D-Link Ships Clamshell Wi-Fi SIP Phone -- $250

D-Link began shipping its flip-style Wi-Fi Phone that combines VoIP with 802.11 b, g, or n wireless connectivity in a compact Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based package. The clamshell D-Link Wi-Fi Phone allows VoIP calls to be made where there is a Wi-Fi network or open hot spot without the use of a PC.




The phones features large, bright color displays for easy viewing of numbers as they are dialed, storage of up to 100 address book entries, caller ID and polyphonic ring tones with seven-step volume control, as well as support for redial, mute, hold and text messaging. Users can expect about three hours of talk time and 70 hours of standby time on a single charge of the Li-Ion, 900mAh battery. An external power adapter and mini-USB cable are included.



In addition, the phone, which uses a Broadcom chipset, offers echo cancellation, packet delay compensation and lost packet recovery, resulting in similar or improved voice quality over traditional phones. It supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption.



D-Link said its new Wi-Fi Phone is compliant with Public SIP Telephone Network (PsipTN) technology, which is expected to be available in the third quarter this year. Users will be able to make and receive free calls within the network via a firmware upgrade and a one-year subscription. PsipTN also allows users to receive calls from regular phones for free.



The phone is now available in two models, the DPH-540 (black) and DPH-541 (silver), for the suggested retail price of $249.99 through D-Link's network of online retailers and at the D-Link online store.

http://www.dlink.com

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Navtel Expands IMS, VoIP and IP-to-IP Gateway Test capabilities

Navtel Communications has expanded its test solutions to include large-scale TLS security, Theft of Service, Rogue Media and DoS/SIP Flood attacks test capabilities. The new software release will also add H.263 and H.264 video, AMR and ILBC audio and DTMF test capabilities.



Highlights of this release include over two hundred and fifty thousand simultaneous TLS connections, several hundreds of TLS and Call establishments per seconds, H.263 and H.264 video generation with quality analysis using the MDI algorithm, ILBC and AMR wideband and narrowband audio generation with VQT/QoS analysis, generation and analysis of DTMF in band, out of band (RFC 2583) and within the SIP Info message, and Rogue Media and Theft of Service test capabilities.



Navtel's VoIP, IMS and Security test capabilities already include Session Border Controller, VoIP and NCS with IPSEC test solutions.

http://www.navtelcom.com

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Spirent Acquires Scientific Software Engineering for Wireless Test

Spirent Communications acquired Scientific Software Engineering, a developer of a software based system for testing the performance and functionality of 2.5 and 3G wireless network infrastructure for US$10.0 million (£5.4 million), payable in cash on completion with up to a further $6.0 million (£3.3 million) payable depending on the satisfaction of certain technical milestones and the retention of key employees.



SSE, based in Dallas, Texas and employing 24 people, will be incorporated within Spirent's Performance Analysis division. Spirent has been re-selling the Landslide product since November 2003 and customers include leading global network equipment manufacturers and wireless operators.



Spirent said the acquisition would allow it to deliver enhanced applications for the wireless infrastructure, IMS and fixed-mobile convergence test markets, which have been identified as key growth areas.

http://www.spirentcom.com

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Alcatel Sees Q2 Results in Line with Expectations

Alcatel confirming that its preliminary financial results for Q2 are in line with expectations. Highlights for the quarter include the following:

• Revenues are expected to be approximately EUR 3.38 billion, an increase of 7.5% over the same period last year.



• Operating margin is expected to be around 8%, and includes a 0.3 percent impact from a capital gain resulting from disposal of fixed assets.



• The proposed contribution of Alcatel assets to Thales will be accounted for as discontinued operations once definitive agreements have been completed, which is expected to occur by year-end 2006.



• Second quarter 2006 results will be published on July 27, 2006. Further details will be provided at that time.

http://www.alcatel.com

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Amino Selected for Northern Europe's First HD IPTV Service

Holland's Lijbrandt Telecom BV selected Amino to supply its STBs for its High Definition (HD) IPTV service, which was rolled-out in time for World Cup football matches. Lijbrandt is investing EUR 150-200 million in its new network and expects to grow to 120,000 subscribers within three years.



The service is unique as all of Lijbrandt's competitors use the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standard, whereas Lijbrandt uses the Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB) format. The companies said good DMB reception can be achieved with existing DAB transmitters that only use low amounts of power to cover a large catchment area. The exclusively small form factor of the STB was a key reason that the AmiNET series was selected - because other providers broadcast via DVB, their STBs can be as large as a traditional VCR. When the service was initially trialled, 82% of those surveyed at the end of the assessment said they preferred the Lijbrandt service to their current service, and many specifically mentioned the small size of the box as a highlight.

http://www.aminocom.comhttp://www.lijbrandt-telecom.nl

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Cisco Expands its ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliance family

Cisco Systems announced two new models in its Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security appliance family: the Cisco ASA 5505, a next-generation solution designed to defend small businesses, remote offices and enterprise teleworkers, and the Cisco ASA 5550, which extends gigabit-class threat protection and highly scalable IPsec and Secure Sockets Layer virtual private network (SSL VPN) services to large business sites.



The Cisco ASA 5505, which comes in a desktop form factor, delivers 150 megabits per second (Mbps) of firewall throughput and 100 Mbps of encrypted VPN throughput. The Cisco ASA 5505 can act as a hardware VPN client for simplified management. It offers hardware-accelerated SSL VPN services, an integrated 8-port 10/100 switch that supports the creation of multiple security "zones," and two built-in Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) ports. Among their many uses, these PoE ports can provide zero-touch deployment for Cisco IP phones and can power Cisco wireless access points for enhanced user mobility.



The Cisco ASA 5550 extends firewall and IPsec/SSL VPN services to support large-enterprise network environments. It can deliver more than 1.2 Gbps of firewall throughput and supports 200 virtual local-area networks (VLANs), so businesses can segment a network into numerous high-performance zones for improved security. It also offers highly scalable VPN services, supporting as many as 5,000 IPsec and SSL VPN clients per appliance. Using its integrated VPN clustering and load-balancing capabilities, businesses can cluster up to 10 Cisco ASA 5550 appliances, supporting a maximum of 50,000 concurrent IPsec and SSL VPN users.



Cisco also introduced numerous enhancements to the ASA family's underlying software, including more than 50 new security features that strengthen the application-layer firewall, remote access VPN, high availability, network integration and management capabilities. Of these enhancements, some of the more significant involve application-layer firewall services and the integration of Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) services.

http://www.cisco.com

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NET Offers Secure Tactical Voice Exchange

Network Equipment Technologies announced general availability of its NET VX400 Tactical Voice Exchange, the first deployment of NET's Voice Exchange (VX) VoIP software platform on DTECH LABS' 2nd generation mobile VoIP hardware platform. The VX Software platform is based on NET's SHOUT VoIP technology.



Targeted at the tactical government, military and first-responder markets, the VX400 offers the full set of VX software functionality already available in the VX900T Secure VoIP Gateway, developed jointly between NET and DTECH LABS in 2005. Whereas the VX900T is geared to support between 5 and 120 users, the VX400 is designed to support 1-4 tactical secure call users, plus data, over an IP-based satellite network infrastructure. Both products are fully compatible with NET's VX Series Voice Exchange switches, providing end-to-end, tactical-to-fixed site connectivity. Both firms will offer the platform to their respective customers. NET will offer the product as the VX400 and DTECH LABS as the WHISPER400.



NET said the VX400 Secure VoIP platform was designed to meet the growing demand for mobile secure telephone unit (STU), secure terminal equipment (STE) and secure communications interoperability protocol (SCIP) (or future narrow band digital terminal (FNBDT)) calling over emerging broadband global area networks (BGAN) and very small aperture (VSAT) IP-based satellite networks. The VX VoIP software is extremely bandwidth-efficient and offers fault-tolerant capabilities for secure calls -- including data compression, forward error correction, echo cancellation and jitter correction -- all critical factors when operating in tactical, high-latency or unpredictable network environments.

http://www.net.com

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ConSentry Raises $20 Million for Enterprise Security Solutions

ConSentry Networks, a start-up based in Milpitas, California, raised $20 million in an oversubscribed Series D round of funding for its secure LAN solutions. ConSentry's LANShield family of products provides network admission control to restrict who can come onto the LAN, full Layer 7 visibility into all user activities, control over user access to authorized resources through role-based provisioning, and threat control to prevent zero-hour attacks from compromising network availability.



ConSentry plans to use the funds to build a stronger worldwide presence as demand for LAN control and security solutions gain momentum in Asia and Europe, rapidly approaching the uptake in the U.S. market.



Existing investors Accel Partners, INVESCO Private Capital, and Sequoia Capital participated in the new round, joined by new investor Duff Ackerman & Goodrich (DAG) Ventures. ConSentry's total funding now stands at $51 million.

http://www.consentry.com

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CoreOptics Raises $28 Million Round for 10, 40 Gbps Optical Subsystems

CoreOptics, a developer and manufacturer of 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps optical networking subsystems, raised $28 million from new and existing investors, bringing the company's total funding to date to over $68 million.



CoreOptics offers 10G/40G transponder subsystems products that are designed to overcome optical layer impairments using advanced digital signal processing techniques based on Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimator (MLSE) algorithm. CoreOptics currently offers complete 10G DWDM, 40/43G Single Channel Short Reach and DWDM 300 pin MSA transponder subsystems; including key building blocks such as 43 Gb/s Ultra-FEC, 40G Mux/DeMux for 4x10G client signals and Interface Converter supporting SFI-5s, SFI-4, XFI.



CoreOptics' 10G transponder product is enabled by the company's MLSE electronic equalization engine that acts adaptively as part of the receiver to compensate for both optical and electrical distortions accumulated along the transmission link. CoreOptics 10G DWDM transponder product is in deployment with 15 service providers globally.



CoreOptics said the key benefits of its product platform include reduction in first-in CAPEX, by eliminating the need for the conventional Dispersion Compensation Modules (DCMs) and Dual-Stage amplifiers. The OPEX savings include simplification of network planning, installation and provisioning by enabling a complete set of plug-and-play features. The distortion tolerant transponder will enable transmission of 10 Gbps services on the widely deployed 2.5 Gbps metro networks.



CoreOptics has operations in Nuremberg, Germany and Manchester New Hampshire.

http://www.CoreOptics.com

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Brasil Telecom Deploys Acme Packet Session Border Controllers

Brasil Telecom, the third largest fixed line service provider in Brazil, has selected Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers (SBCs) for VoIPfone service, a SIP-based business and residential VoIP offering. The Net-Net SBCs are also deployed in Brasil Telecom network supporting Multiconferencias, an IP-based multimedia conference service.



The Acme Packet session border controllers are providing access control and complete network topology hiding for confidentiality and attack prevention. The denial of service (DoS) protection includes session agent DoS protection for protecting the service provider's infrastructure (e.g., SIP servers, softswitches, application servers, media servers or media gateways) and session border control DoS protection, an autonomic self-protection against malicious and non-malicious DoS attacks and overloads. To extend its service reach, Brasil Telecom is using features including support for overlapping address using VLANs and Acme Packet's adaptive hosted NAT traversal mechanism.

http://www.acmepacket.com

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BellSouth Expands Metro Ethernet Portfolio with Mid-band Options

BellSouth has expanded its Metro Ethernet Service portfolio to include mid-band speed options for business customers: 2 Mbps, 4 Mbps and 8 Mbps. BellSouth Metro Ethernet Service also offers previously available data transport speeds of 10 Mbps, 20 Mbps, 50 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 250 Mbps, 500 Mbps and 1000 Mbps.



The new speeds can be offered over existing copper or fiber infrastructure, which helps drive broadband business applications deeper into corporate networks and reduces customer implementation costs.



"Metro Ethernet is the transport method of choice for both Layer 2 and converged IP networks," said Martin Chandler, vice president, product management - Business Markets, BellSouth. "BellSouth Mid-Band Ethernet speeds of 2Mbps, 4Mbps and 8Mbps directly address the bandwidth sweet spot for converged voice and data communications between corporate headquarters and branch locations and meet the expanding needs of small businesses."



As part of its Metro Ethernet Service portfolio, BellSouth offers Premium Service that includes committed bandwidth, bursting capabilities, traffic prioritization, VLAN aggregation, Service Level Agreements and Customer Network Management.

http://www.bellsouthlargebusiness.com

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CacheLogic Raises $20 Million for P2P

CacheLogic, a start-up based in Cambridge, England, closed a $20 Million Series C funding round led by Amadeus Capital Partners. The company supplies P2P technologies for ISPs and cable network operators. The funding round also included existing investor 3i, along with syndicate members Pentech Ventures and The Cambridge Gateway Fund.




The CacheLogic P2P Management Solution manages P2P through the use of sophisticated caching techniques. By distributing requested P2P content more efficiently and serving files from an on-network source Service Providers can make significant reductions in traffic levels over transit and access networks. There are two key elements to the CacheLogic P2P Management Solution: the accurate identification and routing of traffic by protocol; and the serving cached P2P content from an on-network source. The solution identifies and routes traffic by protocol using advanced Deep Packet Inspection technology.
http://www.cachelogic.com

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XO Marks its 10th Anniversary

XO Communications marked its 10th anniversary of providing communications services to businesses as a leading alternative to the regional Bell telephone companies. XO Communications was one of the first competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) in the United States to provide facilities-based communications services under the Telecommunications Act of 1996.



In July 1996, XO launched local service in seven metropolitan markets. Since then XO has expanded to provide services in 75 metropolitan markets and become the nation's largest competitive communications services provider for businesses with 165,000 customers and annual revenues in excess of $1.4 billion.

http://www.xo.com

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Cwitch Raises Configurable Switch Array Chip

Cswitch, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, will preview its Configurable Switch Array Chip at the 43rd Design Automation Conference (DAC) next week in San Francisco.



Cswitch is developing high-performing configurable solutions for the networking, storage, wireless base station and telecom markets and plans to release its first product later in 2006.



The company said its architecture offers performance levels approaching an ASIC -- including bandwidth up to 100 Gbps -- with the configurability of an FPGA.



"Cswitch set out to solve one of the biggest dilemmas facing system architects today, namely, how to build next generation network infrastructure equipment with chips that have ASIC performance, but without spending $20-$30 million on development costs," said Doug Laird, President and CEO of Cswitch Corporation.

http://www.cswitch.com

• Cswitch was founded in 2003 by former members of Transmeta. The company is headed by Doug Laird, previously Executive in Residence at Charles River Ventures and a former founder and Executive VP of Product Development for Transmeta Corporation. The Cswitch technical team is led by Godfrey Paul D'Souza, who was at Transmeta from 1995 to February of 2004 and was involved with the development and management of Crusoe and Efficeon Processors in various engineering and management positions.

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Verizon Wireless Launches Live Concert Series

Verizon Wireless is launching a series of music concert programs that let its mobile customers with "V CAST" capable phones view clips from live performances.



V CAST Performances will include club and theatre performances, tours presented by Verizon Wireless and special live performance events. Customers will be able to extend the concert experience by downloading streaming video clips of the live music performances as well as new music videos on a rotating basis with up to three broadband quality video clips of every artist in the V CAST Performance series.



To view V CAST Performances, Verizon Wireless customers need a V CAST enabled phone and a $15 per month V CAST VPak subscription. There is no additional cost to view V CAST Performances video clips.

http://www.verizonwireless.com

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Vonage Sued for Voice Mail Technology, Acquires Other Patents

Klausner Technologies filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Vonage regarding voice mail technology. The lawsuit asserts that the Vonage VOIP voicemail platform infringes Klausner Technologies' U.S. Patent. 5,572,576. Klausner Technologies recently granted a license under the same patent to Time Warner's AOL for AOL Voicemail and VOIP voicemail services.



For its part, Vonage announced the acquisition of three patents from Digital Packet Licensing Inc. that enable VoIP. Vonage said the deal provides it in control of pending litigation against Sprint Communications LP and Verizon Communications, among others, in federal court for infringement of one of these VoIP patents. Vonage is presently in cross-licensing negotiations with regard to them. Leading telecommunications companies including Motorola, Time Warner, Qwest Communications and others have already settled with and/or taken a license from Digital Packet on these VoIP patents, and as a result of acquiring the VoIP patents, Vonage also assumes ownership and control over these agreements. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.vonage.com

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Global IP Sound Offers Mobile VoIP Voice Processing

Global IP Sound (GIPS) has expanded its embedded voice-processing solution to include support for mobile VoIP applications developed for wireless devices based on Enea's OSE real-time operating system.



GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile for OSE incorporates GIPS Voice Quality Enhancement, including acoustic echo suppression and noise suppression, to maximize the quality of VoIP conversations. It also includes GIPS NetEQ, which is an advanced jitter buffering and packet loss concealment module that dramatically improves sound quality and minimizes latency in IP telephony systems. Other features including push-to-talk and call waiting are supported by GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile.



According to Enea, OSE is deployed in more than 100 million mobile devices. The company also estimates that OSE is used in half of the world's 3G phones and in at least half of the nodes of the 3G Radio Access Networks (RANs). Leading device manufacturers including SonyEricsson, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have deployed OSE in their products.
http://www.globalipsound.com

• Global IP Sound, which is based in Stockholm, also supplies its voice quality software to Skype, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ericsson, Nortel, WebEx, Texas Instruments, LongBoard, Inter-tel, PMC-Sierra and others.

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Motorola Names David Dorman to its Board

David Dorman, the former chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T, has been elected to Motorola's board of directors. Dorman, 52, joined AT&T Corp. as president in December 2000 and served as chairman and chief executive officer from 2002 through 2006. Previously Dorman was CEO of Concert, the global venture created by AT&T and British Telecommunications from 1999 to 2000 and chairman, president and CEO of PointCast Inc., an Internet based news and information service, from 1997 to 1999.

http://www.motorola.com

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Alcatel and Lucent on Track to Complete Merger by Year's End

Alcatel and Lucent Technologies confirmed that they are on track to complete their merger transaction by the end of calendar year 2006, which is within the 6 to 12 month timeframe originally announced. In recent weeks, the two companies have achieved a number of significant milestones, including satisfying some regulatory conditions to the proposed merger.



The business model and the associated organization of the combined company are now defined and will be implemented immediately upon closing. The overall business will be segmented in Business Groups structured along the global requirements of those three markets, while a decentralized regional organization will provide local support to customers.



The Carrier Business Groups, headed by Etienne Fouques will consist of:

• Wireless, headed by Mary Chan,


• Wireline, headed by Michel Rahier,


• Convergence, headed by Marc Rouanne

The Enterprise Business Group will be headed by Hubert de Pesquidoux.



The Service Business Group. will be headed by John Meyer.



The Company will have four geographic regions:

• Europe and North, headed by Vince Molinaro,


• Europe and South, headed by Olivier Picard,


• North America, headed by Cindy Christy,


• Asia-Pacific, headed by Frederic Rose.

The company will have a management committee which will be headed by Pat Russo, Chief Executive Officer. The members of this committee will include Etienne Fouques, Senior Executive Vice President of the Carrier Group; Frank D'Amelio, Senior Executive Vice President Integration and Chief Administrative Officer; Jean-Pascal Beaufret, Chief Financial Officer; Claire Pedini, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Communication and Mike Quigley. Mike Quigley has decided for personal reasons to assume a different role for the combined company. He will focus on the strategic direction of the company and will become President, Science Technology and Strategy. In this capacity he will devote his attention to assuring that strategic investments align with evolving market opportunities.



Alcatel and Lucent also confirmed that detailed evaluations of cost synergies confirm that previously announced targets should be fully met.



Also, on June 7, 2006, the two companies were notified that they had received early termination under the Hart-Scott-Rodino US Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR) as it pertains to the merger.



On June 16, 2006, the companies filed for European antitrust approval.

http://www.alcatel.comhttp://www.lucent.com

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SanDisk Offers Skype USB on Smart Drives

SanDisk began offering Skype's software pre-loaded on its newest CruzerMicro and Cruzer Titanium smart drives. The devices give users a portable way to carry files and programs without leaving any personal information behind on a computer.



The new drives will display the Skype logo on the packaging and will feature one free month of Skype voicemail for the mobile user to get messages from their Skype calls even when on the go.

http://www.sandisk.comhttp://www.skype.com

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Lucent Sees Sales Slowdown in Wireless

Lucent expects revenues for its third quarter of fiscal 2006, which ended June 30, 2006, to be approximately $2.04 billion, subject to the completion of its quarterly closing process. The company's revenues were $2.14 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2006 and $2.34 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Lucent blamed the sequential and year-over-year declines primarily on lower sales to North American mobility customers. To a lesser extent, the year-over-year decline was due to decreased revenues in China.


Lucent now expects to report earnings of approximately 2 cents per diluted share for the third quarter. These results compare with earnings of 4 cents per share in the second quarter of fiscal 2006 and earnings of 7 cents per diluted share in the year-ago quarter. In the year-ago quarter, net income was positively impacted by about 2 cents per diluted share, primarily due to the favorable impact of tax items and recoveries of bad debt and customer financing.

"During the third quarter, our North American mobility business was adversely impacted by a slowdown in spending on some of our current-generation wireless solutions," said Lucent Technologies Chairman and CEO Patricia Russo. "However, we are beginning to see some of our customers move toward the next phase of mobile high-speed data. And in fact, we recently announced contracts with Verizon Wireless and Telecom New Zealand for our EV-DO RevA solution, which we expect to make commercially available in late September.


"Overall, our year-to-date results also have been affected to some extent by delays in spending that we believe are attributable to the consolidation efforts of certain customers," added Russo. "That said, we believe consolidation will lead to opportunities."http://www.lucent.com

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