RADVISION Enhances H.324M Toolkit for Fast Video Call Set-up

RADVISION announced the availability of fast call set-up support in the new release of its 3G-324M toolkit, aligning the software with the recent improvements to the 3G standard established by ITU-T Study Group 16. These improvements are designed to enhance the experience of 3G video subscribers by significantly reducing the amount of time required in setting up a video call. The ITU has included RADVISION's intellectual property related to fast call setup as an integral and mandated part of a revision to the H.324M standard for 3G video, known...

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DISH & Warner Bros. Sign VOD Deal

EchoStar Communications' DISH Network satellite TV service reached an agreement with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group to carry the studio's current and catalog titles on its Video On Demand platform, DISH On Demand, as well as Pay-Per-View services, including high definition. DISH On Demand service is currently available on certain DVR receivers. http://www.dishnetwork....

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SunRocket Raises $33 Million for Consumer VoIP Service

SunRocket, a provider of consumer VoIP service, secured $33 million for its Series C round of institutional financing, bringing the firm's total venture capital raised to approximately $80 million.The company said it has nearly tripled its subscriber base in 2006, although subscriber numbers were not disclosed.SunRocket plans to use the money "to accelerate product and feature development, penetrate strategic new sales channels, and enhance the overall...

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Nokia Siemens Networks Announces Executive Team

Nokia and Siemens announced the key executive appointments that will become effective when their merger is complete and the new company starts operations, which is expected by January 1, 2007. Nokia and Siemens announced previously that Simon Beresford-Wylie would assume the position of CEO at Nokia Siemens Networks; Mika Vehvilainen would serve as Chief Operating Officer (COO); Karl-Christoph Caselitz would serve as Chief Market Operations Officer (CMO); and Peter Schonhofer would serve as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The business units of Nokia...

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Global Crossing Offers to Acquire UK's Fibernet for $96 Million

Global Crossing announced a cash offer to acquire all of the issued and to-be-issued shares of Fibernet Group Plc , a UK-based provider of specialist telecommunications networks, for approximately $96.1 million (50.6 million British pounds sterling). Fibernet serves a marquee roster of UK corporate enterprise and carrier customers, including the Bank of England, Citigroup, IBM and Carphone Warehouse. provides its services from a national fiber network in the UK and also from its metropolitan networks in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh,...

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FCC Grants New Certification for XM Radios

The FCC issued new grants of authority for three XM Satellite radios with FM transmitters after determining that the radios are in compliance with FCC regulations. The XM plug-and-play radios -- Audiovox Xpress, Delphi RoadyXT, and XM Sportscaster -- are three of XM's primary products at retail. XM Satellite pulled the units off of the market in May 2006, after the FCC questioned whether the power output of the FM radio was too strong.http://www.xmradio....

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ST and China's Dahua Develop Dual-Mode Cable/IP STB

STMicroelectronics and Dahua Technology, a Chinese supplier of cable and IPTV set-top boxes, announced a jointly-developed, highly- integrated, digital-cable and IP set-top box. At the heart of Dahua's design is a dedicated chip belonging to ST's STi7100 family of Advanced Video Codecs (AVC). This system-on-chip (SoC) solution integrates support for advanced high-definition H.264/MPEG4 AVC and MPEG4 P2 standard definition (SD) in addition to MPEG2 encoded video signals. The box, which begins deployment in Hangzhou Province in August 2006, will...

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Broadcom Marks 15th Anniversary

Broadcom marked the fifteenth anniversary of its founding in 1991 by Henry T. Nicholas III and Henry Samueli, each of whom earned a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from UCLA. The company went public in April 1998.Broadcom chips are found in broadband gear such as DSL and cable modems, digital cable, satellite and IP set-top boxes, and high definition DVD players and personal video recording devices; in networking infrastructure equipment, which rely on Broadcom switches, controllers, PHYs, security processors, broadband processors, and...

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BellSouth Eliminates $2.97 DSL Regulatory Fee

BellSouth will eliminate a $2.97 per month charge associated with consumer DSL service, agreeing to pass on the savings that began when a federal regulatory fee expired earlier in August. According to media reports, the decision followed a set of letters sent by the FCC to BellSouth and Verizon informing them of forthcoming investingations into potential violations of truth-in-billing laws. At issue is whether operators are continuing to collect regulatory fees that the government is no longer assessing.As described on BellSouth's website, the...

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Broadband Reaches Nearly One in Four EU households

Almost one in four EU households is now connected to the internet via high-speed "broadband" links, according to an EU-wide survey conducted by the European Commission.Some key findings include:Broadband's popularity grows with household size -- only 12% of single households have it, compared with 34% of those with four members or more. Of those households that have only "narrowband" internet connections, 40% do not wish to upgrade, either because they are satisfied with the speed of their dial-up connection or because they do not use the Internet...

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