KT and Axalto Launch First Wibro Card -- up to 18 Mbps Mobile Wireless Access

KT and Axalto launched the world's first commercial Wibro UICC card, which will enable subscribers to connect to the Korean wireless broadband mobile WiMax service. KT plans to rollout its WiMax service in June.



Wibro is the Korean wireless broadband version of Mobile WiMax, based on IEEE 802.16e standard. It can provide a maximum throughput of 18 Mbps and is operational in vehicles traveling at speeds of up to 120km per hour.



The KT Wibro UICC card is an EAL5+ certified platform and provides advanced security functions to prevent illegal terminal/card cloning and fraudulent use. As a card-based tool, it also offers users the freedom to choose the device from which they prefer to access Wibro services -- PDAs, notebook PCs or smart phones.



"The USIM-enabled KT UICC card will empower users to simultaneously access 3G communications service and enjoy the new Wibro experience that offers a usage speed of up to 18 Mbps," said W.P. Hong, senior executive vice president of KT.

http://www.axalto.com

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ITU Considers Role of H.323 and SIP vs. H.325

The International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC) and the ITU-T held a joint workshop and forum in San Diego (May 9-11) to explore the question whether the emergence of the next generation of Multimedia Systems and Terminals will use the existing H.323 and SIP protocols or will it require new protocols and interfaces.



Istvan Sebestyen, President of the IMTC, Vice Chair of ITU-T Study Group (SG) 16 and Director of Standards for Siemens AG, said "It became clear that a standardized third generation ITU-T multimedia sub-system (also known as the H.325 project) is a long term project that will take several years to come to fruition. In the short term, we have other high priorities such as the definition of SIP-based multimedia systems and terminal profiles, continuation of interoperability for classic IMTC areas such as mobile and wireline H.32x and streaming (PSS) and embrace new areas that the industry will require (e.g. IPTV interoperability testing)."



Complete presentations, abstracts and biographies can be found online.

http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/h325/200605/programme.html

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Australia's Silk telecom Selects Nortel for Optical Network

Nortel is supplying a high-capacity optical network based in it Common Photonic Layer (CPL) technology to Silk telecom, a recently formed strategic telecommunications provider. The Nortel CPL platform will provide the capacity to deliver Silk telecom's products, which include Ethernet, Internet and voice. The network also supports "grey fibre" and "dark fibre" solutions which ensure Silk telecom has additional bandwidth capacity to support the launch of new services well into the future. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Silk telecom is owned by the global Cheung Kong group and originates from the combination of the telecom interests of three Australian electricity distribution companies: ETSA Utilities, Powercor Australia and Citipower. The company operates extensive optical telecommunications networks in Adelaide, Melbourne, and key regional centres in South Australia and Victoria.



The Nortel CPL platform is a part of Nortel's adaptive all optical intelligent network solution that has been deployed in over 25 networks around the globe.

http://www.nortel.comhttp://www.silktelecom.com

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Deutsche Telekom Launches IPTV over VDSL

Deutsche Telekom officially kicked-off its IPTV service in time for the Bundesliga 2006/07 football season. Deutsche Telekom announced a strategic partnership with Premiere, the leading pay TV channel in Germany and Austria, to carry the German Bundesliga (national soccer league) as well as Premiere's entire program of 28 channels .



The service will be offered beginning this summer and will be marketed as "T-Home from T-Online." Alongside a video on demand service featuring major blockbusters, customers will also get a host of other channels. In addition, T-Home will offer a "TV Archive", in which customers can view the top content of participating channels any time they want.



Deutsche Telekom said TV services are already running over its new VDSL infrastructure in the cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Frankfurt/Main, Nuremberg and Munich.



http://www.telekom.dehttp://www.tonline.net

• T-Online is using Microsoft's IPTV platform.



• T-Online is supplying a Linksys media receiver for the IPTV service.

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Huawei Shows GPON Access System with Terabit Switch

At last week's Broadband World Forum Asia 2006 in Hong Kong, Huawei Technologies debuted a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) access solution with up to 1 Terabit switching capacity.



Huawei's SmartAX OFA5920 GPON solution complies with ITU-T G984.1/2/3/4 standards. The company said only a GPON system with Terabit non-blocking switching can actually deliver the full capabilities of the service, including refined service awareness, flexible service mapping, flexible QoS, and elaborate DBA (64 kbps granularity). Huawei's implementation will support voice, data, and video services at a downlink and uplink rate of up to 2.5 Gbps, and 1.25 Gbps respectively.

http://www.huawei.com

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Market Reports Cite Suspicious Trends in Option Pricing

Various market analyst reports on Friday cited suspicious trends in the pricing of stock options for company executives at certain firms in the networking sector. The suspicious activity is based on option grant dates that consistently occur at the stock's monthly low, indicating that perhaps the options were back-dated so as to provide the maximum value to the grantee.



Companies cited on Friday included F5 Networks, Juniper Networks and SafeNet. http://www.convergedigest.com

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Nokia Wins GSM Expansion Deal With Sichuan Unicom

Nokia was awarded a GSM network expansion deal with Sichuan Unicom, a subsidiary of China Unicom. The agreement is Nokia's first with Sichuan Unicom and marks a significant milestone for Nokia in entering the GSM market in Sichuan and West China. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Nokia will deploy its GSM radio and core networks, including the Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch, in 4 cities in the Sichuan Province. Nokia also provides an extensive range of services, including network planning, optimization and rollout services. Deliveries have started and the network expansion will be fully operational by August 2006. The agreement is another significant milestone for Nokia in Sichuan following the Chengdu R&D Center expansion, announced in April 2006.

http://www.nokia.com

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