Monday, May 15, 2006

Telecom Egypt Selects Alcatel for IMS Transition

Telecom Egypt, the national fixed incumbent operator, selected Alcatel to transform part of its network from TDM to IP. Specifically, Alcatel will provide key components of its IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) solution, including the Alcatel 5020 Softswitch as well as the Alcatel 7510 and 7515 Media Gateways to communicate between the existing TDM and new IP networks. In addition, Telecom Egypt will deploy the Alcatel 7750 Service Router and Alcatel 5620 Service Aware Manager in multiple sites. Financial terms were not disclosed."This contract is...

Audiocodes to Acquire Nuera

Audiocodes agreed to acquire Nuera Communications, a provider of packet voice gateways for MSOs and service providers, for $85 million in cash plus up to an additional $5 million if Nuera achieves certain revenue milestones during the first 12 months after consummation of the transaction.Nuera's ORCA (Open Reliable Communications Architecture) product family of VoIP gateways, softswitches, and management systems provide telephony solutions for cable and DSL networks, international long distance networks and enterprise networks. "This Agreement...

Sony's Pocket-Sized PC Offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, EDGE

Sony Electronics introduced the U.S. version of its pocket-sized VAIO UX Micro PC based on the Intel Core Solo Ultra Low Voltage CPU and Microsoft XP Professional OS. The unit features a 4.5-inch wide SVGA screen that slides up to expose an integrated keyboard.The UX model also incorporates two built-in cameras -- one in front for VoIP communication for on-the-go video conferencing and another located on the back for taking photos.Connectivity includes...

Freescale and Wind River Enter Alliance

Freescale Semiconductor and Wind River Systems have formed a strategic alliance aimed at delivering a productive "out-of-the-box" experience for embedded system and device software developers. A cornerstone of the alliance is to provide extensive support for Freescale's PowerQUICC communications processors and host processors containing PowerPC cores. This support will be delivered across Wind River's portfolio of Device Software Optimization (DSO) solutions, including its VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) platforms, carrier-grade Linux...

Telefonica Deutschland Selects Cisco for FMC

Telefonica Deutschland GmbH is deploying a Cisco IP Next Generation Network (IP NGN) featuring Cisco PGW softswitches and Cisco media gateways. The expanded network, delivered with Cisco partner, Dimension Data, will support the growth of wholesale and retail broadband voice services and help Telefonica to deliver new fixed-mobile converged services to consumers and business users.The network is based on a distributed architecture of Cisco PGW 2200 Series Softswitches and Cisco AS 5350 Series and AS 5400 Series Media Gateways. It provides call...

Alvarion Announces 108 Mbps Backhaul in 5 GHz Band

Alvarion introduced its carrier-class BreezeNET B100 wireless bridging solution that operates in the licensed-exempt 5 GHz band and offers up to 108Mbps in point-to-point broadband access and backhaul applications. Available in Q3 2006, the B100 could be used to support real time video, voice, and data services and the backhauling of high WiMAX broadband access and other networks, including those built using Alvarion's BreezeMAX and BreezeACCESS VL products. It also targets building-to-building enterprise connectivity and cellular backhaul.Currently...

Deutsche Bank Deploys Cisco Unified Communications System

Deutsche Bank, a leading global bank, selected Cisco Systems to provide its unified communications solution. Initially, Deutsche Bank will rollout nearly 1,000 Cisco 7961 and 7911 Unified IP phones to it branch offices in the U.S., with the potential to expand the voice services across all of its U.S. operations. As part of this upgrade, Deutsche Bank is also deploying Cisco's Unified CallManager software, and Cisco Unity voice messaging system, an IP-based solution that combines traditional voice mail functionality with a Web browser, allowing...

BelAir Touts UK Wireless Mesh Network Expansion

BelAir Networks announced the significant expansion of several wireless mesh networking projects in the U.K. for which it is a supplier. Of these, the Islington "Technology Mile" network -- described as the UK's largest wireless broadband hot zone -- has expanded to cover four kilometers. The London Borough of Islington hosts the "Technology Mile", built on wireless mesh networking equipment from BelAir Networks with partner, Cityspace. BelAir said this network's usage figures are escalating with more than 1,000 users per week accessing local...

Entropic Ships Millionth c.LINK Home Networking Chip

Entropic Communications has shipped its millionth c.LINK-270 chipset after being in production for less than 18 months. The device is being used in CPE in Japan, Korea and the United States. It is used in a variety of consumer electronics devices such as set-top boxes, digital video recorders, broadband home routers and media gateways to enable whole-home access to all the stored multimedia and video content in the home over the existing coaxial cable.Entropic's announced customers include 2Wire, Actiontec, Alcatel, BnMux, Foxconn, Hannet Telecom,...

Digital Lightwave Scales Jitter Testing to 10.7 Gbps

Digital Lightwave announced the shipment of instruments equipped with jitter and wander testing from 1.5 Mbps to 10.7 Gbps. The instruments were shipped to a major telecommunications equipment manufacturer in Asia.Digital Lightwave Network Information Computer (NIC) Plus is a portable test instrument that supports jitter and wander testing at all the following data rates: 1.5 Mbps, 2 Mbps, 34 Mbps, 45 Mbps, 51 Mbps, 139 Mbps, 155 Mbps, 622 Mbps, 2.5 Gbps, 2.66 Gbps, 9.953 Gbps, and 10.7 Gbps. The NIC Plus units support testing of PDH interfaces...

Nortel Announces Metro Ethernet Initiative

Nortel appointed Philippe Morin as president of a new Metro Ethernet Networks initiative. The company said its business strategy is based on the increasing reliance on Ethernet as the standard protocol for both LAN and WAN communications to break the bandwidth bottleneck between fiber and metro networks. In addition, Nortel's Metro Ethernet Networks will focus on wireless capabilities, using its Metro Ethernet solution to ensure such applications as high-bandwidth video provide real-time speed and quality to mobile devices.Morin previously served...

Towerstream offers Pre-WiMAX T1 with 5 Nines in NYC

Towerstream, a fixed wireless Internet provider, began offering T1 service with a guaranteed 99.999% uptime in New York City for $600/month. The SLA specifies 99.999% availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.http://www.towerstream.comTowerstream's PoPs in Manhattan include the Empire State Building, the MetLife Building, and the AT&T Building at 32 Sixth Aven...

DuPont Selects AT&T to Manage Its Global Network

DuPont selected AT&T to seamlessly connect the company's more than 60,000 employees located in 70 countries over a single MPLS-based network. The new contract expands AT&T's relationship with DuPont that has existed for nearly a century. Specific contract terms were not disclosed.http://www.att....

AboveNet Expands Data Center Connectivity in DC

AboveNet announced the launch of dcXchange, a data center to data center service delivering high performance connections over a dedicated DWDM core network, between prime locations in the Washington, D.C. & Northern Virginia market. dcXchange is a pre-provisioned service delivering DWDM, SONET and Gig E connections for Enterprise, Carrier and Indirect Sales customers. "The virtualization of scarce collocation space across the metro area is a key feature of our offering," said John Deering, Director of Carrier Sales for AboveNet.http://www....

Verizon Denies Supplying Call Data to NSA

Verizon issued a statement saying that while it cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has any relationship to classified NSA operations, recent media reports about Verizon providing calling records of millions of its customers to the NSA are false.Specifically, Verizon stated that it was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did it provide, customer phone records or any call data from its wireline phone business, its wireless company, its directory publishing business, its Internet Service Provider (ISP) or its long-distance businesses.The...