RCN to Sell San Francisco HFC Network for $45 Million -- $2500 per Customer

RCN announced an agreement to sell its San Francisco assets to Astound Broadband for $45 million in cash, or approximately $2500 per customer. Astound Broadband is a cable, Internet and phone services company currently serving approximately 55,000 video, data and phone customers in Concord and Walnut Creek, California. RCN's San Francisco operations serve approximately 18,000 customers.RCN said it plans to focus on the Northeast corridor and the Chicago region.http://www.rcn....

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Virgin Mobile and Virgin.net offer Free 8 Mbps Broadband Service

Virgin Mobile and broadband provider Virgin.net have joined forces to offer a year's free up to 8 Mbps broadband to customers that take one of Virgin Mobile's new SIM-only pay monthly tariffs.Anyone joining Virgin Mobile's £15 (normally £20) or £30 (normally £32) a month SIM-only service will be able to save up to £275 by registering for 12 month's free broadband through Virgin.net. The free broadband service will offer customers up to 8 Mbps download...

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NEC Develops High-Power Gallium Nitride Transistor Amplifier for 3G

NEC announced a compact gallium nitride (GaN) power transistor amplifier, which boasts the world's highest output power level of 400W while featuring low-distortion characteristics, for 3G base stations. NEC said the key features of its newly developed GaN amplifier include:The GaN power transistor achieves high output power density under high-current (1A/mm) and high voltage (45V) operation owing to NEC's proprietary field-modulating plate technology.The single-ended GaN power amplifier boasting a compact configuration decreases the number of...

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Huawei Wins CDMA Contract in Nigeria

Multi-Links, the leading CDMA operator in Nigeria, selected Huawei Technologies for its network expansion. Multi-Links chose Huawei to deploy its industry-leading BTS and core network softswitch and install a CDMA2000 1X network in Lagos, Abuja, PHC, Kano, Ibadan, and Kaduna.Multi-Links is one of the four local phone operators in Nigeria which was awarded unified licenses in May 2006 by the National Communications Commission, Nigeria's telecoms regulator. Operators with a unified licenses are able to offer multiple services, including, but not...

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Cisco Settles Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit for $92 Million

Cisco Systems agreed to resolve the consolidated shareholder class action lawsuit filed in 2001 against the company and certain current and former directors and officers in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California by paying $91.75 million to the plaintiffs. Cisco said the payment will have no impact on its financial position or results of operations, as the settlement amount is within applicable insurance limits.The original suit, filed April 20, 2001, claimed that the company made misleading statements, or omitted...

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Siemens Helps Build W-CDMA Net in Kabul

Siemens Communications was awarded a contract by Telephone Systems International Ltd. (TSI), New York, to set up a W-CDMA network in Kabul for Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC). In addition to 3G technology, Siemens will also supply 2G equipment to the mobile operator in Afghanistan.AWCC was the country's first GSM network provider and the first mobile carrier in Afghanistan with a W-CDMA license.TSI is the 80% shareholder of Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC), with the Afghan Ministry of Communications the remaining 20% shareholder.It...

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QUALCOMM to Acquire Qualphone for IMS Embedded Client

QUALCOMM will acquire San Diego-based Qualphone Inc., a developer of IP-based Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) embedded client software solutions for mobile devices and interoperability testing (IOT) services, for $18 million in cash. Completion of the acquisition is expected later this month.QUALCOMM said the acquisition would help it accelerate the delivery of multimedia-capable, feature-rich 3G solutions on top of the emerging IMS and Multi Media Domain (MMD) architectures to WCDMA/UMTS and CDMA2000 markets.Qualphone's IMS client platform provides...

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Level 3 Supplies Bandwidth MySpace.com's Expansion to Video

MySpace.com selected Level 3 Communications to provide bandwidth to support the company's social networking services, including video transmission. Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Level 3 will initially provide its High Speed IP Service to support MySpace's services in multiple markets. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.level3....

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FCC Considers DBS Rules

The FCC is seeking comment on licensing procedures and service rules for satellites providing Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service. Specifically, the FCC is seeking input on proposals that will apply to any application for authority to provide DBS service in the U.S. using the 12.2-12.7 GHz band and associated feeder links in the 17.3-17.8 GHz band. This includes both unassigned channels at orbit locations assigned to the U.S. under the ITU Region 2 BSS and feeder-link Plans, and applications for DBS service from space stations located at...

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TiVo Prevails in DVR Case Against EchoStar

In the ongoing patent infringement case brought by TiVo against Echostar Communications, a U.S. District Court judge in Texas issued an injunction ordering EchoStar Communications to cease from offering their DVR products in the United States. The judge also ordered ECC to pay TiVo approximately $73.992 million in damages as awarded by the jury, prejudgment interest at the prime rate through July 31, 2006 of approximately $5.638 million, and supplemental damages for infringement through July 31, 2006 in the amount of approximately $10.317 million.The...

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Koreasat 5 Readied for Launch

Sea Launch Company has initiated its 72-hour countdown in preparation for the launch of the Koreasat 5 communications satellite, scheduled for Monday, August 21.Built by Alcatel Alenia Space in Cannes, France, the hybrid spacecraft carries 36 active transponders in multi-band frequencies. Koreasat 5 is owned jointly by the Agency for Defense Development of Korea and KT Corporation. The Agency for Defense Development has managed the military side of the Koreasat 5 program and the Joint Chief of Staff of Korean Armed Forces will operate SHF and Ka-band...

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