislation affecting this industry in the United States since 1932. Supporters of the legislation credit it with playing a prominent role in the initial expansion of Internet access, for promoting facilities investment by the cable industry and for fostering the expansion of wireless services. Critics note that the Telecom Act resulted in extraordinarily prolonged legal battles between the RBOCs and CLECs.http://www.convergedigest....

Read More

Nortel Announces Global Settlement of Shareholder Class Action Litigation

Nortel reached an agreement in principle with the lead plaintiffs in two significant class action shareholder lawsuits pending in the Southern District of New York.Under the proposed settlement, Nortel would make a payment of US$575 million in cash, issue 628,667,750 of its common shares (representing 14.5% of its current equity), and contribute one-half of any recovery in the existing litigation by Nortel against Messrs. Frank Dunn, Douglas Beatty and Michael Gollogly, the company's former senior officers who were terminated for cause in April...

Read More

Lucent and IBM Team on IMS

Lucent Technologies and IBM announced a partnership to develop, market and deliver joint solutions based on IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) that will accelerate the introduction of new blended services for wireless and wireline carriers. Specifically, the companies work together to develop, test and deliver IMS infrastructure, service creation and network management solutions, including billing and operating systems solutions.The two companies have developed a reference architecture to support operations and billing solutions that leverage IBM's...

Read More

Lucent Study Estimates $10 Billion Market for IMS

Lucent Technologies estimates that U.S. service providers can tap a market potentially worth almost $10 billion a year by offering personalized services that blend voice and data applications across fixed and mobile networks, according a study conducted by the firm.Lucent's research, conducted last year, involved 1,250 men and women, ages 15 and over -- 650 for the business survey and 600 for the consumer survey. The types of services covered in the survey were culled from focus groups. Survey questions were designed to determine which features...

Read More

RADVISION Integrates 3G Video Gateway with HP Open Call Media

RADVISION has teamed with HP to integrate its "SCOPIA" 3G Video Gateway with the HP Open Call Media Platform (HP OCMP) Version 3.0. The solution serves as a service creation platform for video application services in next-generation mobile networks. It has already been tested and deployed in live third-generation (3G) mobile networks in Europe.RADVISION's SCOPIA 3G Video Gateway bridges the gap between 3G mobile networks and the wireline (IP/ISDN) networks that supply the majority of the multimedia content and video telephony services. It supports...

Read More

DARPA Tests Multi-party IP Conferencing with U.S. Fighter Jet

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has successfully tested a multi-party, IP conference call linking an F-15E fighter jet in flight with a remote government command center in California and a three-star general at the Pentagon. During the test, Avaya demonstrated a multiparty IP conference call connecting the aircraft's weapon systems officer with two parties at the China Lake Integrated Battlespace Arena Command Center and with Lt. Gen. William T. Hobbins at his desk in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.In addition to the multiparty...

Read More

SkyWay Connect and PanAmSat to IPTV Content Sourcing

SkyWay Connect is working with PanAmSat to deliver IPTV services to small and mid-sized cable systems and telcos across North America based on the SkyWay Connect MPEG-4 AVC video distribution platform.Under development, this service intends to rely on PanAmSat's Galaxy 3C satellite to transmit the MPEG-4 AVC video content. PanAmSat and SkyWay Connect will work together to support customer needs and actively participate in promotion of the offering. PanAmSat also retains an option to acquire an equity interest in SkyWay Connect.SkyWay Connect will...

Read More

Fujitsu Strengthens GPON Development Efforts

Fujitsu Network Communications has significantly increased engineering development resources allocated to their recently announced Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) initiative. Fujitsu now has over 100 hardware and software engineers working on their GPON program at development facilities in Pearl River (N.Y.), Richardson (Texas), Sunnyvale (California), and Japan.http://us.fujitsu.com/tele...

Read More

Philips Supports UMA Handsets, Partners with Kineto

Royal Philips Electronics is supplying technology for unlicensed mobile access (UMA)-enabled phones to be available in the U.S. market from a major operator. UMA phones switch between cellular networks and Wi-Fi hotspots, automatically detecting the fastest and most cost-effective network.The UMA-compliant phone uses Philip's "Nexperia" cellular system solution 6120 for UMA.Philips has collaborated with Kineto Wireless, which provides the UMA-compliant handset software stack in Philips' Nexperia cellular system solution. The Philips UMA platform,...

Read More

Vonage Names Exec Mike Snyder as CEO

Vonage named Mike Snyder as its new CEO, taking over the day-to-day operations of the company from its founder and Chairman of the Board, Jeffrey A. Citron, who will assume a new role -- Chairman and Chief Strategist. Mike Snyder comes to Vonage from ADT, part of Tyco Fire and Security, where he has held the title of president since 1997.http://www.vonage....

Read More

Netrake Targets Fixed-Mobile Convergence with Integrated SBC + Security Gateway

Netrake unveiled its next-generation platform - the 3GX - integrating the capabilities of its nCite Session Border Controller (SBC) and nCite Security Gateway (SG) platforms and adding new functionality for fixed-mobile-convergence (FMC) applications. The platform, which is currently in customer trials, is designed for next-generation, converged fixed-mobile architectures being defined by 3GPP IMS, 3GPP2, ETSI TISPAN, PacketCable and UMA. Netrake said the use of dual-mode phones using IPSec encryption in both Fixed and Mobile networks will require...

Read More

TANDBERG Acquires SkyStream, Expanding Role in IPTV Encoding

TANDBERG Television agreed to acquire SkyStream, a supplier of IP video delivery solutions, for $80 million in cash and TANDBERG Television shares. The transaction is expected to close in April 2006. SkyStream's product line includes its high density Mediaplex-20 and iPlex switched digital video headends for MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC encoding and transcoding. The platforms are used by IPTV operators in Asia, Europe and the US. SkyStream's customers include Safeway, Reuters, GlobeCast (a division of France Telecom), EchoStar Communications, Comcast, BT...

Read More

Skype Optimizes for 10-Way Calling with Intel Dual-core PCs

Skype and Intel are collaborating to optimize Skype peer-to-peer calling for multiparty conferencing using Intel dual-core processor-based PCs. The first result of the companies' joint technical efforts is the availability of free, ten-way voice conference calling for up to ten people in Skype 2.0. The companies describe this as an industry first for peer-to-peer calling.The new feature is available exclusively for home and business users with Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology-based laptop PCs, and desktop PCs based on Intel Pentium D processors,...

Read More

IBM Rolls Out New Blade Systems, 9-Core Processor, 40 Gbps I/O

IBM introduced new blade computing chassis featuring new processing and I/O capabilities that deliver more than 40 Gigabits of I/O bandwidth to every blade server.The new BladeCenter H systems provide a new way to deliver blade technology, by collapsing servers, storage devices, networking infrastructure and security appliances into a single location in the datacenter. New IBM blades and switches include:A nine-core IBM Cell blade -- the first Cell-based product from IBM. A dual-core POWER processor-based BladeCenter JS21 -- the first blade with...

Read More