Algeria Telecom Selects Alcatel DSL

Algeria Telecom, the incumbent operator in Algeria, selected Alcatel to extend its DSL network by some 130,000 lines in the third quarter of 2006. Alcatel will also assist Algeria Telecom in its future network extension projects which target the deployment of an additional 170,000 lines. Specifically, Alcatel will its 7302 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM), to address the demand for high-speed Internet access services and open up possibilities for broadband applications like IPTV, the 5523 ADSL work station for element management and the 5530 Network Analyzer, Alcatel's DSL network diagnosis and analysis tool. Alcatel's solution also includes its Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems for broadband aggregation.
http://www.alcatel.com

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Verizon Shareholders Re-elect Directors, Other Proposals Defeated

Shareholders in Verizon Communications voted to approve the election of each of Verizon's 13 directors standing for election to a one-year term. Each director received 80 percent or more of the vote. Shareholders also ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's independent auditor.



The company reported that 61 percent voted in favor of a resolution requesting that director nominees be elected by the affirmative vote of the majority of votes cast at an annual meeting.



Verizon said all other shareholder proposals were defeated. They received the following affirmative votes: cumulative voting, 44 percent; composition of board directors, 25 percent; directors on common boards, 19 percent; separate chairman and CEO, 48 percent; performance-based equity compensation, 20 percent; and disclosure of political contributions, 33 percent.

http://www.verizon.com

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JDSU Announces Breakthrough in Photonic Power Efficiency

JDSU reported a world record in the conversion efficiency of laser light into electrical power -- its 3 volt and 5 volt gallium arsenide (GaAs) Photovoltaic Power Converter (PPC) has achieved optical-to-electrical conversion efficiency greater than 50%.



The company said this breakthrough would further enable fiber optics to replace copper for power delivery where isolation from the surrounding environment is essential. Photonic Power is especially beneficial for cost- effectively driving electronic devices operating in high-voltage, RF/EMI and magnetic fields where traditional copper options are more complex or impractical.



An efficiency of 50% pushes the boundaries of the maximum theoretical limit for photovoltaic power conversion. This improvement enables more power- hungry electronics such as transducers, transceivers and sensors to be powered over fiber. The higher power efficiency also permits remote electronics to be powered by fiber over longer distances such as tower-mounted installations for cellular and digital TV relay stations. Other applications are numerous including underground exploration and medical applications where the isolated power allows the operation of devices inside strong magnetic fields such as MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging).



"With this breakthrough conversion efficiency, JDSU is better positioned to deliver solutions to the medical, industrial sensor, and wireless communications industries," said David Gudmundson, vice president of corporate development for JDSU. "We believe that the delivery of power over fiber can provide strategic and competitive advantages to a variety of applications that require isolated power and are looking for copper wire alternatives."http://www.jdsu.com

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Global Crossing to Extend Core Network to Costa Rica

Global Crossing announced plans to extend its Pan American Crossing (PAC) system, which runs along the west coast of Central America from Panama to Los Angeles, to Costa Rica.



The project requires additional governmental approval, and construction is expected to be complete as early as fourth quarter 2007.



As part of the cable landing agreement, Global Crossing also announced that it will donate an STM1 to the Costa Rican academic sector, the largest donation of its kind in the history of the country.



Costa Rica's Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), the state-run entity responsible for the nation's telecommunications, and the national Internet Service Provider Radiografica Costarricense, also agreed to purchase 24 STM-1 Private Lines, the equivalent of 3.732 Gbps of bandwidth, from Global Crossing. One STM-1 is equivalent to 155.52 Mbps.



Global Crossing also recently announced it will be making upgrades to its Mid-Atlantic Crossing (MAC) system, which connects North America to Latin America through the Caribbean.

http://www.globalcrossing.com

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Broadcom Ships 2 Billionth Ethernet Port

Broadcom has shipped more than 2 billion Ethernet ports to date, including 200 million Gigabit-over-copper PHY ports to network equipment and computing manufacturers worldwide. Broadcom's Ethernet devices are in many types of communications, computing and networking equipment including personal computers (PCs), servers, switches, routers, storage devices, Wi-Fi access points, Internet telephony equipment, etc. The company shipped its first Ethernet port in 1995.



Broadcom noted that in the Linley Group's "Networking Silicon Market Share 2005" report, it is ranked as the number one supplier of all Ethernet Integrated Circuits (ICs), including Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and Fast Ethernet (FE) components and holds a 45.6% share of the market (based on revenue) with the nearest competitor ranked at only 18.1%.

http://www.broadcom.com

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Verizon's FiOS TV Tests "Community Studio" Model

Verizon is developing a new pilot program called "Community Studio" that will feature on demand content of interest to diverse viewers. The Community Studio concept emerged in discussions between Verizon and more than 35 civil rights leaders.



Slated to begin in the second quarter of 2006, Community Studio will offer viewers a library of public interest and civil rights content each month. Customers will use Verizon's video-on-demand (VOD) service to watch Community Studio programs.



Initial partners in Verizon's Community Studio venture are the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National Hispanic Media Coalition, American Association for People with Disabilities, Black Leadership Forum and U.S. Distance Learning Association.



TVN Entertainment will provide a number of hours of encoding, asset management and distribution services to the public interest organizations as part of the project. VN is Verizon's VOD service provider and furnishes the backend support, transport and advanced element management tools for Verizon's VOD offering.



Placement of content will be at the discretion of Verizon, which will provide this pilot service free to participating national organizations.

http://www.verizon.com

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QUALCOMM Supports HSUPA with 5.76 Mbps Uplinks

QUALCOMM announced that its Mobile Station Modem MSM7200 chipset will support uplink-intensive wireless services requiring low network latency such as VoIP, push to multimedia for instant sharing of high-quality video and digital images, and richly rendered 3D gaming with multiple players. The MSM7200 solution also supports multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) for the cost-efficient broadcasting of multimedia content over existing UMTS networks.



QUALCOMM's MSM7200 solution for HSUPA/HSDPA/WCDMA and EDGE/GPRS/GSM (EGPRS) is designed to support data rates of up to 7.2 Mbps on the downlink and up to 5.76 Mbps on the uplink for speeds that are faster than wired broadband connections.



"The MSM7200 is broadening the scope of what a mobile handset can do, bringing a new generation of services to the wireless user that converge multiple features of consumer electronics into a single compelling device with new network capabilities making these services possible," said Alex Katouzian, senior director of product management for QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. "We are excited about this next step in the development of wireless capabilities, mobile multimedia and UMTS technology as we look forward to its imminent commercialization."

http://www.qualcomm.com

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QUALCOMM Builds Support for Windows Mobile Operating System

QUALCOMM and Microsoft are porting the Windows Mobile operating system to QUALCOMM's Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipsets. The collaboration will enable device manufacturers to develop Windows Mobile-powered phones with MSM chipsets while shortening their product development times.



"Having support for Windows Mobile on QUALCOMM's MSM chipsets will bring a familiar software experience to the next generation of smaller, lighter phones with more appealing form factors," said Dr. Sanjay K. Jha, president of QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies.



QUALCOMM expects to begin offering support for Windows Mobile 5.0 on Convergence Platform MSM chipsets in the second half of 2006. In addition, Microsoft will incorporate a new Board Support Package and Radio Interface Layer for QUALCOMM's Convergence Platform solutions into future distributions of the Windows Mobile platform. Phones leveraging MSM solutions supporting the Windows Mobile platform are forecasted to be available in 2007.

http://www.qualcomm.com

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Teknovus Cites 20 Carrier Deployments for its GEPON

Teknovus, a start-up based in Petaluma, California offering Gigabit Ethernet Optical Network (GEPON) chipsets, reported that more than 20 carriers have deployed its OLT (central office) and ONU (customer premises) chipsets. The company cited deployments by traditional telcos, cable companies, and power-line companies, all expanding into the triple-play markets in Asia, North America, Europe, South America and Australia.

Teknovus announced major carrier deployments in 2005, including KDDI, K-Opticom and Korea Telecom. Since the beginning of 2006, more than 12 service providers have installed EPON-based access networks built on Teknovus' chipsets, including Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, Hanaro Telecom in Korea and Beijing Netcom in China.

http://www.teknovus.com

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AT&T Announces Second Web Video Distribution Partnership -- TotalVid

AT&T agreed to offer TotalVid's online library of more than 2,600 entertainment and instructional video titles to AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet and AT&T Worldnet subscribers. TotalVid currently offers thousands of online videos from more than 350 content providers. AT&T said the deal focuses on creating new revenue streams from its DSL Internet customer base and offering differentiated broadband-related services.



Through the agreement, broadband users will have access to the complete TotalVid library, featuring on-demand access to full-length videos in categories such as action sports, anime, cooking, fitness, home improvement, martial arts instruction, music, sports and travel. The agreement will feature a co-branded AT&T and TotalVid Web site, att.totalvid.com, and offers AT&T customers unlimited video downloads during a seven-day free trial. Afterwards, TotalVid's monthly subscription costs $9.95 a month and includes unlimited downloads. Alternatively, customers can also download individual videos for $1.99 and up.

http://www.att.comhttp://www.totalvid.com

• Last month, AT&T reached an agreement with Starz Entertainment Group to offer the "Vongo" Internet movie-delivery service to its DSL customers. The deal marks the first such broadband distribution agreement for Vongo and also serves as an example of a differentiated broadband media service supported by AT&T.



• The companies will feature a co-branded AT&T and Vongo Web site and special promotions. TotalVid is a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Communications, which also owns The Weather Channel, Q Interactive and a variety of other media businesses. TotalVid other partners include Akimbo, AOL, Blinkx, Comcast, D-Link, DaveTV, Microsoft Windows Media (MSFT), ThePlatform, W-Cities, Weather.com and Yahoo! TotalVid is based in Norfolk, Virginia.

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AT&T Signs 3-Year Asian MPLS Contract with First Data International

First Data International, which provides electronic commerce and payment solutions for financial institutions, awarded a three-year contract to AT&T for the provision of a new MPLS-based virtual private network (VPN) in Southeast Asia.



The new network will connect First Data offices in Sydney, Hong Kong, and the newly opened Singapore office. First Data is based in Australia.



The agreement is AT&T's first local deal in Australia, as its continues to ramp up its presence in the region. First Data and AT&T also have a significant global networking agreement in the United States.

http://www/att.comhttp://www.firstdata.com

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AOL and Clearwire Enter Wireless Broadband Marketing Pact

Clearwire will begin offering AOL High Speed service over its broadband wireless service in selected U.S. markets for $25.90 per month, under a marketing pact announced by the firms. The first markets are Daytona Beach and Jacksonville, Florida, as well as Stockton and Modesto, California.

http://www.clearwire.comhttp://www.aol.com

• Clearwire is the broadband wireless provider founded by Craig McCaw. Clearwire is using a WiMAX class access solution developed by its wholly-owned subsidiary, NextNet Wireless. The service operates at FCC-licensed 2.5 GHz frequencies in all of its U.S. markets. Clearwire sends its signal wirelessly from a transmitter on top of a cell tower to a specially developed receiver modem.

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Siemens to Resell BridgePort Networks' IMS Solutions

BridgePort Networks, a start-up developing a software-based gateway that enables the convergence of mobile and IP voice and data services, has signed a global reseller agreement with Siemens Communications. BridgePort's NomadicONE IMS Convergence Server (ICS) will be integrated into Siemens' IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) portfolio.



Under the terms of a global Software License Agreement, BridgePort Networks' product capabilities will now be part of Siemens' IMS/FMC solution to mobile, fixed and cable network operators worldwide.



The companies said their joint solution will provide operators with the ability to support true single phone number services. These can seamlessly handover an active voice call between circuit-switched cellular and Voice over IP over Wi-Fi networks by providing in-session switching of calls between networks.



The solution conforms to the technical requirements recently completed by the standards bodies 3GPP and 3GPP2 for IMS to circuit-switched seamless voice handover, known as Voice Call Continuity (VCC). The NomadicONE ICS is a specialized application server in the IMS architecture. It supports GSM, CDMA, UMTS and Wi-Fi networks and implements the IMS Controlled Model (ICM) method of seamless handover per 3GPP technical requirements, as well as the Call Transfer Model (CTM) method of handover, per 3GPP2 technical requirements.
http://www.bridgeport-networks.com

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Harmonic Names New CEO

Harmonic, a supplier of digital video, broadband optical networking and IP delivery systems, named Dr. Patrick Harshman, 41, as its new President and CEO, succeeding Anthony Ley, 67, who has led Harmonic's growth and development for 18 years. Mr. Ley is retiring from active, full-time service with the company, but will continue as the non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. Harshman has also been elected to a position on the company's Board.



Dr. Harshman joined Harmonic in 1993 and has held key leadership positions in marketing, international sales, and research and development. In December 2005, he was appointed Executive Vice President responsible for the majority of the company's operational functions, including the unified digital video and broadband optical networking divisions as well as global manufacturing. Prior to the consolidation of Harmonic's divisions, Dr. Harshman held the position of President of the Convergent Systems division and, for more than four years, was President of the Broadband Access Networks division.
http://www.harmonicinc.com

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